A Miracle on Hope Street by Emma Heatherington

Author:Emma Heatherington [Heatherington, Emma]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780007568840
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2018-08-15T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

‘I’ve always loved this riverbank,’ I say to Michael when he catches up with me twenty minutes later and we’ve both calmed down. ‘Look, I’m sorry for losing it back there. It’s not like me to get so hot-headed, especially not in a restaurant, but you lit a fire inside of me back there. You shouldn’t have mentioned my mother.’

Michael says nothing, but just sits down on the edge of the bench where I’m sitting and we look out on to the river and listen to the sounds of the evening traffic zoom up and down the road on the other side.

I look up into the night sky and wish I could make light of what he told me, but I can’t. I really can’t.

‘You know, Michael,’ I say to him, ‘I don’t let people in very easily. I can’t, I suppose, in my line of work, as everyone who’s anyone thinks they know me and that I could be their best friend, but there’s something about you that got to me. I really wanted to let you in.’

‘None of us know all the answers, Ruth,’ he says to me firmly. ‘You may be highly regarded in your job in this town but you can get it wrong sometimes. Why did your mother leave you? Have you ever really addressed that? Did you ever find out?’

Michael flicks a piece of stray wood into the river and we both watch it bob up and down before it eventually sinks into the darkness.

‘I’ve a million reasons but they’re all made-up in my mind,’ I explain to him. ‘The answer is that I don’t honestly know. I’ve often wondered was there another man involved, which would be the more clichéd but obvious reason. My father was quite a bit older than her and maybe they had grown apart. Or did she miss her own culture and people and so just packed up and went back to Italy where she felt she belonged? No matter how many times I’d ask her in those early days what was going on, she just told me to be patient and that she’d be back soon and then eventually the weekly meetings faded and the phonecalls stopped and I went on to university and tried to block her out.’

Michael turns towards me. ‘And did that work? Blocking her out?’

I can see the pain again in Michael’s face. I need to be honest with him. ‘No. It didn’t work for very long,’ I explain to him. ‘I could pretend for a while that I’d pushed her out of my mind but it didn’t ever stop me crying out for her in the night when I just needed to hear her voice or see her face, or when I was sick or in pain or was worried about something or had my heart broken and I needed her so badly. I never stopped wanting my mum, no matter how many years passed by. I still want her, Michael. I think I want her now more than ever and that’s something that will never go away.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.