Mother Part 2

"Mum? What does it mean when someone says that they love someone?" Five-year-old Dorran asked sitting on his mother's lap while they sat on the swing, slowly moving to and fro. They had just finished reading a book on Rapunzel and he has questions.

"Love? Hmm. Let me think. Love is something that people can feel. Like when someone gives you something, you feel happy right?"

"Yes. I feel happy." He exclaimed.

"So that's how you know someone loves you, the more they give you something, the more they love you." She smiled at him. "You love mommy right?"

"More than anything or anyone else in the world." He declared happily.

"Really? But you haven't given mommy much stuff, what if I leave one day because you didn't love me enough?"

"I have a gift for mommy." He took out the rose necklace around his neck. "Here, mommy. Daddy said that this was grandma's one. I'll give it to you."

"Oh my goodness. My son loves me so much." She gasped taking the family heirloom necklace from him.

"If I keep giving you these things then you won't leave me, right mommy?" He beamed up at her.

"Of course. I won't leave you if you keep giving me these things." She told him, kissing his cheeks.

From that day onwards, he showered her with so many gifts that she didn't know where to put most of them anymore. She always boasted to others about how much her son loves her and he felt so happy hearing that.

Then she disappeared quietly and quickly. No matter where he looked for her, he couldn't find her. He called out to her day and night but only silence answered.

No matter who he asked, they couldn't tell him where she was.

"Mommy is gone. Was it not enough? I should have given her more. Mommy will come back one day. She said that she loved me the most in all the world. She told me that no one else will be able to love me as she does. This is all dad's fault. He didn't love mommy enough. When mommy comes back I'll show her how much I love her. I'll give her everything dad has. She'll not leave me then, right?"

From that day onwards he started working hard in everything he did, rising to the top of his school and even hemisphere but he knew it wasn't enough.

He learned about his father's work, studying everything about it. He knew all about what he needed to do and what he didn't. He learned how to make connections to people he's never even heard or seen before.

His father became so proud of him, introducing him to all his friends and colleagues, sometimes letting him attend parties for him.

When Dor and Ran split he was practically invincible. He handled the negotiations and relationships and Ran took over if anything physical had to be involved. They were the formidable team.

But they still felt so lonely waiting every single day for their mother to come back. Then father brought a new woman home and he felt his world crumble.

If the woman's here then how will mum come back?

But he can see that his father loves the woman more than she does him because he keeps giving her everything and she doesn't give him much.

He'll leave her soon when he sees that she doesn't love him as much as mum did.

Those were his thoughts but he didn't leave her and even went so far as to marry her. Dorran couldn't bear the thought of going home to that woman who took his mother's place in his father's heart.

Didn't mum love him enough? Why would he want to replace her if she loved him so much? What's going on? How much should you give someone to get them to love you forever?

That was when he met Caitlyn. The strange girl that was covered in the colour yellow. She didn't want anything from him, she just sat with him and talked.

All his life people would expect him to give them something then their behaviour towards him depending on what he gave them.

But this girl gave him her umbrella and the little snacks she had while they talked for hours. She even knew the difference between Dor and Ran.

She genuinely wanted to know him and he enjoyed a person's company for the first time since his mother. He felt like he was himself with her.

But they found him and took him back and he couldn't find the little red-haired girl in yellow anymore. He regretted not being able to show her how much he cared about her.

Then, his father gave him the trinket. Dor wanted to tell the people who had a very short lifespan left so that they could spend their last lives properly but Ran thinks it's a very bad idea.

He still did it every day and they all looked at him like he's crazy but the store clerk at a convenience store tucked in the corner of the town was the only one that sounded interested in what he had to say.

Then one day the trinket collected up to a million and three years of lifespans and he got the chance to give those extra lifespans to someone else. So he gave it to that store clerk.

While in the convenient store, he saw a very young girl all alone in the store, and she had only two years left.

Don't do it.

I have to. She looks so young. I can't just let it go.

So he told her and ran away. After that day, he saw her one more time on his way to school. She chased him down then but he managed to lose her.

Why is she chasing me? Is she mad or something?

I told you to leave it alone.

Fine. It's fine.

