~ ALISTAIR ~My body went rigid.The sound of that name—Ali—I hadn’t heard it in so long. It felt like I had been pulled back into the past.Never in my life did I expect to hear my mother’s voice again.Slowly, I lifted my head toward her face. Her eyes were already open.She was awake.I couldn’t react right away. I stood rooted to the ground, unmoving, as if my mind needed time to catch up with what I was seeing.A faint, gentle smile rested on her lips while her eyes glistened with tears—exactly how I remembered them from years ago.And then it hit me—the realization settling in. My mother was truly alive.“…Ali,” she called again, her voice weaker this time.My throat tightened.I didn’t realize I had taken another step until I was standing beside her bed.“Don’t speak too much,” I said, my voice coming out lower than usual. “You need to rest.”It was the safest thing to say. The only thing I could say.Her eyes stayed on me, studying my face as if trying to memorize it all over
Last Updated : 2026-05-02 Read more