With a racing heart, Joey stood in front of his house, only to realize it was nothing like it used to be. The appalling condition of the house and the farm beside it stunned Joey.

Everywhere, as far his eyes could see, was deserted and hollow, and it seemed the place had been left to crumble with time.

The overgrown grass and weeds rustled as Joey pressed forward. The dust on the windows was several inches thick, like a brown curtain. Dry leaves lay scattered on the crumbled steps. And his beloved peach trees were barren. The duck and chicken barns were empty.

His childhood home was nothing like it used to be.

What happened here? Where is Mom? Joey anxiously walked towards the front door, panic swelling in his heart as he entered.

“Mom? Mom…you home?” he cried out, his voice bouncing off the walls of his empty house as he barged inside and glanced around, scanning the areas for Flora.

But she was nowhere to be seen in the deserted living room.

“Mom? It’s me…Joey. I’m home…” Joey shouted again. But his voice echoed across the dingy rooms.

The house looked abandoned, just like the outside. It appeared as though the wooden floors hadn’t seen a broom in years. Cobwebs adorned the doorways like silver curtains. The kitchen sink was overflowing with moldy dishes and dead cockroaches.

Flora’s sewing machine was cloaked in dust…and the dining table they once heartily dined lay still and deserted.

Joey’s heart started to race, and he could feel his fears double in intensity. He ran around the house, looking for his mother, but there was no trace of her.

Joey slumped onto the couch and cried, instantly regretting not calling her all these years. The thought of what could’ve happened to her gnawed at him.

No. Nothing wrong could’ve happened to Mom, he thought.

He nervously pulled out his phone and called Flora several times, but all his calls went unanswered.

At that moment, Joey was hounded by regret and guilt. He realized how big a fool he had been for not reaching out to his mother all these years and making sure she was alright…and alive.

“Mom, where are you? Why aren’t you picking up my phone?” Joey cried.

He remembered telling his mother that boys don’t cry. But now, Joey knew he was wrong. When you truly love someone, you’ll not shy away from shedding tears for them.

Joey spent a couple of minutes just trying to process a horrifying feeling within him.

“Is…is she—” he was unable to speak out the thoughts haunting his head out loud. Joey couldn’t imagine anything terrible and prayed it wasn’t true.

He rose to his feet and searched the whole house again, looking through every nook and cranny. But in vain.

“Mom…please, come back. I’m home…Mom…” Joey continued to cry.

Just as he was about to give up searching for his mother in the house and go out to find out from the neighbors, his gaze fell on the fireplace.

Joey raced to see a half-burnt letter poking out slightly under the ashes and dust.

His eyes teared up as he scrolled over the words written on it:

“Joey, sweetie, I miss you so much. Where did you leave me and go?

I wish you had never left me. If I knew you had planned to leave me and disappear like this, I would have agreed to go with you instead.

Please come back, Joey. I miss you to the core. Nothing can ever replace you.

This silence around me is killing me. The house is so empty, and my heart feels heavier and haunted without you. I wish—”

Although Joey was desperate to read more and rummaged through the ashes for more such letters, he found nothing.

And no matter how hard he stared at the letter in his hands, reading everything all over again, he couldn’t read anymore as the lower part had been burnt.

Tears began streaming down Joey’s face, and his heart thumped fearfully in his chest, knowing he would have done anything to see his mother.

But now, it felt like he would never get another chance to see her. That feeling…it was excruciating. And to rub salt into his wounds, his mother was mysteriously missing from the house and was not even answering his calls.

When nothing seemed to strike him, Joey looked around the house again, hopeful of finding more letters or some breakthrough that could take him to his mother.

Nothing.

Still, the thought of giving up didn’t even occur to Joey. He wiped the warm streaks of tears from his face and composed himself as he went outside to inquire with the neighbors. Joey condemned himself for not thinking straight and doing this earlier.

He was determined to find his mother, even if he had to search every inch of the town.

Fortunately for Joey, he didn’t have to go that far. He had just stepped out of the house and was walking to the edge of the gates when he ran into an old neighbor walking his dog.

“Mr. Caleb. I just got back, and I’m looking for my mother,” Joey said stiffly in the most composed tone he could muster, trying to steel himself for whatever the neighbor was about to tell him.

“For your mother? Are you Flora’s son…the boy who ran away thirteen years ago?” Mr. Caleb stared intensely at Joey.

“Yes, I’m Joey. Where’s my mother? She’s not home. Did she tell you anything?”

Joey was so guilty and ashamed of himself for being so brutally direct. He didn’t ask Mr. Caleb why the house and farm looked deserted. Instead, he just asked for his mother’s whereabouts.

