I walked down the aisles of the mall looking at clothes for my cousin, Michelle. I saw so many different shirts that I could buy for her, as a birthday gift. I wanted Michelle to get the best present ever. Maybe I should look in the blouses section. When I walked in, I heard the song, Love Story by Taylor Swift. Still I saw many clothes that I could get Michelle. Albee make up your mind already!!!

I walked down even more aisles, and soon I ended up in the sweaters section. A light bulb hit my head, perfect!!! Michelle needed a new sweater. I saw many colors. They had green, red, orange, blue, white, it was a headache. After awhile, I saw a yellow hoodie that Michelle would have loved. I saw that it was the last one there. I started half walking and half running there to get it in case someone else gets it before me. My heels went clack, clack, clack. It sounded like a marching sound.

I bent down and grabbed the hoodie. When I was going to look at the size, I realized someone was holding onto the same hoodie as I was holding. Please get another sweatshirt. That wasn’t what came out of my mouth.
I told the woman, “Here, you could have it,” I handed the sweatshirt to her.
She said, “Oh, its okay I have too much stuff anyways you could have it,” she smiled handing it back to me.
I smiled replying, “Thanks.” I took the sweatshirt back and looked at the size. It was a medium, Perfect for Michelle!!

I walked to the register, excited to see Michelle’s face when I give her the present. I was so busy occupied into my thoughts that I didn’t watch where I was going. I bumped into someone. I looked up to the woman I bumped into, she had black boots, a white headband, a blue blouse and black pants. She had beautiful black curls, along with black eyeliner, pale pink lip gloss and then I said, “Sorry.” Is this Hill?!?! OMG she is Hill!!
I screamed, “HILLL!!!”
She yelled back, “Albee, what are you doing here?!?!” She ran to give me a big bear hug. She smelt of strawberries and watermelon. She let go of me after the bear hug and I wobbled, from her hugging me so tight.
I said, “Yea, I’m buying a birthday gift for Michelle.”
Hill looked at me and asked, “It’s her birthday?!?! I totally forgot; tell her happy birthday for me!!”
“Sure thing,” I replied.

She looked at the yellow hoodie I was holding and asked, “Is that for Michelle?”
I answered, “Yea, yellow’s her favorite color, so I thought I’d get her a yellow sweater.” I was about to say something else, but then I heard someone yell Hill’s name. I wonder who that is!!
Hill yelled back to the voice, “Be right there, Mom!”
Oh, that was her mother. I looked at her and said, “Your mother is here too?!?!”
“Yea, it’s almost my birthday; this is my early birthday present,” Hill replied.
“Oh, I won’t bother you then, go have fun with your mom and of course happy early Birthday,” I told her. She walked towards the voice calling her and left.

I got my receipt and was about to leave to go home, until Hill called me to wait up. She invited me to her house for an early birthday party.
“Sure,” I said. I followed Hill to her apartment and I wished her a happy birthday again. After playing some games, we brought out the cake. It had dark blue roses mixed with red roses. It was piled high, and looked delicious.

Hill’s mother asked, “Albee, can you go to the kitchen and bring me the knife to slice the cake?”
“Sure,” I replied.
“Thank you so much,” she told me. I looked around for the knife to bring to Hill’s mother; afterwards I brought it outside to the living room. When I got to the living room, the doorbell rung and I turned around facing the door.
I said, “I’ll get it!!” I dropped off the knife to Hill’s mother and went to get the door. I opened it and there was a delivery guy with ice cream from Hagen Dazs.
The delivery guy said, “You guys ordered ice cream from Hagen Dazs for a girl named Hill, for her birthday?”
Hill’s mother came to the door and said, “Yea, thanks let me get my wallet.” She walked to the couch and got her wallet. She came back to the door and gave the delivery guy $40.
“Thank you,” the delivery guy handed us the ice cream. I helped to bring in the ice cream and then Hill’s mother dropped her wallet. I went to get it for her and then at her wallet I saw a picture in the front, a picture of when I was 5 years old and I was with my mother.

