Nine years ago around this time, Liam and our doula and I were walking slow laps around a foggy hockey rink in a city park in an attempt to coax our baby out into the world. Since she's always done things her own way, it would be another 14 hours and some pitocin later that we actually met Lily, but that night of misty darkness was an otherworldly time that marked my transition between being the mom of one to a mom of two.
Lily is a child who inspires me. She is fierce and strong like nobody else I've met. She is beautiful and vulnerable and impenetrable. She exudes generosity and has brought me to tears with her tenderness. Her appearance in my life ushered me into being the mom of daughters, and her birthday tomorrow marks a day where I learned a lot about myself and my relationship with Liam.
To commemorate her special day, I'm sharing below the story which Lily created today. As an extension of a FIAR activity where we examined and created characters, she dictated this story while I type. And so I give you, The Worst Week of My Life
The
Worst Week of My Life
“Tweet tweet
tweet” goes the little bird in the tree while I'm out under my
favourite tree.
I'm under the tree
because it's my favourite tree and I've lived in this town for my
entire life. But today my dad says that we have to move because the
air force relocated him. Tomorrow we have to move. I've lived here
my entire life though and I don't want to move. But I guess we have
to.
I was born here, I
was raised here as a child, and this is the only place I've ever
been. We've never travelled for vacations because my dad says that he
always needs to stay here for work. I'm sad that we never travel.
Today when I got
home from school, I walked in the door, sat on the couch, and sighed.
“Aww. I don't want to move”.
Then – ding dong!
The doorbell rang.
I thought to myself
“My dad isn't home yet. He tells me not to open the door to anybody
while he's gone. What should I do?”.
I sat up from the
couch. I went up to my room and I had a view of the driveway below.
The van was black. People with black suits were getting out of the
black van. Then suddendly – ding dong! Blam blam blam! Crash! Bang!
Pow!
“The door is
broken!” I thought to myself. Then I heard thump thump thump coming
up the stairs. I decided to hide under my bed. Somebody walked into
my room. I was so scared.
I heard “Is
anybody in here?”.
I recognized that
voice. I ran out from under my bed. I came and I hugged the person.
My mom had been gone for eleven years. I recognized her voice because
we talked on the phone all the time.
My mom said “The
reason why the people dressed in black are coming out of the van is
that they are my guards. They protect me all the time because I have
a secret to tell you.”
She whispered into
my ear and told me a secret. I was so happy that I jumped up and
down.
“Why didn't you
ever tell me this?!” I asked. I burst into tears because I was so
happy.
“Is Daddy like
that too?” I asked.
“No,” my mom
answered.
“But, but but...” I said.
“No,” my mom
said. “He is not like this and he never will be. Time to go. I'll
meet you down in the car in five minutes. Get a jacket on.”
My mom left. I put
my most special jacket on. It was pink with rainbows on it. On the
hood it had a smiley face! I went downstairs to meet my mom.
I was just about to
step off the landing when I heard my mom say “No. I will not let
you do that. Never ever in my entire life.”
I heard my dad say
“But please, please, please let me live with you! At least don't
take all my money!”
My mom left to the
car and my dad sat down at the kitchen table.
“Hi Daddy!” I
yelled as I came down the stairs to go to the car.
I arrived in the
car.
My mom said “You
may play on your phone but be quiet.”
I answered “OK”.
We started driving.
As we backed down the driveway, I saw something moving in the woods
and we never had something moving in the woods. I was curious.
I asked my mom “Did
you see that thing moving in the woods?”.
“Uh, what thing?”
my mom answered.
We kept driving. My
mom was listening to the radio. She only spoke english but she was
listening to a french radio station. All I could understand was “Blah
blah blah blah blah”.
I called my friend
who knew how to speak french. I put my phone on speaker phone so she
could listen. She said “OK, I've heard enough” and I turned it
off of speaker phone.
I kept talked to my
friend and she asked “Do you want to know what they're saying?”.
