The Window
The rain pounded, the thunder boomed, and bright lightning flashed through the windows of my 20th-floor hotel room. The lights flickered three times and went out. I thought I heard a loud knock on a window, followed by more thunder and lightning. Another knock—I didn’t imagine it. It was coming from the window near my bed. I opened the shade and saw a young woman.
“Mom?” I said to the empty room.
A flash of lightning blurred Mom’s image. “Hi, honey,” she said. “I guess you’re surprised to see me.”
That was an understatement as my mom had died over 20 years ago and I did not believe in ghosts! My family had gone to her home to take her to breakfast and her shell-shocked husband told us she was gone. And now here she was outside my window.
“Is that really you?” I asked. “You look so young.”
“Yes, it’s me. This is the age I liked myself best.”
She looked just like I remembered when I was 10 years old; thin, pretty face with red lipstick and brown bobbed hair. She was not the frail, hunched-over drug-addicted woman from my adulthood.
“Why are you here? It’s been over twenty years since you died.”
“Time is different here. I don’t remember what a year even feels like,” she said.
The summer my brother Randy turned 14, he went on a vacation with Mom. She announced she was divorcing Dad and keeping Randy. He would not be allowed to return to the home where he grew up. Dad and I actually planned to drive up and take Randy back secretly. Mom gave up the fight, but the damage was done. Randy hated his mother and I was close behind him.
“I was really mad. You tried to kidnap Randy and then left us behind after the divorce. We were alone with Dad.”
“I know I let you and Randy down. The drugs and my sickness took their toll on me. I was too weak to do what a good mother should have done.”
I was crying now. “I’m sorry. I hardly ever called you and ignored your letters.”
“Shh, I understand.”
“I eventually did forgive you, Mom. I wanted to tell you on my last visit… Well, you know what happened.”
“I know how hard that was on you, honey. I know you forgave me. When you die, your soul is free from your physical brain and you know about the entire universe and everyone in it.”
“You know everything? Is there a God?”
“The short answer is yes, but it’s complicated; your living mind can’t hold the necessary information for you to understand.” She paused. “I could never explain it to you.”
Lightning flashed. Her face faded.
“I have to go soon. I wanted to tell you I love you and that I knew you forgave me,” Mom said.
“I’m so sorry. I wish I could hug you.”
Mom smiled the same smile I remembered from my childhood. I touched the glass of the window with my hand. She did the same from her side.
“Keep doing what you’re doing. I’m proud of you. You’re a good husband and a good father, much better than I was to you… Tell your family I see what they’re doing and that I’m proud of them too.”
The power came back and light filled the room once again. Mom was gone. The storm rumbled in the distance as it moved across the landscape.