He didn't see her for another week or so then she appeared in his school, wearing their school uniform too and dragged him to the storage room.

He couldn't contain his excitement when he found out that she could see his blank lifespan too. So he hung out with her, finding out so many more things about the world that he didn't know about.

Most importantly, she knew Caitlyn. He had a chance of seeing her again and his heart soared.

But he had to help Kaia first.

When he offered to help her, he didn't expect to be going through all that.

His opinion of her went from 'This girl is a mess' to 'this girl keeps getting into messes, and is also a mess.' She went too far when she killed the other man in the hospital.

She is losing her mind and he didn't want anything to do with her anymore after that day.

It was a happy day for him, he got to meet Caitlyn again and she called him her favourite person. He just about died with happiness.

But when he took her out all those times after the incident in the hospital, she wasn't as interested or excited as she was before. Whatever she even looked at, he tried to buy for her but she refused it. He felt like she didn't want his love and kept rejecting it, whether it was because of Kaia or not, didn't matter.

Whatever his mother taught him didn't work but he wasn't ready to give up as his father did with her.

Without meaning to, he began to think of Kaia.

Though he wanted to distance himself from her, he felt a sense of protectiveness to her.

So when she called him that night, he just made his way to her but Ran prevented him from being too soft on her. What she did was still wrong but even Ran couldn't be too harsh on her when he saw her.

She looked like a zombie come to life, all the light in her eyes was gone and she looks like she hasn't slept in days.

He knew that, if she asked for his help in her state, he wouldn't be able to refuse. But then she gave him information on his family like she wanted to make a proper exchange. Now, he needed to help her, for his father's sake.

But he still worried about Kaia, she's bound to collapse any day now and she'll need a friend she can count on. It seems like Max was the best option because he was the only one who stopped her while she hit her father's corpse and she listened to him. And he needed also a distraction for his father.

Max didn't disappoint and even looked bright and refreshed when he came back to talk to his father. They bonded a little too.

What Caitlyn told him rung in his mind the entire day so, he decided to confront his father about his mother. Though he remarried several times after her, they never lasted in the end. Even with the woman, he went on a honeymoon with, he came back because they had a fight and she didn't want to see him.

"Your mother … she was the love of my life. I know I never showed it properly but I knew what she loved and I gave them to her. But she was a very insecure woman who always believed that my love was so cheap that it'll go to every beautiful woman that threw themselves at me. Then one day she just disappeared and I was beside myself trying to find her."

"You always smiled and looked happy when I saw you though," Dorran replied, eating a grape.

"I didn't want you to worry. So I'll be frantically searching for her every day and when I got back I would pretend nothing was wrong. Then I found her one day."

"Really? Where? Why didn't you bring her back? Was it because she didn't have anything to give you any more?"

"No. She doesn't need to give me anything. I didn't need anything but her just being there. But I didn't bring her back because I saw her with her new family." His father crossed his arms over his chest as he said this.

Dorran choked on a grape when he heard that. "What? How did you know that that was her family?"

"I talked to the man. He said that that's his wife and their child." He sighed. "You don't believe me I know, Dorran, but I was so curious so I looked up her information, and apparently, she has four children under her name all from different fathers. The man she was with that time is the only one I could find. His name is William. But why are you asking about this suddenly? And where have you been the entire day? Your friend and I have been talking and he's a really good kid. You're lucky."

"Yeah. Dad, I have to go somewhere else. I'll be back soon." Dorran stood up to go visit his mother again.

"What time will you be back?"

"I don't know. Eleven, maybe?"

"Ah. Then you'll miss me. I'm going back to my honeymoon. Your new mother and I talked and apologised to each other. I'm leaving in ten minutes."

"Sure, dad. Have fun. Safe journey." He opened the door and stopped just before he walked out again. "S-say hi to her for me. Bye."

He slammed the door so hard in his embarrassment he could hear the house shake a little.

I can't believe you said that!

Why did I say that? Why?

Really should have just let me handle it.

But, he's been taking care of me so much. He didn't have to but he did and I wanted to be nice to him at least once.

Fine, forget about that. What do you think about what he said? Think it's true?

We'll just have to find out now, don't we?

Great. Mother, here we come.