*****
"Is—Is this where my parents live now?" Xavier, gaping with eyes wide and jaw dropped with disbelief abruptly mumbled to himself. Following which he trembled all over, acting as though a jolt of electricity had suddenly coursed through him.
He couldn't believe his eyes, so he had to rub them fiercely before looking again; however, the scene before him remained unchanged.
It was still the same half-rundown and dilapidated house that appeared long abandoned.
This was Xavier's childhood home, inherited from his grandparents by his father.
Despite its livable condition and slightly aged appearance at that time, Xavier felt that the house no longer suited his parents which was why he moved them into a better apartment after he started earning money.
Looking at this same apartment now, apart from appearing abandoned, it was surrounded by tall weeds, something nobody had been to in years.
***
After staring in a daze for a long time, Xavier finally shook his head vigorously with a deep sigh. "I refuse to accept that this is where my parents now live," he mumbled to himself, clenching his fists and trying to convince himself of his words.
Even though he had been informed that his parents had moved out of the house he rented for them and returned to this place a few years ago, Xavier refused to accept it.
"Although she stopped loving and caring for me, she wouldn't be so heartless to my parents, who always loved her like their own daughter!" he mumbled again, trying to convince himself.
After this thought crossed his mind, Xavier calmed down slightly and his fear disappeared, then he entered a deep contemplation, wondering how he would get his parent's new address.
Just as Xavier was about to abandon his pride and return to Jennifer to find where his parent now lives, he heard the loud creak of a door opening and he instinctively looked.
The next second, his heart stopped working completely and his jaw dropped with astonishment.
"That—that is my mother?" he muttered dumbly, almost choking on his words.
If the state of the house had left him thunderstruck, seeing the person weakly dragging an axe with her frail, aged hands made Xavier feel as though his soul was being torn from his body.
****
Xavier's mother was known for her dedication to maintaining her appearance, always striving to look youthful for Xavier's father so that he wouldn't be stolen from her by young-blooded maidens.
Xavier even used to playfully tease her about whether she was looking for a young man back then, given how well she usually maintained her figure.
Now, however, she is almost unrecognizable to Xavier, looking more like his grandmother.
The person dragging the axe out of the dilapidated and half-ruined house is an elderly woman with completely grey hair and deeply wrinkled skin.
She no longer seemed healthy; instead, she appeared so weak, looking as if she might collapse at any moment.
Her dress, though neat, looks heavily worn, and her sandals are tattered at the soles, a sigh that Xavier couldn't believe no matter what.
He continued gaping and before he knew it, two drops of tears rolled down his cheek as the woman finally got near him and he saw her full appearance.
At the same time, the frail woman, who was going to chop some wood for her husband's breakfast, noticed Xavier standing before her and she weakly raised her head, forcefully squinting her eyes to look at him.
"Plea—please make way for—for me," she said weakly, her voice so unfamiliar to Xavier's ears.
Xavier had always believed he was mentally strong, especially after what he experienced the previous day following his return from prison. Now, however, he realized how terribly wrong he was.
Tears began to stream down his eyes before he even realized it and after what felt like an eternity of effort, he finally managed to open his heavy mouth.
"Mo—mother," he choked out, his voice barely audible and cracking with emotion.
Meanwhile, as Laura, who had begun to think that the person blocking her path was one of hers and her husband's oppressors, heard the word just spoken, her body trembled uncontrollably.
It was as though a bolt of lightning had shot through her body as well.
How many years has she heard this word last? Five years!
Despite her poor vision, she couldn't help but widen her eyes and study the face of the person standing before her with intense focus.
Though it had matured considerably, it was still the same familiar face that had appeared in her dreams every day for the past five years—the face she had thought she might never see again before she died, and the face she had always enjoyed seeing in her dreams, often not wanting to wake up because she knew it would disappear as soon as she did.
Laura's eyes reddened rapidly, and then she shivered hysterically.
"So—son?" She carefully inquired with a raspy voice, hoping she wasn't just daydreaming again.
Xavier, seeing his mother like this, also trembled all over, and the tears gushing out of his eyes increased significantly.
"It's me, mother! It's your son, Xavier. I've—I've been released!" Xavier finally lost it and wept.
"My son?" Laura mumbled to herself in a daze.
Although she desperately wished it was true, she couldn't shake the feeling that she was dreaming upon hearing the familiar voice confirm it.
She stared blankly at Xavier for a moment before eventually, the axe she was dragging fell from her hand; however, she did not notice.
She dragged her legs forward and approached Xavier, then after what felt like an eternity of hesitation and fear that it might not be real, she carefully raised her aged hand and touched the face she had been missing and yearning for over the past five years.
The moment she felt the warmth of the body—something she had never experienced when trying to touch it in her dreams—Laura felt overwhelmed and suffocated.
"You—you are really my son?" She inquired in a daze, and Xavier, whose tears had now turned into a dam, nodded his head repeatedly.
"In flesh and blood, mother!" He responded and this was the last straw that finally broke Laura's camel's back.
"My son is back!" She mumbled to herself in a stupor.
"My—my son is back!" she finally cried out before suddenly slumping down, almost fainting from excessive excitement.
Xavier, seeing her falling quickly rushed over and held her tight, not allowing her to fall, but Laura did notice.
"Thank you, gods! Thank you for making me see my son at last!"
"I've—I've lost all hope, I really have!"
"Thank you!"
She mumbled hysterically while sobbing, seeming to have lost her senses. Eventually, she looked back at Xavier, who was watching her with tear-filled, blurry eyes and without even the slightest trace of hesitation, jumped into him and hugged him tightly against herself, acting as though she was going to enter his body.