Melanie was amused. Watching this kind of drama unfold before her eyes was a rarity. Eventually, .A. had to lie on the bare ground because it was just too much. It quite some time before she calmed down but she did calm down.
"So what's all this about, this gasping?", Melanie imitated the poor girl's breathing, but even so, .A. couldn't retaliate like she used to. She was just exhausted.
"You sure are one to laugh. Maybe one day try running across the barracks twice over looking for someone who doesn't even appreciate it.", .A. barked and continued to fight for her precious air once again.
This time around when .A. calmed down for real, she revealed that a certain woman, rather strange for her liking, was at the gate demanding entrance.
"She claims that she's your mother though I personally don't see the resemblance."
The realization struck and almost swept Melanie off her feet. Was her mother the ull fated one? No, it can't be.
Without further ado, Melanie dashed in the direction of the gate .A. spoke of. Indeed, it was her mother. She appeared distressed. Her once perfectly combed and well kept hair was now ruffled into a rough sponge. Her elbows, knees and dress were bloodied and dirty.
After a sharp glance at her daughter, this woman went ballistic, managing to push one of the very few soldiers guarding the gate and shook it vigorously while shouting,
"Let me in, let me in. You won't know when he's coming."
Afia .A. managed to catch up to Melanie again. She was now vacuuming air into her lungs uncontrollably, "That..... That was how I met her."
Melanie finally intervened, she thundered at the guards to let her mother in.
"But she has no authorization to enter and neither do we ro let her in.", one of the guards said after separating woman and gate from each other. He was clearly ignorant of Melanie's rank above them.
"I authorize it. Now....let..her...in.!!"
Right now, Melanie was only a veil away from from going all out on the poor guard who was only being dutiful. The air was tense and the winds whispered caution into the guard's ear to head his superior.
With the gates now opened, there was nothing between mother and daughter that could possibly halt the long awaited embrace. Well, nothing tangible at least.
As Melanie's mother dragged herself forward, she kept on repeating the same words over and over again, her voice fading each time.
When mother and daughter were close enough for an embrace, mother fell free. Too free for a woman of her size and age. Her face had become pale and so was the rest of her body.
"Mom, mom!!", Melanie screamed until she could be heard throughout heaven and hell as she held her mother's pseudo-lifeless body.