I closed the wallet and gave it back to Hill’s mother. Was that just me when I was 5 yrs old in that picture!?!?! Why would Hill’s mother have that picture?? I shook everything off and had fun at the party. Around 9pm, I went home and dumped my handbag onto my bed and ran to my desktop. I opened the drawer and took out a silver box, somewhere I kept my secrets in. I took off the lid of the silver box and took out the picture of my mother and I, when I was only 5 yrs old. It was the exact same picture, in Hill’s mother’s wallet.
Back when Albee was 5 years old…

I remembered that, my mother brought me a big teddy bear that day. She came home with the hugest teddy bear; I have ever seen and gave it to me as a birthday present. I was so happy, and I ran to my mother to give her a big hug. It was 6pm that day, and I was excited for my birthday. We had a small cake, but I had a great time. When it was time for bed, I was excited too because of my teddy bear. I dragged it to bed and slept.

Around midnight, I heard something, a loud noise that woke me up. I was very sleepy, but I wanted to know what was going on so I woke up, got out of my bed and dragged my teddy bear and myself to the living room. At the living room, I saw my mother with her suitcase, and another guy, someone I had never seen before.
I was confused and then I asked my mother, “Mommy, where are you going? Are we going on a trip?!?! Bring me with you.”
My mother turned to me and told me, “Sweetie, go back to bed.” Afterwards, she turned back to the man and started arguing with him. I heard things like, let me bring Albee with me, we are in a hurry… I was so confused and lost. My mother said, “Sweetie, mommy has to go somewhere go back to bed and pretend nothing happened.” I started tugging onto my mother’s arm. I wouldn’t let her go. I didn’t even know if she was going to come back. The guy there tore us apart, my mother was crying and I was crying. She left me there with my step-father, step sister and step brother.

Even though my mother left me, I was not mad at her and I loved my family even if they aren’t my real family. I never blamed her for leaving me. I knew that my step father used to hit her when he was mad, which means he is drunk most of the time. I knew my mother got fed up with it so I never blamed her. I had always wanted to meet her again. Then again, I might not want her to see me like this. You see, I’m deaf.
The fire that caused Albee’s ear and almost her life…

This was after my mother abandoned me. My father was upset, that she left us and one day he was mad so he drank a little too much beer. He left the stove on and a table cloth fell into the fire, he spilled some wine in the fire making a bigger fire. He fell asleep on a chair and the fire started. I smelt smoke and I saw that there was a fire. I tried to wake my father up, but he wouldn’t budge. I took my step sister and step brother out, and then it took me awhile to get my father out because he was heavy. I got him out, because he was on a wheelie chair; it was easier to roll him out, but I didn’t get myself out in time. There was an explosion and my ear can’t hear anymore. I have to wear a hearing aid to hear things more clearly otherwise, I’d be deaf. Unless I say something, no one will know that I am deaf.

After the incident, of the fire my father treated me very differently. He treated me extra nice because of my ear and my sister was jealous of me. I was not my father’s real daughter and I had a lot of attention from him. I try to make my sister, Jessica feel better, but sometimes I just need to give her some time to herself. I knew my father cared a lot about me after, the fire accident, but sometimes he is too overprotective.

As I came back to reality, from the memory I held my teddy bear (the one my mother gave me) and the photo and hugged it to sleep. Do you think my mother forgot about me? When I woke up, I saw the photo I took with me to sleep was on my desktop. I knew my father hated my mother, for abandoning us, but he needs to realize that I don’t hate her.

I don’t have work; instead I help out at my father’s stall. It sells many different stuff like, lemon tea, milk tea, coffee, bagels, and toast, so on. Today, Instead of helping my father at his stall, I went to a orphanage to help out. In there, a lot of people came to help and cheer up the children there, sometimes there were puppet shows, and sometimes people came and taught older people to cook.
Today, when I went there to help out, I saw Hill’s mother there helping in the cooking class. When she saw me she was surprised. She probably never knew that I came here.
She told me, “Morning, Albee what are you doing here?”
“Morning, I volunteer to work here sometimes,” I smiled.
“Oh, I’m the teacher here for the cooking class,” she looked at me with a shocking look. When the cooking class was over, Hill’s mother took me to a bakery to eat lunch. The bakery was shockingly familiar.

