Anastasia had never had an easy life. Living with an abusive step father and an even worse mother, Anastasia had accepted the fact that her life would not be getting any better. But their sudden death has given Anastasia hope, hope that she would in...
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Donatello's POV
It was hard not to cringe as my mother pulled at my hair with her god forsaken comb. I have no fucking idea how that thing survived my entire childhood but somehow it is still going strong.
"Ow ma!" I say as try and scotch away from her but she holds me still on the ground. Currently I am sitting on floor near the edge of my bed while my mother sits on the bed and combs my hair. I don't know why she's doing it. My hair wasn't at all in bad shape.
I think it's her stress response, maybe detangling my hair is her way of calming herself down. Even if she ends up with less stress or more I always end up with a paining scalp.
"Come on what's going on with you? How come you're here all of a sudden? And where's Ginny?" I ask exasperated. My mother still focused on my hair replies back. "Your sister is fine. She's a grown ass woman who knows how to go a few days without me beside her, she's a Zumba instructor at 6 months pregnant for god's sake.
And I did not come here unannounced, it was your boys that invited me." My expression clearly displayed the shock I felt in that moment. Why did they call their grandmother out of the blue? "So? Are you gonna tell me why there's a practically empty bottle of scotch and old photos of you lying around?"
I know she could only see the back of my head and not the expression on my face but I still bowed my face down, I felt embarrassed, no matter how old you are you never want your mom to see you drinking your sorrows away, I was also mad and at myself and the universe for fucking up my life so bad so quick, and lastly I was mad at myself for feeling like this and not knowing what I should do.
"Well, its complicated to be honest." I heard my mother scoff from behind me. As she pulled a tiny travel size bottle of coconut oil, she must have known I'd have thrown away the bottle she had gotten me the last time she came to visit, which to be honest I had absolutely done.
Taking a little on her hands she started to apply it to my scalp. I found out things about Maria that I did not know before. "What? that maria's a bitch?" My mother spoke and out of habit I yelled back, "Ma!" She laughed, "Oh come on, I knew from the beginning. And I kept telling you but you never wanted to listen."
"Does it have to do with my granddaughter?" I hung my head low as I nodded slightly. My mother sighed, "She wasn't a very good mother was she?" I shook my head. "And you found out yesterday, and is the drinking all that you've done?" "Yes. I- I know this is the last thing I should be doing. But it was my maria! How could she have done this? She was my sweetheart? How could she be so cruel? This is not fair."
For a moment my mother didn't say anything until she finally spoke up. "Not fair to you or to her?" "What?" I ask as I turn around to face her. "Is this unfair for you or for your daughter?" she asks me and I have a clear expression of shock on my face. "Ofcourse for her. Doesn't mean I don't feel shitty for having been in love with her all these years thinking she was a saint. And on top of that Anastasia didn't even tell us until yesterday, this whole time she didn't say a single word.
My mother sighed before she turned me back around and starting rubbing the oil in my head again. "You know I never wanted to talk to you about this. And your sister would get so mad at me but I think it is time you knew." "What are you talking ab-" She cut me off as she started speaking.
"You remember our first house, when you and ginny were little kids. we moved into that house when I was pregnant with you, I was so proud of that house, it wasn't much me and your father couldn't afford all that much back then, but it was our house, for our little family, and I loved that house so much. I'd built a porch swing and tended to a little garden that was just outside." I smile fondly as I also remember the hours me and my sister would spend on that swing.
"And I'd bake up a storm in one of those old timey ovens. you know the ones you have to light with one of those long matches." She laughs too at that memory. Everything was going perfect until one night, I woke up in the middle of the night, I don't know what it was I-I just woke up." Her voice seemed to lose all the happiness and nostalgia it carried just a second ago.
"I look to my side and your father wasn't there. I walked down the hall to look in on you and your sister, and I saw him, leave your sister's room and I knew what he had done. I just knew it. He was a big man, loved his liquor, always had a glass of rum in his hand, smoked three packs of cigarettes a day, his office always smelled like cigarette, exactly why I never let you two play in there. Sometimes, late after work he would just fall asleep on the couch, with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. I always made sure to put it out before you kinds woke up and saw him like that." Her hands in my hair had come to a still,
"But one night, not too long after he fell asleep on the couch, drunk as a skunk, with that cigarette hanging out of his mouth, I got you and your sister out of your beds and into the car, told you both we're going on a trip to Aunt Mabel's house. And that night, that house, that I loved soo much. Burned to the ground, and you father burned right with it."
A tear landed on my forehead, I knew my mother was crying but I didn't yet turn, all my life I had been told that the fire at our house was an accident. How many fucking secrets have been hidden from me my entire life?
"Oh I know you're going through stuff, and I know it feels like the world is ending but I also know that everything's gonna be fine in the end, Anastasia will be fine after this, and i know she lied, and I know that must not feel too good but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do even if all you've got is a long match and a very flammable bottle of rum." Realisation hit me deep as I turn back to my mother, and hold her hands close to myself, the scent of coconut oil in her hands as she clings to me.
"Why did you never tell me?" I ask, she looks at me with a small smile, "She never wanted me to. Ginny, wanted a new start, wanted to forget about everything but she knew what your father meant to you, to you he was still the hero, she lost her father long before he died, she wanted you to remember him happily. She made me promise to never tell you, to let you live in blissful ignorance. Maybe that's also why Anastasia never told anyone either. It's not easy growing up with someone you are supposed trust with all heart and they betray you, and that little never had anyone to save her, she did all on her own, and she survived.
That girl is braver than any of us, after what she has survived through, she is not a bad person in my eyes, no matter what has done in her past." With that she stood up and ushered me to stand up as well.
"Now, I want you to go to your daughter and talk to her, tell her everything, ask her everything. If she screams at you, yells and curses you out, you take it all, if she cries you hold her, you hold her and you let her know that she doesn't have to keep fighting anymore, that you're gonna be there for her now. Now go."
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My laptop's finally fixed, so here you go! A little sad but kinda feel good chapter!
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