Chapter 11

Nora was silent all through our drive back home. I was silent too and it felt so awkward. When we got home, she carried me in her chest and put me in bed.

"Get some rest. I'm going to have a walk in the garden" she said, and left.

She didn't return until about two hours later, and she looked better. Her expression was calmer.

"Please take me home, Aunty" i begged. The promise I made to my mom was to be by her side and protect her. Of course I had made the promise to her in my mind. And I was mandated to fulfill it because I loved my mom. I still love her so much, and I regretted calling her a dummy.

"Please Aunty. I want to go meet mom" i pleaded. I didn't belong here even though it was warm and cozy and comfortable. It was not my home.

She didn't say anything. She just went to her room, picked two clothes and a pair of pink shoes, together with few toiletries and bathing soap. I wondered what they were for. I waited at the door for her. I was actually sitting on the floor. For some reason, my knees were too weak for me. After packing all of them into a small travel box, she picked up her car keys which laid on her dressing table, and motioned for me to get up. I understood the message and followed her to the parking lot. There, she started the car and drove us away. I wondered how she got our house address. Maybe mom sent it to her already.

"Are you okay honey?" She asked me, fifteen minutes into the drive. That was the first time she'd talk to me since I called my mom a dummy to her very face

"Aunty, is the baby okay?" I asked instead. I was genuinely concerned about mom's baby. Because mom didn't talk about it anymore.

"Huh?" Maybe she didn't hear me the first time.

"The baby in mom's stomach, is she okay? The baby's still there, right?" I asked with apprehension in my voice

"There's a baby in her stomach?" Nora asked, bewildered.

"Yes. She told me last month that she was going to have a baby. She looked really happy saying it to me"

"Oh my God!!!" Aunty Nora suddenly exclaimed out of the blues and slammed her right palm on the steering wheel, ruffled through her hair and gritted her teeth. She looked like she was having an attack. But how?.. She was holding her phone in her second hand. I wondered if it was what I told her that made her react that way. No, that reaction seemed involuntary to me. What was happening?

But I started to believe it was something else because Nora accelerated real quick and drove insanely down the street. Getting home would take forty more minutes. Our estate was in another street entirely. I guessed she wanted to be fast enough to get there in twenty or twenty five

Whatever might have happened , It sure was big because Nora showed every sign of fear, and I could have sworn that it was about mom, but she didn't receive any call and I didn't see her look at her phone when that psycho attitude was displayed by her.

She drove impatiently on the busy road, almost colliding with another vehicle. I shivered and held on to the seats so I won't bump my head on them. I wanted to hold her shoulder and tell her to stop being so fast. I screamed but she didn't look at me. She kept gritting her teeth and pulling back her hair which was covering her whole face.

After about thirty minutes, she slowed down, and placed her head on the steering wheel. She tried starting the car again, but it wouldn't start. She pulled her hair up a bit and ruffled through it with so much frustration and agitation, her eyes grew large and bloodshot and her cheeks turned red and shrunk, and it was then I noticed it. The Blue Wolf sign. A wolf standing straight with its teeth open, and with a spear in its left hand, and a horn in the middle of its head. That mark was engraved on her scalp. That space was bare, without hair, so I could see the sign well. Nora was a monster too?

"Nora, are you okay?" That was a man's voice. Calling her. The same voice I heard in her room of many books and pipettes and laboratory equipment. Her lover, Adrian.

"No, mate" she replied, with exasperated breaths. Mate?

Her hand was clutching something tight, and I didn't know what it was, but it seemed to be like an envelope. I was lost for words because I could not explain what was wrong with Nora, or what I could do to help her.

"Baby, first of all, calm down, okay?" He said with genuine concern. Her phone was on loudspeaker, so I could hear every tone in his every word.

"Where are you right now?" By this time, I could see something dropping out of Nora's eyeballs, I didn't know what it was but it was liquid, and it was definitely not water. Water is colorless but that thing dropping from her eyes was colourful. Blood? Was it blood? I cupped my face in my hands in terror. Was Nora a monster too?

"Adrian, I need to talk to you!" She yelled into the phone. Her voice was breaking. It sounded distant and shaky, but defiant. "Urgently!" I hugged my body in desperation. I wanted to be home as soon as possible

"I'm all ears, please...

"Not on the phone!" She yelled, "Not on the phone!!" She repeated louder than the first. What's happening? I was even so scared to talk to her because I feared she might shout at me. The sudden change in her attitude shocked me. Or was she bipolar? I wouldn't know exactly what was wrong, until years later.

"I'll be right at home baby. Right in your apartment in 24 hours. I'll book a flight now. Please stay okay for me. Please" He sounded like he knew what exactly was wrong and would do anything to be there with her that moment. Then he hung up.

After some minutes, she started the car again but it wouldn't start. So, she came out of the car and i did the same, with fear written all over me.

Her steps were awkward as she walked, and it seemed like she'd fall anytime soon. Before us, I could already see the roof of our estate-Kangaroo Estate. It was few minutes away from us.

While we walked, she swerved to the left and almost fell into a ditch. So I held her shoulder in time to save her, but to my utmost surprise, she yanked my hands off before they touched her. She did that with so much force and speed that I was forced to believe she was possessed by something. It was the same way Joe pulled me back in the bathroom the other day at school

"Ariana, Move away, okay?" She said softly, and then slumped. Her voice was raspy. She didn't faint anyway. I knelt down in the soil where she fell.

