YOLO - Once is enough if you do it right

It was a tedious job to be a wife, but to be a mother…

Jo released the deep breath she had been holding and packed up the drawing sheets her 14-year-old had left lying carelessly around her bedroom. No doubt the girl was talented, and she supported her talent, but she was getting obsessed with it. Emma didn't have a life outside the world she created on her drawing sheets. No friends outside the human imitations she produced there, and Jo was getting fed up.

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If there was anything she learned from her mother, it was that most people had the tendency to appreciate life when they were close to death. Jo wasn't going to allow her daughter to live the same sad story. She knew where to find her.

She rapped at the door of the basement until it swung open.

“I see you're….” Jo looked for a less offensive word. The last time she said Emma had been playing, the girl locked herself away in the basement for 2 full days. “Busy,” she finished.

Emma nodded impatiently and made to close the door. Jo pressed her weight against it.

“Emma, I need to talk to you. Now”

Emma left the door open and stormed back inside. Jo walked in cautiously, looking around to see what her daughter had been up to. She knew she was painting but she wanted to see what was so special about this one that she couldn't get it done in her room.

However, no matter how hard she looked, she saw nothing extraordinary.

“What's this about mom?” Jo brought her mind back to the reason she was intruding on her daughter's privacy.

“Your dad planned for you to spend the holidays in Peru last year….”

“With his aunt and uncle,” she cut in defensively

“Yes Emma, but they are really amazing people. I wouldn't have agreed if they weren't good enough to take care of you” Jo saw her cross her arms across her bosom. She knew this would be difficult, so she went one step at a time.

“You weren't asked to go to Peru because we were sick of you or because we wanted to punish you with an old couple. We wanted you to go out and see the world.” She waited for some form of lashing out, but Emma's eyes were transfixed to the spot above her mother's head. Jo wondered if she could hear her.

“This year, it's almost summer again. This time, I want you to go to Greece,” Emma's hazel eyes finally met her mother's brown ones. “It's where my mama grew up, married, had us, and died. She too never went anywhere in her entire life”

“Well that's sad,” Emma said, frowning. She was fond of her late grandmother and Greece was the only place she had been to except her home.

“Really sad. But guess what? Before my mother died, she was hospitalized for 2 weeks. It was then she made me understand what life is all about”

Emma seemed to be paying rapt attention now, her expression was fixed on her mother and if Jo wanted, she could count how many times Emma blinked in a minute.

“My mom was a narrow-minded person. After her husband died, she became worse. She used to tell us that trying to see the world outside the one God has provided for you was greed…..” Emma made a face and gasped. Jo smiled, grateful that her point was gradually sinking home.

“Because of this philosophy, she lost the chance to go to France once and declined a job in South Africa. She regretted all of this during those 2 weeks in the hospital.”

“If I get out alive,” she used to tell me, “The first place I'm going to is France.” Jo caught Emma's lips relaxing a little and she too smiled. “But guess what Em, she never got out alive”.

“Yeah, I was at her funeral,” Emma said sarcastically.

“I am saying,” Jo went to place a hand on her shoulder, “that you get to live just once. You should explore as much as you can. Get out of this hole,” she made a sweep around the room with her hands then reduced her voice to a whisper,

“If you die now, you will never get another chance to see it”

Emma screwed up her face immediately, “Alright, I get your point. Enough of these death talks. I'm going to Greece or Philadelphia or wherever it is you want me to go”

Jo sent a whoop into the air. She was not imposing her will on Emma, she just wanted her to make the most of her life because, just like her mother had said the day before she died,

“You only live once”.