Page 93 of Becoming Super

Betty sighed, and her eyes grew distant as if she was remembering, “There was a certain young pilot that didn’t agree with my choice. Unbeknownst to me, my parents had begged him to save me.”

“The Head Commander?”

She nodded, “He captured me and brought me here.”

I could hardly believe it. “What did you do?”

Betty laughed, “Aside from trying to kill him? I did everything in my power to get back to my home and my parents.”

“But it was too late?” I finished for her.

She nodded, her eyes glistening.

“How did you ever forgive him?” I gasped, not thinking that I could in the same circumstance.

“Oh, he did a lot of groveling and I did a lot of hating, but the difference between love and hate it very small. And when he gave me the letter my parents had given him I had a hard time holding a grudge. They wanted a better life for me. Being a mother, I can completely understand.”

I nodded as if I too understood, but I really didn’t.

“Your parents, they would have wanted the same for you.”

I stiffened. “My parents died a long time ago.”

She placed a hand on my arm and I felt the sympathy roll from her into me. Suddenly my defenses weren’t as high, and I felt the wall that I had erected around my heart shake a little.

“You are a good person, Chloe. Terrible things have happened to you, but I can see the goodness in you. From what you have said your parents loved you very much. Maybe they couldn’t give you another life like mine did, but isn’t this a second chance just the same? What are the odds that you of all people have the gene that could imprint with my son?”

I didn’t know.

Betty continued, “It is beyond reckoning, and yet you are here.”

I felt a tear escape. “Sometimes I don’t want to be.”

Her arm crept around my shoulders. “I of all people understand the feeling. I felt disloyal to my parents. How could I live when they died? How could I be happy when they were gone?”

I brushed the tears off my cheeks. “How did you get past it?”

“Sometimes I am not. It’s okay to be sad, Chloe. It’s okay to be angry at God, fate or the universe. But you need to remember one very important thing, they would have wanted you to have this chance. What you do with it is completely up to you.”

I leaned against her frame and for the first time in a long while allowed myself to mourn for my parents, for the girl I had been, and for the woman that was dying of cancer. I allowed myself to care. And slowly some of the blackness that seemed to encompass my soul, drifted away.

I hadn’t felt a mother’s love for a very long time, and it felt damn good.

Rylee found us about an hour later. Betty was trying to teach me gardening and I had pulled up several plants instead of weeds. Obviously, I don’t have a green thumb, but Betty never once lost patience with me.

“I am headed into the city; would you like to come?” Rylee asked.

I lowered my head thinking that she was speaking to her mother when she called my name.

“Chloe?”

My head popped up, “Me?”

Rylee grinned, “You are the only Chloe I know.”

Betty nudged my shoulder. “Go on, you girls have a good time. Be careful with the spending, Rylee.”

Rylee rolled her eyes, “We promise only to buy what is absolutely necessary.”

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