"I'll join you soon. Go on home" she said looking away. I noticed that since the journey started from her home down to ours, I hadn't been able to see her face. She had been hiding it from me.

"Come on, Go home" she said. She was kneeling now, in the soil, with her hair sprawled over her face, and her fingers dripping-- Wait, that was blood. I could see it clearly now. Blood was dripping from her fingers into the soil. And they weren't human fingers, they were a wolf's paws

"Go away. Go home!" She said, a little louder now. I slowly turned away and began the five minute journey home on foot. "Don't look back!"

*********************************************************************

Home was quiet. When I got in, I met no one. All the doors were ajar. Immediately I ran to one of my neighbor's and asked where mom was. She pointed in the direction of the garden after she hugged me and asked if I was all right.

The walk to the garden was rough because I ran and hit my leg on several objects. There in the garden was mom. She was sitting on a chair, and with her legs crossed, she grazed her hands on the flower beds. It would have been totally normal but Cameron was right beside her. They looked like they were discussing something serious. Cameron? Sitting in the garden with my mom?

"Mom!" She turned around and stood up with glee. Without thinking twice, she reached for my arms and pulled me into a hug.

"Mom,Aunty Nora is dying. I don't know what happened..she..." I was out of breath but I kept pointing at the road. Mom got up , pulled my hands and ran with me down the road, completely ignoring Cameron who looked so sullen.

We hadn't left the main entrance of the estate when we bumped into Nora on her way in.

"Hi" she flashed a smile at mom. "Is everything okay?"

I was shocked. Her hair was well combed, her fingers normal, her face normal. Nothing was out of the ordinary

"Nora..." Mom began, giving me a puzzled look.

"Is he back?" She asked, ignoring our puzzled expressions.

"Yes, and we are fine. I'm getting a divorce" Mom announced. I looked at her with amazement. Mom's getting a divorce? Why hadn't she thought of that before now?

"But that'll be after my baby is born" she said. Nora moved closer and pressed her body into a warm embrace. She looked like her sweet, normal self again. Three of us walked into the house talking and nodding our heads.

In the living room, mom asked, "What happened to you? Ariana told me you were dying...but now you look so perfectly fine. I don't understand" mom shook her head. I looked from mom to Nora and from Nora to mom, and back to Nora. I didn't understand a thing. And I wanted to scream because the confusion was too much for me.

"I'm fine. I was just a little disorganized. I ran out of gasoline and patience. I wanted to get here in time" she smiled, "and I'm glad to see you are fine"

"Thank you so much , Nora. I didn't know both of you would be coming".

I didn't believe Nora. You needed to see the display. You'd agree with me that Nora was not just a 'little disorganized', she literally displayed half an hour of lunacy. And where did the blood come from? Her car didn't have an accident.. And what was that I saw dripping from her face, and why was she hiding her face from me all through the ride?

"I didn't know I could make it even" she said with a serious tone. What did she mean by that? I wondered. I needed to search my room for my other diary that was kept in the soil under the tile, and the gold chains and trinkets. I also needed to process everything that had happened in the past weeks. My room had been a crime scene. Mom and Nora looked like they were about to have a long conversation, so I excused myself.

"I need to go to my room" I said and left. They didn't hear me. I could hear mom giving the details of her discussion with Cameron to Nora. So I walked slowly so I could hear.

"When he came home today, he acted so affectionate. He told me he didn't know about the attack. He even wiped my wounds for me. I was shocked but I wasn't moved. Cameron's trying to buy my trust but I'm not ready to sell it to him..."

So Cameron and mom were getting divorced. That was a big relief.

"He didn't consent to the divorce, Nora. That's where my problem lies" I stopped in my tracks when I heard that. "He said he will never let me leave him. I don't know what to do" she sulked. Cameron must be within earshot because he soon walked in, and joined the conversation.

"Did you ask her to do this? You put her up to this?" I know that question was directed to Nora. "So she told you I don't take care of her as a wife?" The accusations went on.

Nora bellowed, "No she didn't have to, her scars are enough evidence, and yes, you have to sign the papers and let the poor woman go"

"Do you realize whose feet you're trampling on?" He asked fiercely. "You know I can punish you for meddling into my affairs by just raising my finger tip? You know, don't you?" He said, softly but firmly.

Nora tried to talk, but instead she got up, picked up her bag and said to Ruby, my mom. "Can I see you outside for a minute, ma'am?"

"Move an inch away from there and do not return into this house!" he shouted at mom. I watched what would happen, halfway to my room, I watched everything. To my surprise, mom stood up and followed Nora, not without saying to his face, "We shall see".

With that, Cameron turned towards their matrimonial room with fury. I quickly went into my room and locked the door from inside.

"God please, let Aunty Nora stay here tonight" I prayed. But even so, fear gripped me the more when I remembered the transformation of Nurse Nora that I had witnessed on our drive home.

That night, Mom slept in my room, and Cameron slept alone. There, we talked about the divorce and everything. Mom said Nora had to leave because someone was visiting her the next day. Her lover, Adrian. "I wanted to hide my plan from you, but now you know. We'll be leaving as soon as your sister is born" she said smiling. "Nora will support us. He must sign the papers or I won't be free"

"Mom,you're having a baby girl?" I screamed with delight.

"Yes, it's a girl"