Weeks later Joyce’s cloud brought her back to the present. She heard a young man reading from a book: her favorite book and she wondered how this young man knew about her favorite book. But Joyce was so tired to try to hear or understand and she went back… Joyce remembered now her second son Gabriel Jr. and how she taught him how to read. She had simply read many stories to him aloud, and one day he surprised her by telling her that he could read. She had stood there in awe just listening to her four-year-old son read. His love for reading had endured.
Gabriel Jr. was seven years old now and still loved reading, she actually had to ask him to put his book away and help take care of his young siblings or do the chores at home.
Another part of her memory brought her back to thoughts of her home country. Every year Joyce had visited her country with her family. Her little village stayed the same, the people also stayed the same even their customs and traditions all the same. It seemed as if time just forgot about this town and its people. The cities there and its people changed with every visit; they were eager to forget about their past and traditions and ready to embrace everything new and fashionable. Joyce watched this fast change in the cities with sad eyes and rushed with her family to her hometown where her parents, siblings, uncles, aunts, cousins and neighbors were waiting for them with open arms, open hearts and big smiles.
Their visits were wonderful, but too short. The day in which they would leave was a sad day for her little town; everybody there would be sad; some would come to say goodbye, give them big hug and then tears would begin falling from everybody’s eyes. “We’ll see you next year… God willing.”
After coming back with her family from visiting her country one year, Gabriel Jr. decided to become a pilot.
“…so, I can fly you to visit your country and relatives whenever you miss them, Mom. What do you think?”
“Where will the airplane take you… but away from me, little Gabriel?”
“I told you, Mom, you will all be with me when we go, and I will only charge you two dollars.”
“Well, that sounds wonderful! Thank you so much, Gabriel, for thinking about Mommy.”
“You’re welcome!” he said. Then he ran out to play with his airplanes while his neglected trains sat lonely on the floor.
Joyce remembered one year ago her husband telling her after coming back from a conference accompanied by his two little boys.
“Oh Joyce… I felt so strong being with my boys; so complete, I used to go alone and look for someone to talk to or be with but this year I didn’t need to be with anybody else; I was content.”
Oh, how she loved and missed her two little boys! And her dear husband! Was it perhaps her awakened longing and love for her family that made her desire to leave now?
Joyce wanted to go back to them. But she felt like a prisoner locked behind many walls, and she couldn’t see her way out.