Historias perdidas: Misty memories

No voy a hacer una introducción muy larga, solo voy a decir que esta es la continuación de The Bamboo Cane y que los comentarios se agradecen mucho ;)

1. Misty memories

Sam remembered cold nights and heavy dawns. Maybe she'd had to cuddle up in her bed, holding on tightly to her thin blankets. And still, the freezing air had been better than the prospect of a new day. She always experienced the same routine: she would eat breakfast in their tiny kitchen, then her mother would yell at her while Sam tried to help her as best as she could, some more eating, very little, and some more yelling.

Possibly, the reason she hated children so much was that tempered woman. Sam had learned from her such a mistrustful character, such dark vision of the world. The only time she had dated a man, it hadn't gone very well. In fact, it hadn't gone well at all. She had never even known a thing about his father, yet she wasn't curious. At least, she hadn't been until she received that stupid letter.

Miss Annabeth Cardigan was a strict woman. She had passed on to her daughter her lack of patience and her beautiful figure, yet Sam didn't get angry so easily. The influence and control she had exerted over the girl was such that just until a few weeks ago Samantha had been taking care of her mother. But then cancer took over her body and mind, making it urgent for the daughter to look over Ms Cardigan's belongings so as to decide what to keep and what to dismiss. That's when she found the two-year-old bit of paper, addressed to her name, not her mother's.

Swallowing her surprise, she opened the envelope to learn that the man who sent the letter said to be her father, and he was asking for help. The reason Annabeth didn't tell her, she didn't know, but she didn't need to, either. If she had found out and asked, her mother would have probably hit her on the head and told her not to sniff around her things. Ms Cardigan never needed a reason.

According to what she read - which she didn't know whether to believe -, her father had been forced to go away from her due to his lover's character. He repeated over and over again how sorry he was, yet Sam sourly noticed that the man was asking for a favour. And in order to fulfill his will, she had to visit his sister, following the address he gave her.

The problem was, Julia Farrell had moved since her brother disappeared two years ago; the woman presumed it had something to do with what the man mentioned in his writings about some trouble he was recently suffering. Truth was, Sam didn't actually care. That man hadn't looked after her, he didn't know her and she didn't owe him a thing. Still, she felt empty, rather than curious. Somehow, looking for her father would help her to forget and at the same time remember her past.

And it was that woman, Annabeth Cardigan, that she was doing this for, unconsciously. Yet the confusion she felt about her mother drove her into misty memories. She still loved to remember how the woman had given her food, how she had sung lullabies to her when she was sick, how she had bought her some little cravings when she had been silent and good. Many other times she had been a monster, yes. But she had been the most beautiful of monsters.