Chapter 24 The Return Of The Lost Daughter
Emma woke up from her sleep again not really knowing where she was at the time. Missy as she had grown accustom reached out for her grannies hand and held it lightly and rubbed her face and just said “ I am here and I love you”. Emma then slipped back into what Missy thought was sleep.
Emma mind went back to the year that Phillip died and how she felt so alone and wondered what she would do with the rest of her life. She then remembered getting the phone call with a voice on the other end sounding something like her daughter but she was not so sure because it had been so long since she had heard that voice. While she faintly recognized the voice she could sense that something was not exactly right.
Emma thought about that day when her daughter arrived at the front door. She even knocked on the door and waited for Emma to answer before entering the house. Emma did not know what to do when she saw her. She wanted to hug her and kiss her but she also did not want to hug her. It had been two years since she had last seen her. Emma noticed that she had changed a lot since the last time she was home. Emma noted that she was thinner in fact a lot thinner. Emma noted that her eyes were glassy and not shinny as they were when she was a little girl growing up with an instant smile. While she looked like her daughter, she could just as easily mistake her for someone else in the crowd.
Emma also saw something else quite different about her daughter- she was pregnant. In fact she was quite pregnant. She looked like she could deliver at any time. They talked for a while and Emma found out that her daughter had lived with her boyfriend for about one month and then she left him to live with a returning soldier. That lasted for a couple of months before he left to go back into the army and she then began to live from house to house with different people. She was now pregnant and did not know the father and had no money. She finally got the nerves to call her mother and to come home. Emma listened without interrupting and just feeling relieved that her daughter was home. While she wondered why her daughter was so thin in the face and had that look in her eyes, she thought it was because of the pregnancy. She also noticed that her daughter was sweating and shaking a little but again she thought it was due to her pregnancy and being nervous since this was the first time she had been home in two years.
Well Emma was right about her daughter being ready to deliver. She rushed her to the city hospital where she knew she could be admitted even though she did not have any money or insurance. Emma set up with her all night as she had labor pains until which time she was ready and then she was with her as she delivered Missy. Emma then went home to rest and planned to return to the hospital the following morning.
Emma could not sleep at all when she got home. She again had that “strange” feeling in her stomach. She could not explain it but knew that something was not quite right. As she lay awake, she wondered how it would be to have her daughter and granddaughter live with her. She was still quite lonely for Phillip but maybe now she could have something to fill the void left with his death. For the next two days she visited her daughter in the hospital and continued to plan for the day when she would come home with the baby. She noticed that her daughter became more and more agitated each day. She continued to sweat even though it was not hot and her eyes jumped continuously.
On the fourth day, she returned to the hospital, she entered the hospital room and found the bed empty. She found a note on the bed addressed to her. The note was actually only four sentences. It read Hello mom; I have a drug problem; I cannot take care of a baby; Good bye. Emma then ran to the nurse at the nurse’s station to ask if anyone had seen her daughter. The nurse told her that her daughter had left the hospital even though the staff had tried to stop her. The nurse then went to the nursery and placed Missy in Emma’s arms and said she is yours now. At that moment the uneasy feeling in her stomach went away for Emma now knew why she had had the funny feeling in her stomach.
Emma went home from the hospital wondering what was next. That night she watched the television and found out that General Dwight D Eisenhower had been elected president of the United States. She looked at Missy so small and pretty and began to think how it would be to be a single mother once again while hoping that her daughter would walk through the door. But her daughter never walked through the door. Not that night nor any other night. Missy was now hers.