Let me tell you a story of a long time ago. I was about five years old. I remember what I wore that day. Skippies, jeans, and a white tee with a jean jacket. It was a normal day. We were just going out for a normal stroll. I was taken to what looked like a cathedral. I walked around as any child would, who felt safe. Free and oblivious. But somethings about this place that were were about to enter I took note of. The building was old and abandoned on the outside, but when we stepped into the place, the windows were stained glass. They were beautiful and full of color. Mother sat me at a table to eat a bowl of cereal while she engaged with a tall man. My interest at that moment was the bowl which was made of bamboo, and in it was my favorite cereal with milk. I began to eat as mother stepped away with grandma and my seven year old brother. Mother was to my right, my far right. I could see her through my peripheral vision using her hands to communicate to this tall man dressed in white. Possibly a priest.
Mother spoked to this man. What they were speaking about, I could not hear. So I continued to eat. The bench which I sat on was white, and to my left was one of the stained glass windows. What my mother was saying to this Man, must have been important being that the conversation lasted so long. But maybe it did not last as long as it seemed, I still had most of my cereal in the bamboo bowl. Time at that moment seemed to be dragging. I put spoons full in my mouth but It seemed as I was not even making a dent in that bowl.
Finally, half way through, I looked towards the stain glass window, and to my surprise, mother had left. She was no longer in the room? How did that happen? How did I miss her departure? I was not done eating. Holding the hand of my brother, walking beside my grandmother, they walked away from the glass window. I screamed, as my tears poured out leaving my vision blurry. I got up, looking for an escape. But I could not remember where we had entered through. Crying, I questioned why they had forgotten me. They had abandoned me. I was alone in this unfamiliar place.
The man whom mother had been speaking with came to me, trying to to calm me down. He said that he would never leave me, and that He would always be by my side. But this man I had just met and was unfamiliar to me as well. I looked up to him and with a wet face yelled: No! I want my mommy! He then said sit and eat. I will not leave you.
When I heard these words again, accompanied with the request to sit and continue to eat my cereal, I did just that. I sniffled, wiping my tears from my eyes on the sleeves of my jacket. I had cried from a deep place. It was as if we were glued together and I was ripped apart at that very moment, without any warning or a chance to accept it. I was left with a stranger, without even a good bye. Why? What did I do wrong? Would they come back? It didn’t seem promising since they did not even look back towards the building that I was dropped off at.
I gazed at the window wanting them to come back for me but after a few minutes there was no sight of my family. They had really left me in the hands of this man. They were now just a memory burned in my mind.
I sniffled some more and while the sound of my cry had ceased, my eyes were would not stop dropping tears. And so I continued to wipe as I ate my cereal. This man joined me at the table, sitting across from me. He asked if I would share and I did. We, this man and I then just sat and ate until the bowl was completely empty, and then I woke up.
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