SACHIN looked with keen interest at the exquisite gold and diamond jewellery in the showcases of the jewellery store. He wanted something divine that could speak what he felt in his heart, and after visiting four high-end stores, he found the perfect necklace.

He smiled with satisfaction, for Mother’s Day was just two days away, and he had been waiting anxiously for the day when he could meet his mother. He hadn’t seen her since that horrific night 20 years ago, since the fire and hearing her terrified screams, the last thing he had heard.

He had been six years old and many nights after he had awoken, he heard her screams and cried out for her. His father had always tried to comfort him, but Sachin would pull away from him with fear. Somehow, in the child’s mind, he was a dark monster.

Time had gone by for the little boy in a strange place and a new house that was not home. There was no one in the streets to play with, and the ice cream van did not pass there. Nothing was mentioned about his mother until two years later when the father remarried, and he told Sachin, “Your mother is no longer there, so I have to move on with my life.”

That news could have devastated the child even more, but somehow, he knew in his heart his mother was still alive. As he grew up under his strict father, he immersed himself in his studies and joined two sports clubs. It had made the trauma less painful and he had made a vow in his young heart, “I will find you one day, Mom.”

He couldn’t remember everything about her, but he remembered her beautiful smile, her long hair with a floral scent and her tears whenever his father hurt her. His father was often angry and impatient, and he had come home that night in an intoxicated state. The power had been off, and his mother had lit a lamp and a few candles. Sachin had awoken upon hearing his father’s angry voice and opened his door in time to see him roughly push his mother and throw the lamp at her.

The flame had caught onto her clothes, and she screamed for help as she tried to put it out. Sachin had run to her, but his father had grabbed him and carried him out of the house, leaving her burning. He had kicked and bit him, but he couldn’t break from his strong arms to save his mother. That night, the little boy had seen his father’s dark side, so he was not as close to him as father and son should be.

He lived with the hope that one day, he would be strong enough and bold to break free of the mental shackles on him. A change had started to build in him since he began his studies at university, as he became bolder and more assertive when speaking on issues.

On his 21st birthday, he had felt it was time he faced his father, and he said to him steadily, “There is something I need to talk to you about, Dad.”
The father had sat down and looked at him with a slight smile, proud of his achievement, graduating with a distinction in engineering.

“Sure, what is it, son?”
Sachin had taken a deep breath and said, “You never told me anything about my mother.”
His father’s expression had changed and Sachin saw a glint of anger in his eyes. His voice was calm but cold when he answered, “What would you want to know anything about her after all these years?”
“Because I kept her alive in my heart.”
“You were only six. What could you possibly remember about her?” he said in a haughty tone.
The love in Sachin’s heart shone in his eyes when he looked at his father and answered, “I remember her voice, her smile and her long hair.”
He was no longer that scared little boy, and he continued, “I remember what you did that night: throw the lamp at her and leave her to burn.”
There was an enraged look in his father’s eyes as he got up and hit the table with his fist.

“She had threatened to leave and take you away.”
Sachin had scoffed in disbelief at the man he had called father, who still showed no regrets for his abusive behaviour and he remarked, “And that made it right for wanting her to die?”
Sachin picked up his bag with a few of his personal belongings and said to his father, “I’ve spent all twenty-one years of my life with you. Now it’s time to find my mother.”
“She’s disfigured and unfit to be seen in society,” he said with disdain.

“In my eyes, she’ll always be beautiful,” Sachin responded calmly, “And you know why?” he paused then stated, “Because she’s my mother.”
Sachin began working for a construction company, rented a furnished apartment and bought a second-hand car from a friend.
“I will build my life on my own, so my mother can come live with me.”

He crossed paths with his father on several occasions and just acknowledged him with a nod. As soon as he had earned enough money, he paid two detectives to search for his mother, but after two years, he received no results. No one knew where she was, as though she had vanished to a far away place.
He had found the house where they had lived, sold by the father and the few neighbours who knew her spoke of hos bad she had suffered after the fire.
That made Sachin feel a deep pain, and he cried inwardly, “Where are you, Mom?”

Three years passed, and he was starting to feel despondent that he may never see her again, when two weeks before Mother’s Day, he received news from one of the detectives, “I found her.”
That news had filled Sachin’s heart with such joy that it brought tears to his eyes and he expressed with deep relief, “Finally, after twenty years, I can now see you.”
On Mother’s Day, early in the morning, he drove to Berbice and parked just before the Berbice River Bridge. Vendors with baskets of plantain chips and nuts rushed up to him and he bought a few packs, munching on the chips as he waited. Half of an hour later, he saw a vendor pushing a drinks cart to the otherside of the road. He wanted to wait until she had set up her little business, and then he approached her to buy a drink.

“Can I have a Coke please?
“Sure,” she answered with a quick glance at him.
She had on a broad-brimmed straw hat and a turtle neck jersey under a long sleeved shirt buttoned down to her wrists, gloves on her hands. He drank the Coke slowly, observing her as she conducted her business. During a lull when he could get her attention, he asked her, “Are you here every day?”
“No, just some days.”

He bought another drink and said casually, hoping he could start a conversation with her, “I am looking for someone. I haven’t seen her in twenty years.”
“Oh, that’s a long time.”
“Yep, she seems to be somewhere far where I can’t find her.”
“Why is that?”

“She was badly burnt in a fire and had begun a secluded life away from the eyes of society.”
There was a long, deep silence, and then she asked quietly, “Who is she to you?”
“My mother,” he said, looking at her, not caring about the visible scars on her face.
“Oh,” she turned away but not before he saw the flicker of pain on her face.

“I was six but I never forgot her. She continues to live in my heart.”
She didn’t say anything for a long moment and Sachin knew she was battling with her emotions. Then she said without turning to look at him, a slight tremor in her voice, “Maybe she doesn’t want her son to see her in such a terrible state.”
“That doesn’t matter to me,” he stated, his voice breaking a little, “There is nothing more beautiful than a mother’s love.”

She turned around slowly, tears in her eyes, peeled off the gloves, took off the straw hat and long-sleeved shirt, and untied the bun, letting her hair down.
His heart was so overjoyed that he saw none of the scars and handed her that special gift.
“Happy Mother’s Day, mom.”
Tears were now streaming down her face and she broke down crying, “My little boy, my Sachin. I’ve cried every day for you.”

He hugged her, crying, and there was not a dry eye amongst the chip vendors, for they had all put down their baskets to watch the episode of a son and mother reuniting after twenty years.
No more heartaches, no more hiding herself from society. She had her son now to give her a new life.