Chapter 1

I was expecting the big gates of the prison to swing open, but they didn’t, instead on the dot of eight, the little Judas door opened and she walked out carrying a little parcel under her arm.

“Mrs. Greene?” she looked at me briefly but carried on walking so I tried again,

“Mum?”

She stopped and slowly turned round,

“I’m no ones mother” she looked at me defiantly, daring me to say otherwise, so I obliged,

“You’re my mother, you know you are”

“I’m sorry but you must be mistaken” but she made no attempt to walk on, she didn’t really have anywhere to go!

“Your name is Sally Anne Greene, you were convicted of manslaughter ten years ago for killing an abusive husband who used to beat you regularly if you refused to have sex with any of his scummy friends. You were guilty of that all right, you admitted so, you also said that in the same circumstances, you’d do it again”

I hesitated and then said, trying very hard to keep my emotions under control,

“And I don’t blame you at all”

Her eyes softened and became moist,

“Not once Michael” she said softly, “Not once did you ever visit me”

“Get in the car mum” I said as gently as I could, “Please and I’ll tell you why”

“Where are you taking me?”

“Somewhere you can call home”

We got into my old Volvo and I whisked her away from the forbidding granite walls that had embraced her for the last ten years.

It was a long drive from the prison up to my home in the Midlands, long enough for a talk.

“I was in an orphanage mum, nobody wanted the son of a murderer, when those looking to adopt came to look over the kids, they always passed me by they’d obviously been told who I was”

“Why were you in an orphanage?”

“Well your in laws didn’t want me and nobody else offered”

“In laws huh, more like bloody outlaws, have you got any cigarettes?”

I passed her a packet over and waited until she’d filled her lungs with smoke before speaking again,

“They kept me until I was sixteen and then let me go after fixing me up with a job and a little flat, it’s not much of a job mum but it I’m learning a trade and of course I’m earning”

“They fixed me up with a bed in a hostel” she said, “I’d only be in the way at your place”

“Why go to a hostel mum?, I’m offering you a home, with your own room, a television and a bathroom”

“A bathroom?”

“Yes, hot water and loads of nice perfumed bath salts, oh and a wall mounted television with a remote control”

She threw the remains of her cigarette out of the window and looked across at me,

“Why are you bothering now, you haven’t bothered about me for ten years?”

“I was eighteen last week mum, before that I was under the care and control of those running the home, they wouldn’t allow me to visit you, they even confiscated the letters I wrote, they said you’d be a bad influence on me and of course the prison governor had orders that I wasn’t to visit until I was eighteen”

“They were probably right”

“They weren’t right mum, they were a million bloody miles off the mark, they never understood why a little eight year old boy was crying in his bed every night”

“I don’t suppose they ever considered that a young mum was crying in her cell every night either”

No I don’t suppose they did mum, would you like some breakfast?”

“Yes I’ve got money”

“Just allow me to buy you a breakfast will you?” I pulled into a roadside truck stop and we went inside,

“A full English?”

“What’s that?”

“It’s a breakfast mum, bacon, eggs, fried bread, beans, tomato, sausage and a cup of tea”

“How much will that be?”

“It doesn’t matter how much it is, I said I’ll pay”

“All right”

The waitress took our order and brought us a cup of tea each,

“May I go to the toilet please miss?” she said to the girl, who looked surprised but nodded,

“Of course, it’s through there” and pointed to a door, I leaned forward and said softly,

“Mum, you don’t have to ask if you can go, just go, you’re out now, you can do what you like”

“I forgot, all right?” she snapped, but when she came back she laid a hand on my shoulder and said simply,

“Sorry”

“S’ok mum” I smiled, “It’ll take some getting used to”

Our meals came then and she looked at hers in wonder,

“I’ll never eat all this”

“Just eat what you want and leave the rest”

We ate then in silence, I finished all of mine and to her own surprise mum managed most of hers before pushing the plate away.

“That was nice, can I have another cup of tea please?”

We both had another tea each and then set off for home, mum slept for most of the way there and only woke up as I pulled up outside the old miner’s cottage where I lived.

“This is it mum”

“This is yours?”

“Well it used to be mine, but I share it now”

“Who with?”

“I share it with somebody who I happen to think deserves better than the shit that’s been thrown at her in her life”

“Can I have a look inside?”

“Of course mum, here, this is yours”

I handed her a key, just an old fashioned door key, but it was in a little leather fold over wallet fastened to a clasp with “MUM” embossed on it, she looked at it and I saw her bottom lip beginning to tremble.

She put the key in the lock and turned it, then when she saw the big home made banner stretched across the fireplace saying, “Welcome Home Mum” the dam broke and she cried!

I tried to laugh it off at first, but instead I found myself crying with her, sharing the emotion of the moment and we held each other just letting it all out.

Finally we pulled apart and grinned shyly at each other,

“Sorry mum, I didn’t mean to make you cry”

“It’s just so-- so nice”

“Let me show you the rest of the place”

I showed her the kitchen, complete with fridge, freezer, washing machine, tumble drier, microwave and an old wooden table in the middle of the floor, then I took her upstairs and showed her the bathroom complete with shower unit and bidet.

“Close your eyes” I said, “And no cheating”

It was only a few steps into her bedroom, she trusted me and I said, “Open them mum, this is your room”

Everything in it was new, the big double bed, the dressing table with three mirrors, the built in wardrobes, the flat screen television on the far wall opposite the bed and the bedside cabinets, the light dimmer hanging just above the bed, everything, it had cost me quite a bit of the six hundred grand I’d won on the national lottery just about ten months ago, but I considered it worth every penny!