Mirage

Chapter 3

13 years since the Collapse

"Before-before everything happened, what was your life like before you met dad?"

Mai and her mother had just finished installing a rainwater collector along the roof of their home after their water pump went off the fritz. They had decided to take some time to sit together on the porch waiting for her father to return home from hunting.

Mai could see that this question had caught her mother off guard. Her mother never talked about the time before or her life. She heard bits and pieces of it from Uncle Sharky and her Aunt Kim and Auntie Grace, But never anything from her mother herself. Every conversation they did have revolved around Mai's own daily activities. Quite frankly, she knew little about her parent's at all now that she thought about it. Nayeli's brows raised and then furrowed in response to her daughter's question, biting her lower lip as she mulled it over.

"It was not an idealistic life. That I'll say."

She sighed as she leaned back into the bench, her head resting against the wall of the house. Mai watched her mother carefully, every twitch of her eye or lip signaling that these memories were not ones she cared to reminisce about.

"But I suppose you are old enough now to learn a bit more about your mother." She smirked.

Whether she was being sarcastic or not, Mai could not tell. Nayeli was secretive. It was a trait Mai eventually just had to grow up accepting. She and her mother were inseparable, don't get her wrong, but she always felt that her mother held a lot of baggage; Mai was simply worried it would consume her one day.

Resting her head upon Nayeli's shoulder, Mai listened In silence as her mother spoke of having a brother who had died in an accident, a loving, fierce mother taken too soon and an absentee father who cared more about his business than family. After her mother died, she left Hope County, received multiple degrees which sounded impressive though Mai would admit she had no idea the significance them. She had even gotten engaged tow man whose name escaped her.

"He was a good man. I do remember that." She had said, her voice trailing off.

"But no one captured my heart the way your father did. For better or for worse."

Mai shifted her head away from her mother and then cocked it to the side, curious about her mother's statement. What do you mean for better or for worse?"

Nayeli took Mai's hands into her own, resting them on her lap. Mai could sense that her mother was struggling to find her words, not wanting anything to be misconstrued, "Your Father did a lot of bad things from the time before. He, his brothers and sister hurt a lot of people, I included. Many were not happy when we became a couple, but I never gave up hope that there was good in him."

Mai raised her brows in confusion, dad has never mentioned anything about having any brothers or sisters. The only other biological family she knew of was long passed now: her grandmother Sokanon and Uncle Takoda, both of whom died while her mother was still a teenager. Perhaps they too were gone, or her father and his siblings simply had some bad blood between them. What had they done that was so terrible though?

Nayeli smiled warmly, seeming oblivious to the rampant questions that circled about in Mai's head, as she patted her daughter's hand, now moving to rest her head upon Mai's shoulder, "There always has been good in him."

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Mai twirled the wrench in her hand as she stared blankly into space. She could not stop replaying her and her mother's conversation from the week prior. What horrible things had her father done before The Collapse? This goofy-oversized man with white-ginger hair who would bring home every Cheeseburger bobblehead that he found while scavenging as a running gag for her. The man who looked like he had been through countless wars and could snap you in half with a flick of his finger but yet was so gentle with her mother and herself. The one that she loved so dearly and could not imagine a life without.