The Memory Of Us

Chapter 11

Mina hated visiting her mother.

She hated the way the temperature was always below freezing in the visitation room, so cold that she always had to refrain from letting out a surprised yelping sound every time her bare skin gently brushed against the metal of the table or small stool that she and her mom were assigned to every visitation day.

She hated the way her mother always reprimanded her for complaining about the below freezing temperature, condescendingly explaining to her that they had "bigger issues to deal with than a cold room."

She especially hated her mother's usage of that word: "we." She hated how it sounded falling from her mother's perfectly pouted lips, she hated how carelessly she threw it around, stripping the word of its significance entirely.

She had done the same with the word "family."

"Mina Joyce." Mrs. Mendes greeted her daughter as monotonous as ever, her eyes following Mina's movement as she moved to sit across from her mother.

There were countless other visits unfolding around the pair of them at the same time, all of the individuals sat across from each other at identical cold metal tables sprinkled sporadically throughout the room. But, Mina noticed, unlike she and her mother, the other visitors were talking animatedly. Almost as if they were excited to see one another.

Mina couldn't say the same.

"Mom." Mina echoed her mother's tone, crossing her heels beneath the table. She folded her hands in her lap.

Her mother smiled sweetly, an act of course, leaning forward until her stomach was pressed flush against the rim of the small metal table. Lowering her voice, she whispered out, "I saw what happened to you on the local news."

Mina cringed internally, just as she had the first time she had seen her face plastered on the news' daily report earlier this same morning. The words: Mendes Daughter Survives Near Death Experience, plastered across the screen.

"Mhm." Mina hummed, pursing her lips tightly together to hide an irritated smile. "Hi, sweetie." She said, mocking her own mother's voice.

"I missed you." Clutching her heart she swiveled her body so that she was no longer facing her mother, but an imaginary person beside her instead.

"I missed you too mom!" She exclaimed sarcastically, before swiveling her body once more, adopting the persona of her mother once more.

"How's school?" She asked in her best impression of her mother's voice.

Again, she swiveled.

"Oh, it's going great, we're actually on winter break now! I don't have any plans though because I'll probably just be visiting my incarcerated mother and-"

"Are you done?" Mrs. Mendes asked her daughter, staring amusedly.

Mina rolled her eyes, but her demeanor changed in an instant with her mother's next words.

"You know I saw him."

"Saw who?" Mina asked, feigning ignorance as if she wasn't aware that her mother was referring to Khalil, whose lap she had been recorded lying on top of at the ice skating rink.

"Don't play dumb." Her mother said, before snarkily adding "You're not good at it. What were you doing with him?" She demanded, her figure growing closer if that were even remotely possible with a thick metal table between them.

Mina shrugged though, in her lap, she was fidgeting anxiously with her hands in her lap. "He just happened to be at the park."

"What did I say about playing stupid." Mrs. Mendes reprimanded her daughter as soon as the lie had left her mouth.