Mary Wecklic

2001....

"What?" I uttered even before I realized that word has left my lips. Moe Cornelle looked baffled. It was clear from her face that she didn't intend to disclose her daughter Michelle's past malevolent activities.

"Why don't you have tea?" She awkwardly gestured towards the tea pot and the tea glasses that sat on the table, in front of the sofa I am seated. It had been there before my arrival. Maybe she made it for me.

"Sorry, Mrs. Cornelle. I didn't mean to pry," I took a sip of tea. "It is my best interests too, to understand her you know, my sister Layla, she isn't gleeful with our girls grapple. I am frantic to tell you this but she really hit me hard. As you can see at these bandages," I stopped as she glanced at my bandages at head, right arm and left knee to calves.

"She throttled me. But looking at you," I inhaled. "Your motherly concern enormously resembles me of my mother," I didn't lie, I like Moe. Her lips curled into a visible smile. "I wish to help you, if my sister decides to file a complaint. I mean, I think I ought to know." I persuaded her to give me more of Michelle.

"No. Please don't do that. I request. I beg of you. She already got a year held back. It is her future we are deeming," She beseeched, her smile fading into invisibility.

For some reason, my heart couldn't help but take pity on her. It was her daughter's fault not hers. It must really be exigent to put up with everything Michelle does.

"Michelle, she-," Moe coughed. "She always seemed a little off. Ever since she was a kid, she had been toilsome. Onerous to everything. I tried to put her on the track. I really did. Her father pampered her a lot. She was the only child and I-, I had a couple of miscarriages before. So I really couldn't complaint my husband Hans Cornelle's coddle towards her," She took a breath.

"She had this plaguy attitude whatever she wished for should be in her feet within seconds. As a child she would bellow and whoop for toys and her favourite foods. I thought it was pretty common for a child at that age but it got quotidian. She continued it even after coming to the age," She admitted.

"When she was in kindergarten, she wanted to cut the vegetables. She thought it was some plaything back then. She watched me prepare food and cut them often. I still remember her cries and scream. 'I wanna help you' she said. I thought that was cute and affectionate but which mother in her right senses would let a toddler mince vegetables with a knife? Of course, I forbade her. I tucked her in and went to take a nap. A moment later.." She stopped, recalling that horror.

"She took the knife and came to me. 'I wanted to help but you wouldn't let me.' She screamed and was gonna stab," Moe closed her eyes. It is pathetic to watch her like this.

"Did-, did she hurt you?" My voice trembled.

"No, her dad came in time and stopped her. She's a kid I understand that she was pissed but-, but that kind of behaviour isn't normal right?" She questioned staring at me. I shrugged. "Hans, convinced me so-, so I didn't really think it was serious. I should have," She regretted.

"When she was twelve, she hit me with her bike because I didn't buy her the Barbie she asked," She said mortified. "Even then, her dad waved if off as if it was nothing. Pre teenage hormones imbalance he had called it," She cringed. "If she was six or seven I would have agreed with Hans maybe. But for the love of god, she was twelve and what broke my heart even more was he defended her. We were at loggerheads after that ever since," A tear fell from her eyes.

"As she grew old, she didn't change. She started to become more and more vile. I restricted and prohibited her foulness. My raucous strict behvaiour to change her into a better person made her more barmy. She started loathing me. She has always been a daddy's girl but distance between us grew into something huge," She coughed.

Oh, my.

"The only person she ever listens to is her dad and he would let her live up to her will and wish even though it impaired others. I am her mother but she is marred," She broke down.

"Please," I said unsure of what else to say. I couldn't imagine how hard it must be for her. A defaced daughter. An Unbelievable husband.

"Why didn't you try to take her to therapy or try to put some sense into her," I questioned. She stared at me with her dead grey eyes. Unlively.

"As if," She let out a pathetic laugh. "Both father and daughter would team up and throw me off the house. Michelle already thinks I am envious of their bond." She voiced. Her voice leaving a trace of unhelpfulness.

