Ladies in Waiting

He looked at me, his face saying: "It was my fault. If not for me, Mother would still be alive." He spoke to me slowly, controlling his emotions, "There was not enough money to do things that she wanted to do. She took a second job, cleaning a beauty shop after hours. She would work until about eleven thirty and catch the train home at midnight." "One day, two weeks before I was to be born, she cleaned the lunchroom as usual. There was no leftover food for her to eat between jobs, so she went to the second job having eaten no food since noon. She finished the second job at the usual time. She was very hungry and weak from the lack of food that day." He paused for a long time. He stared into the emptiness as if trying to reverse time. I knew he did not want to continue, but he felt he must. It was the first time he had said these words to another person. "It was raining that night. Her foot slipped on the wet platform, and she fell headlong in front of an oncoming train. The windshield wiper caught her just under the chest, punctured her heart. She was dead instantly. I died four and a half minutes later," he related to me, unable to move. I felt paralyzed. I could barely lift my arms. I gathered as much strength as I could, took him in my arms as a mother would, and whispered, "I love you, Jefferson A. Jones." . After a while, we just sat there exhausted, not daring to look at each other. We were afraid that just a glance at the other's face would lead to another uncontrollable emotional display. We both realized we were bonded forever.