A Mother’s Heart
Coffee Break Tale
They weren’t particularly good looking or young, this couple who walked towards her hand-in-hand. But there was something about them; something that made people smile as they passed by.
May moved aside for them and briefly felt the warmth of their love for one another enfold her. It wasn’t often that she was moved by anything. She may have been only been on this job for a month, but it had soon hardened her.
The woman shivered as she passed May where she stood squashed into a roadside hedge. She was trying to be inconspicuous but the hedge was privet interspersed with spikes of holly. She wasn’t so hardened that she couldn’t feel the prickles in her skin.
A faint groan escaped her lips as the couple moved away.
“What?” the man said, looking down at his partner.
She smiled back at him, her whole face lighting up. “Nothing,” she said, “just someone walking over my grave.” She giggled and May ached to laugh with her.
They moved on. May felt a chill as they left, taking their delight in one another with them. Before she could move a young mother with a pushchair went by, forcing her to squeeze even further into the spiked bush.
It’s not easy being inconspicuous, May thought, once it was safe to move.
The baby was facing backwards in the pushchair and spotted May brushing dust and leaves off her black coat. It beamed a gummy smile. The mother of long ago, who still lived inside May and sometimes surfaced, longed to wipe the dribble off the little face. She raised her hand, and the baby waved.
May returned the baby’s salute, waving each of her fingers separately, just as she had waved to her own daughter all that time ago. Babies are so cute, she thought, struggling to shake free of nostalgia and return to the matter in hand.
Then the girl and her baby were gone, drifting out of sight like a lost memory. May could still see the baby’s smile in her mind’s eye and for a moment it twisted a dagger in her heart.
She moved back down the path leaving the hedge crushed where she had hidden. The couple she had been watching were still holding hands, still gazing into one another’s eyes. May wandered behind them, too far for them to spot her, but keeping them in sight.
No one noticed her. If anyone did see her it was only as a dowdy, middle-aged woman with grey hair and sagging stockings.
It was the image May cultivated for the job. I’ll be so glad when I’ve done my shift, she thought, yearning for high heels and a short skirt. She only had to hang on until the end of the night and then someone else would take over.
She came up behind the couple, her quarry. They’d stopped at a pedestrian crossing and were hugging. “I’ll see you tonight,” he said, and gently kissed her lips. “Take care”.
That baby had affected May more than she realised. An unfamiliar tear trickled from her eye, shocking her. This isn’t supposed to happen, she thought.
As she watched the woman turn to cross the road, May’s heart thundered in her ears. There was a lorry coming. The woman didn’t see it; she was still smiling at her man. She stepped into the road.
May reached out to collect her, tears escaping her eyes. She felt the man’s horror as the lorry screamed towards them and her mother’s heart broke.
Quickly she pushed the woman out of the way of the now skidding lorry.
“Oh, my goodness,’ the man sobbed, gathering his love’s shaking form up into his arms. “I almost lost you.”
“Something pushed me,” the woman whispered. “I didn’t see . . .”
May left them there, taking comfort in each other’s arms.
She glanced over at the stationary lorry, wondering if the driver was okay. There was steam spiralling up from the engine. She decided to let her replacement deal with that one. She knew the date – October 31. Her shift was over.
May sighed with relief, and then lifted her head high. She didn’t regret what she had done; a mother’s heart cannot be denied. But she had explanations to give, excuses to make.
Even Death answers to someone.