"It runs in the family. Even my husband Hans-," She stopped. As if she realized she is oversharing. I mean technically she is but- I really want to help her.

"Moe," I reached for her shaky hand. "I know you don't know me. I am a complete stranger and you have no reason to trust me but- but I wasn't lying when I told you, you resemble my mother," I confessed the truth and told her about my past. Me running away from my father because well, he really wasn't my biological father.

A piece of information for a piece of information. An untold quid pro quo.

"I am so so sorry, my dear," She expressed. "The amount of pain you went through was no normal. I wish no one goes through that," She said. More to herself. "Sorry to ask you this but- who is your biological father?" Moe asked.

"I don't know," I answered. "Nor do I intend to know. I grew up thinking my Mom's husband was my father even now if he isn't, I think can't imagine someone else in that place," I was shocked to hear my own answer. I never even thought of knowing my father. Why hasn't that thought occurred to me?

"I guess I am too afraid maybe.." I got lost in my thoughts. "What if- if even he doesn't want to do anything with me and-, and-" I didn't dare complete the sentence.

Woah. I never even thought of this. Not even to myself.

"You are like a daughter to me," Moe assured me. Some how hearing those words from her made me feel better. It made me feel less lonely.

"I am grateful. Really," I said. I came here to know about Michelle but in that way somehow I got connected to her. An untold mystical bond maybe? "For some reason you give me divine motherly vibes," I astounded.

"You are a good child. You are trying to help me and Michelle even after her intolerable actions," She remarked.

"You were saying something earlier about family and husband-" I prompted. "It's fine if you don't wanna share," I added. I really hope she would share. Not out of curiosity this time but out of concern and care for this poor mother.

"Hans, he-" She stopped blinking. "Hans is proven to be obnoxious too. He is a good person. He is but- but at times he gets so violent and he snaps and bursts and he-, he behaves as a different person," she trembled.

"He is very proprietorial and obsessive and dare I say over caring and clingy?" Her brows knitted. "I actually thought that was fascinating in high school. A guy who loves his girl this immersive. It gives chills and thrills but as you grow old it is exhausting," She frowned.

"Maybe that's his way of showing love," I suggested.

"No. No, my dear. He is jealous of every guy I make contact with. He doubts me for no reason. I love him but I don't know why is he so unsure and insecure. He urged me to give up my job as a cashier at a café because there would be male customers who would try to flirt with me." She brought a hand to her head.

Oh lord. This is fucked up. Daughter and now even the husband? I can not imagine the depths of the pain she faces everyday with this fucked up people.

"Your leg," My eyes travelled to her injured leg. "Tell me about it," She stared as if a bombshell had been dropped on her. As if someone got to know a dirty little secret. As if she had heard something she thought she would never hear.

Oh shit. It is what I expected.

"Your leg. Tell me about it," I demanded. She shook her head, tears rolling down.

"Moe," I tightened my grip around her. "No. Not Moe. Mom," I worded. "You are like a mom to me. Are you not?" I raised. She nodded. "Won't you tell to your daughter then? Or was it all nothing more than words?" I doubted.

"No. No. Of course not. It was-, was there a delivery guy who was just handing me a parcel I had ordered. It was a shirt, I thought to surprise Hans by presenting it for his birthday. The delivery guy said he liked my hair. I get compliments of my hair like that all the time," She smirked. Indeed she has a unique colour of hair. Brownish red. A colour neither brown nor red, something in between and something like both of them.

"And he was a guy from my college who proposed to me once. So, Hans saw me with him and he misread the situation. His ears are extremely sharp and heard about his compliment and attacked him vigorously. Garroting him with his handkerchief," She shut her eyes close reliving those horrors.

"I tried to calm him down and he-, he- well he attacked me and as a result I ended up having this injury," She indicated her leg that is covered with bandages.

Fuck.

Q/A

Q. Do you like Moe?

A-

Q. Do you have any particular interests that you are obsessed with?

A-

Author's Note :

Stay tuned to know more about their past, dirty little secrets and affairs and what not?

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