“Have you heard from your siblings?” Lily’s mother asked her when she sat down for dinner. On the table were simple dishes, stir fried leafy green vegetable with garlic and a bowl of peanut soup. Lily wished she could provide better food, but she was living paycheque to paycheque.
“They are busy,” Lily lied, picking up the vegetables with her chopsticks and putting it in her mother’s bowl.
“I can’t wait for the reunion dinner at David’s house.”
Lily stared at her aging mother and nodded. She didn’t know how to tell her mother that her two successful children didn’t want anything to do with her or that she will be staying with her for the rest of her life in a small house and eating simple foods.
Lily received a phone call from her mother last week when she was on the way home from work. Her mother sounded scared and upset. To Lily’s horror, her brother left their mother at the shopping mall. A kind man borrowed his phone so she could call Lily. Lily made a U-turn and drove to the mall. Too shaken to speak, she spent the night at Lily’s.
Upon waking up in the morning, Lily was shocked to find bags of her mother’s belongings in front of the gate. She carried those bags into the house before calling her brother and sister. They met up an hour later to discuss their mother’s living arrangement.
“Our mother is a hoarder. I cannot let her stay anymore,” Lily’s brother, David defended himself when Lily asked about the shopping mall incident.
“So you just left her at the shopping mall? That is so heartless of you,” Lily’s sister, Lucy shook her head.
“Lily, I think Lucy is offering to take her,” David said to Lily.
“No, that’s not what I meant. I don’t have a room for her,” Lucy objected. She turned to David and continued, “You have the biggest house. Why can’t you just let her stay in the spare room?”
“My children need the spare room. Since that Chinese New Year is around the corner, we are renovating it and turning it into a music and karaoke room.”
Listening to her two older siblings’ disagreement made Lily’s blood boil. They were supposed to be the ones taking care of their mother because they were financially stable. Both siblings were rich; David was an engineer and Lucy was an architect. They lived in big houses and travelled overseas twice a year. Lily was the opposite.
“Both of you are mother’s favourite,” Lily blurted out suddenly. She was fuming inside when she remembered how her mother despised her when she was a child. Lily failed in school while her siblings obtained straight A’s. Even as a child, Lily knew her mother was unfair towards her because she wasn’t clever. Her mother loved David and Lucy more, and although she tried to deny it, she realised there was no point to.
“She bought whatever both of you wanted. What you asked, you received. Instead of spending time with me, she worked a second job and then, a third to put both of you through college. She took care of your children when they were born and when you went to work. You abandoned her because she is getting weaker and losing her ability to carry out her daily activities,” Lily continued, her body trembling with anger.
“It is so easy for you to accuse us,” Lucy shook her head. “Unless you forgot, she is your mother too.”
“She wanted to live with either of you, not me,” Lily said. “I offered long time ago, but both of you agreed that she will live with you since she can take care of your children.”
“If money is what you are worried about, we can compensate you for her expenses and your time,” David suggested.
“It is not about money,” Lily raised her voice in disbelief. “She is expecting to go back to your house and have a family reunion this Chinese New Year.”
“That won’t do,” David shook his head. “Lucy and I already planned to go travelling with our family during Chinese New Year. I am sure we will give you ang pow before we leave.”
At that said, Lily walked away from her siblings with a broken heart and disappointment. Lily didn’t mind taking care of her mother, but she wasn’t sure how her mother would react to the truth.
“Lily,” her mother called her, making her realise she had stopped eating. “I’m sorry for not spoiling you as I spoilt your two elder siblings. I was wrong.”
“It doesn’t matter, mother. It’s not important.”
“I know the truth, Lily. They don’t want me because I’m useless. I know there won’t be a reunion dinner this year,” her mother stated in a low voice as tears rolled down her cheeks.
It was heart wrenching to see her mother’s tears. Feeling helpless to change her mother’s fate, Lily hugged her and said, “You can stay here with me. I will never abandon you, mother. We can have our own reunion dinner.”
Carina Lim bears different messages through her fiction. These messages could be useful in life. She can be contacted at mermaidgal03@yahoo.com
