Beginning

She relaxed and said, “Good morning.” The other woman smiled gently, as a mother to a daughter and replied, “Good morning, dear.” She gently smoothed her hand over the younger woman’s hair as she shuffled past to her own chair at the table.

The older woman was thin, angular and harsh looking around the edges. Her hair was drawn back in a bun, but there were springs of hair that escaped from around the temples and hairline. Her eyes were blue and sharp, her mouth was a firm line, that meant business, but was not unkind. This woman emanated serious with every move. She sat in a firm chair, cushioned by a simple needlepoint pillow. she adjusted the brooch at her high necked collar and picked up a sock and needle. With tiny, perfect stiches she began to close the hole in the heel.

“I see our girl is out playing already this morning.” the older woman commented.

“Yes, she’s been at the grasshoppers again.”

“It’s a wonder that LaVerne can stand to have her mess in her flowers like that. She’s surely knocking the blooms off the stems as she bats away at those grasshoppers.”

“Oh, I am fair certain that it’s her grandpa who lets her get away with it. I’ve seen him carefully bending into the flowers to hide the mess that she makes. He dotes that girl. Actually, he dotes both those girls.”

“How long until LaVerne will join us?”

“Many years, best I can tell. Should be twenty or so. She’s so careful, that I can’t imagine she’ll leave any before she needs to.”

“She’s a strong woman, for sure. She survived the cancer few years back. Better than I could manage when the cancer got me. I was a strong woman, but too much, too much had cracked my heart long before the cancer came to rest in my bosom.”

“I know all about cracked hearts Mother. That’s what sent me here sooner than I was ready for.”

“I haven’t forgotten what got you here, Leta. My mind never slipped, and I was ever watching you after I came here.”

“Always, Mother? Has it always been like this?”

“Yes, daughter. As far back as Mary, the mothers have come here to wait and to watch our daughters in the world. We keep a simple life, we watch through that window. We keep vigil over our girls. We watch our genes pass from woman to woman, ever hoping that each new generation will be sweeter and stronger than the last.”

“Have you ever been disappointed, Mother?”

“I have not been disappointed since I came here, Leta. There were too many heartbreaks long before I came. The only thing that kept me steady was the faint knowledge that somehow, someday, if I stayed steady and true that the Father would bring me home and my days of disappointment would be of the past.”

“Were you surprised to find that the Father was actually the Mother?”

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