I looked up to see mother standing there with her back towards me, Ecstatic, I slowly hobbled and crawled my way towards her. Step by step, step by step. Closer and closer to mother and the light behind her. The closer I got to mother, the less pain I felt, the less I heard the men arguing and fighting in the background. "Mother!" I cried out. "Mother! I did my duty!" As I got closer to her, I saw her turn back at me and smile. It was not a happy smile, but a sad smile. A sad smile that told me everything I wanted to hear these past few years. Everything that I wanted to hear for the past few days, past weeks, past months and past years. What I wanted to hear when father was lying on that bed, what I wanted to hear when my brother was crying at night and I didn't know what to do and what I wanted to hear when I wasn't sure what my future was. As I imagined each and every memory of mine with my mother in it, I smiled back at my mother and looked at her to see her walk away. But I knew that those were words that she would never say, but were simply the words I hoped someone would have said.