“Yes,” I
answered.
“OK, fine,” she
said. “Well, the thing that she's listening to is the news. The
thing they were talking about is this wild crazy dangerous animal
that's been appearing in people's woods”.
I gasped. “Do you
know anything about it?”
“Yes,” she
answered. “It is one of the most rare animals ever. If your mom has
been listening to this she is a mad scientist”.
I almost passed out,
but my mom saved me by saying “We're here!”.
I had to whisper to
my friend because now my mom was listening. “OK, sorry. I have to
go now. I'll talk to you in about fifteen minutes?”
“OK,” she
answered. We both said goodbye.
I looked at the
place where we were. It said something in french but I had no idea
what it said.
My mom said “OK,
you're staying in the car”.
“Why would she
bring me along if she wanted me to stay in the car?” I thought.
“This is so weird.”
I texted my friend
“Hey, you can call me now if you like”.
Bing bing bing bing
bing! My phone rang.
I answered “Hello?”
“Hi, it's me” my
friend answered. “I found out why your mom has been doing all this
weird stuff. I can't tell you right now though.”
“Why?
Why?!” I exclaimed.
“Because,” my
friend answered. “Just do what I say. Tonight, when your mom is
sleeping, pull her hair as hard as you can.”
We kept talking. I
kept asking “Why why why?” but the things my friend kept
answering weren't useful.
“Oh no!” I
shouted. “I just realized we've been talking for five hours. Gotta
go, bye!”.
“Bye!” she
answered.
My mom got in the
car and we started to driving. She just listened to music this time.
“You can keep
playing on your phone,” my mom said.
“No thanks Mom,”
I answered.
When we got home my
mom yawned.
“I'd better get to
bed soon,” my mom said.
“Ok” I answered.
“I'd better get to
bed too,” said my dad. I said the same thing.
That night, at
midnight I went into my parents's room. I got a flashlight off of
their dresser. I shone it straight up so that they wouldn't wake up.
I got scared but I decided to still do it.
I pulled my mom's
hair as hard as I could. Pop! I looked at my mom. I almost died, I
was so scared.
I thought to myself
“I can't scream! I can't scream! I can't scream!!”.
I had to scream
somehow. I ran out of my parents room and went outside. I screamed
because I was so scared.
“AAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!”
I held the thing up
in my hand. I looked inside of it. There was green gloop. I was
thinking to myself “It's a mask! I'm holding my mom's mask!. Wait.
This might not even be my mom's.”
I was scared. The
next morning, she woke up without the mask on. She was sitting on the
couch watching a show. I looked at her and I've been waiting to tell
you this part because it's so scary. My mom/what I think my mom is,
is an alien! Or a monster!
I was kind of spying
on her from our loft. She felt her face because it was itchy. She
took her hand down and looked at her.
“Oh no, this is
bad! Where did my mask go?” she thought. She took off her gloves
that looked like human hands. She looked at her hands. They were
getting all old and were getting dried out.. Then, she took off all
of her suit.
She screamed
“NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!”.
Her voice got
deeper.
“Oh no! I'm
turning...I'm turning back into incinerated dust!” she said.
She got transformed
into diamonds and all sorts of jewels.
Clang clang clang!
Thump! The jewels made as they hit the floor.
I ran downstairs and
grabbed them all. I held them up in my hands and then the jewels all
turned into dust. They fell out of my hands.
Two weeks later, my
dad came over to me and said “We're not going to move. I don't want
to move. It would be boring. The only reason I said that we were
going to move was because your mother wanted me to. Well, I guess not
your mother. She said we had to move or bad stuff would happen to you
because she hated me,”.
Two years later, my
mom showed up. I thought “Oh no! I hope that doesn't happen again!”.
When I pulled her
hair only one piece of hair came out. She's my real mom and I'm happy
about that. And that is what I told for school, only nobody believed
me but my friend. That is the story of what happened to me.