September Again (September Stories) Read Online Free PDF

things worse. To lose someone like him. *Sob* It only deepened the hurt.”
    Silence.
    “Zelda?” Liz sniffles and taps on the door. “Zelda?”
    Liz looks at the door in puzzlement. Was that a snore? Had her daughter fallen asleep on her?
    “ Zelda!”
    She slaps the door with the palm of her hand.
    “Can’t you take a joke?”
    Liz glowers at the door.
    “No, I cannot.”
    “ Shame.”
    “ Okay, Zelda, what is it you want from me? How do we solve this thing? Because we can’t go on like this. You do know that, don’t you?”
    “ These are my terms.”
    “ Terms! Who the hell are you to have terms?”
    “ Fine, if that’s how you want to be. F O A D.”
    Liz bites her lip . “Okay, I’m listening.”
    “ These are my terms: no more meds. I don’t need the meds. They depress me. I get desperate and do stupid things to remind myself that I’m alive.”
    “ I’m listening.”
    “ You should know how I feel about the meds from what you’ve told me.”
    “ It was different when I was a kid. I wasn’t like you are in all sorts of ways.”
    “ Yeah, like tall and blonde, the cheerleader that everybody falls in love with. Do me a favor.”
    “ I’m sorry, Zelda. I’m willing to discuss the meds with Dr. McSwan.”
    “ No way. You’ll get to him and he’ll have me sectioned again.”
    Liz agonizes. The memory of the pain on her daughter’s face as the door closed between them and she left her in a secure mental unit.
    “ And don’t try and tell me you did it for my own good again. It was the worst thing that ever happened to me and you inflicted it on me. And you wonder why I hate you?”
    “ Do you?”
    “ Yes.”
    “ Do you really hate me?”
    “ Yes.”
    Liz struggles to stop herself from breaking down, sniffs.
    “It’s a hard thing to hear your only daughter tell you she hates you, a hard thing indeed.”
    “ Imagine how it is for me. I have to be your daughter.”
    “ Oh, Zelda, you know how to hurt me, you do.”
    “ Good.”
    “ Go on. What are your other terms? As we are talking like mature adults.”
    “ Ha ha, very funny coming from you.”
    “ Go on.”
    “ I want my phone back. And I want access to my bank account again.”
    “ So you can run off again?”
    “ There you go again, diss, diss, diss. And you wonder why I hate you. You amaze me.”
    “ You can have your phone back.”
    “ Thank you.”
    “ And your bank account.”
    Tears stream down Liz’s face as she surrenders her happiness at being a mother to please her daughter.
    “This is hurting me more than it is hurting you, trust me.”
    “ My only hope is that one day you may see me in a different light. I loved you so much when you were a baby. Do you not remember?”
    “ Yeah, right, but then I grew up, right?”
    “ Something like that.”
    “ Such is life, Mum dear.”
    “ Will you open the door now, please, Zelda? I just want to see that you are okay.”
    “ You’ve nothing to worry about, Mum. I’m not sitting here, cutting myself, if that’s what you’re thinking. I don’t do that anymore. I don’t need it. I saw how Tyrone was and saw that he was even more pathetic than you are. So I cut cutting. And I cut Tyrone. You’ll be happy to hear that I won’t be seeing him again. I’ve even defriended him on Facebook. Not that anyone looks at Facebook anymore anyway. Only losers like Tyrone and old people like you.”
    “ Ooooo-kay. I’m fine with all that. If it makes you happy.”
    “ Don’t try and ingratiate yourself with me, Mum. You know I’m smarter than you.”
    “ You’re certainly not shy about reminding me.”
    “ Now where have I learnt that from, I wonder?”
    Liz looks at the door with grudging admiration.
    “There’s more.”
    “ Go on.”
    “ I want to go to America.”
    “ What?”
    “ You heard. I want to go to America.”
    “ I thought you despised America and everything about it?”
    “ You thought wrong. I only said those things to get at you when you were