Hill’s mother ordered a lot of food. She ordered a chocolate red bean shake, milk tea and man other stuff.
“My other daughter used to love these foods,” she told me.
She has another daughter?!?! “All the food here is good except the milk tea. My dad’s stall makes better milk tea, you should come try it.”
She looked at me with wide eyes and asked, “Your dad owns a stall?!?! Is it called Get One Get All?”
“Yea, it is how did you know?!?!” I asked her.
She drank her milk tea nervously and said, “Oh, I probably just heard it somewhere, since it’s so good.”

After that day in the bakery, Hill’s mother made extra attention to me and was extra nice to me. Did she figure out that I’m her other daughter. One day, I was rushing to catch the bus, and I ran out into the road. I didn’t look where I was I was going and I heard a honk. I thought I was going to die for sure; instead someone pushed me out of the way. I looked back and saw Hill’s mother there holding her ankle.

I ran to her and held her up. The driver who hit her cursed at us and drove off. I took her to the hospital to make sure her ankle was alright. After we left the hospital we went to the park; the same park that my mother always used to bring me to.
“Why did you push me away?” I asked her looking her at the face. She didn’t say anything, but I kept asking her anyways. “You’re my mother right?!?!” I saw her crying, her face wet from tears.
“I’m not your mother, I think you saw the wrong person, maybe you just miss you mom too much,” she answered me with tears on her face.
“I’m not wrong I saw your wallet picture, it had me when I was 5 and you were in the picture too,” I stared at her.
“I’m not,” she started to turn away.
I hugged her and said, “You are my mother, you brought me to places I went to when I was small and you had that picture.”
She finally admitted that she was my mother; “I was only going to watch you, I thought you wouldn’t want to see me, I left you for no reason.”
“I never blamed you,” I said still hugging her.
After Albee and her mother became on good terms again…

My mother and I spent a lot of time with each other. We went shopping together, watched movies and did many things. I was barely home; I was with my mom almost 24/7. I didn’t tell my father about meeting my mother again. Daddy hates mommy, I probably shouldn’t tell him yet. My siblings and father thought I had a boyfriend because I was always on the phone laughing with my mother, and out doing a lot more stuff instead of home helping like I used to. I let them think that, so my father would be happy.

One day, I was with my mom buying scarves and we bumped into my father there. He recognized her right away.
He asked firmly, “You, why are you back here? You already dumped the daughter, why are you back, leave her alone!”
I whispered to my mother, “Leave first; I’m going to talk to Daddy first.” I took my daddy home and he was really upset. I couldn’t blame him or my mother, but I didn’t want any of them to be unhappy. My father kept telling me that she was back here for a reason; it isn’t simple as wanting to meet me again. I didn’t believe him, but he was furious with me. He was never this mad, what should I do?

One time, my mother came to our apartment and wanted to talk to my father, but he took a broom and smacked her out. Another time, I secretly went out to see my mother, and when I got there I saw her crying.
I asked, “What’s wrong?”
“Your little step brother, needs a kidney, but your step-dad and mine doesn’t match his. He’s only 8 years old, I can’t bear to see him die just like that,” she told me crying.
“Do you think that mine would match his?” I asked softly.
She stared at me with wide eyes, “Would you really donate your kidney?”
“He is still my little brother isn’t he?” I asked.
She went down on her knees telling me that she would be so grateful for the kidney.
I promised to go to England with her to donate my kidney if it matched. When I got home I told my father, that I was going to England next week to donate a kidney to my step brother. He wouldn’t let me go to England. He knew that my mother was up to no good.
“She’s only here so you could save her other son!! Albee listen to me, she isn’t up to any good, don’t go to England,” he told me. I wouldn’t listen; I still packed and planned to go.

My father went to look for my mother, and my mother finally agreed to not let me go to England to donate my kidney. My father let my mother, see me now, but I wasn’t allowed to go to England to donate my kidney to my little brother.
3 months later…

My father calmed down after 3 months. I went to England and helped my little brother, Andy. He was all better after the kidney and my mother and step father moved in with us. We got a big house and my father wasn’t even mad at my mother anymore. I was really happy that we could be a family again. In my family, there was Hill, Andy, my 2 siblings, my mom and dad, my step dad and me. I don’t think I could have been anymore happier than I am right now.