“Oh boy…your mother missed you so much,” Mr. Caleb said, an unsettling worry in his eyes.

“She would visit the railway station and bus stand every day, hoping you would come back. She’d even run to the post office every other day to see if she got any mail from you. But in vain. And then one day…everything fell apart…”

Joey’s heart started throbbing. “Wha-What do you mean by everything fell apart? What happened to my mother? Where is she? Is she…?”

He could not bring himself together to ask more because he was not prepared to hear anything heartbreaking.

“Your mother, Mrs. Johnson, is at the local hospital right now, Joey,” Mr. Caleb said. “You would have known if you—”

But Joey didn’t wait to hear him criticize him for running away. His heart raced as he bolted to his car and drove straight to the local hospital.

“Please…please be alright, Mom,” Joey muttered under his breath, not knowing what he would do if something terrible had happened to his mother.

He was not prepared for a life without her. All his struggles, achievements, and, most of all, his promise to her would go in vain if something ever happened to her. And Joey was not ready to endure that heartbreak.

Joey got to the small hospital and showed his ID card, asking to be directed to his mother’s ward.

“I’m a doctor. Which ward is Mrs. Johnson in? Take me there.”

Before getting there, in his mind, Joey planned to transfer Flora out of the small hospital to a better one if needed.

“MOM!” Joey cried out, running into the room to Flora’s side, shocked to see her lying on the bed with her eyes closed and medical devices attached to her body.

Tears clouded Joey’s vision. “What happened to my mother?” Joey demanded an explanation from a doctor nearby, and suddenly, the room fell gravely silent when he watched his mother’s eyes twitch open.

“Mom! It’s me…your Joey!” Joey cried, gently squeezing Flora’s hand as she slowly opened her eyes, which almost instantly grew moist as soon as her vision adjusted to Joey’s mature face staring at her.

“Jo-Joey? Is that you, sweetie?” Flora cupped Joey’s face and cried. She was beyond shocked, and her mouth fell open in astonishment.

She tossed away the blanket over her and enveloped him in a tight hug.

“JOEY…my boy!”

For a few seconds, there was nothing but silence. Both their eyes were filled with tears of joy, and neither of them could stop crying until a couple of minutes later when Flora began to talk.

“Are you still crying? You’re a grown-ass man now! You weren’t a crybaby when you were younger. What happened to you? Remember how you used to brag that boys don’t cry…when you fell and bruised your knee while learning to ride your cycle?” Flora teased, patting Joey’s head.

“Mom, I’m so sorry…” Joey said, his voice low and remorseful. “I thought something terrible happened to you when I found our house empty…and heard you were in the hospital…

…I’m so…so sorry for not calling or visiting you earlier. I tried. I did. But I wanted to face you confidently after achieving my dreams. I didn’t want to let you down…and I knew you’d be angry with me for running away like that. I’m so sorry.”

Joey gently brushed his mother’s hair, kissing her head. Compared to thirteen years ago, she looked much older and even had little streaks of gray popping out of her messy bun.

“Tell me more, Joey,” Flora initiated, her tone desperate and longing. “I want to hear you talk…Oh, your voice! How I missed hearing that voice…and laughter.”

“Mom, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to leave you like that. But I was scared…scared of spending the rest of my life on the farm.”

All those struggles Joey had endured after running away to the city flashed before his teary eyes. But now, he was a changed man…and a successful doctor.

“I went home and saw our house…which seemed abandoned for years. I thought that something…that you were—”

Joey stuttered through his tears, unable to find the right words to speak.

“After you left, it was lonely living there. Haunting would be the right word to describe how painful it was to live within those empty walls…void of your laughter and presence…

..So I left that house and moved in with a friend. I’m only here because I sprained my ankle while cleaning the attic,” Flora replied, showing Joey the bandage on her ankle.”

“During my stay at our home, I wrote many letters I intended to send but later burnt. I didn’t have an address to post those letters to. I didn’t know where you were or what you were doing. But I knew you’d be fine because my prayers were always with you. I decided to wait for you…because I knew you would return someday,” Flora said with a delicate smile.

“I’m glad you didn’t take too long,” she cried, unable to stop the tears that began to flow as she stared into Joey’s eyes.

She last saw him when he was still a sixteen-year-old teenager. Now, he was a man.

“I’m sorry I put you through this, Mom,” Joey hugged his mother and cried.

He told her all that had happened to him in the city, his meeting with Mr. Clark, and his way to becoming a doctor. He also promised to rebuild the farm, which he knew she loved.

Right there and then, Joey insisted she move with him to the city and live with him in their new house until the reconstruction of the farmhouse was done, and Flora instantly agreed.

After many years of separation, neither wanted to be apart again, even for a second.

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