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Show Inside Out, 233 Finally I managed to get my hands back on the keyboard. Me: Thafs kind of bizarre. He didn't answer for a few seconds and I wondered if I had hurt his feelings. Me: But I like it J: Me too. J: Anyway, I said I had a surprise, and I do. Hold on. I tried to fight down that little hope that was making my palms sweaty. No, I wouldn't think about it. I couldn't. I waited, slowing my breathing. And then... R: Andli. R. R for Ruth. I stared at the box, at my name on the screen. I tried to imagine it in my mother's voice. And then I couldn't see the letters anymore because of my blurred eyes. R: Andli, it's me. (Or, I should say, I t is I.") And my heart jumped. That phrase. I could still remember her saying it every time we said, "It's me," trying to get us to speak correctly. Seeing those words-it was as if a part of me, some string deep down in my guts, had been plucked. It was a memory not in my mind but in my body. Mom the writer, the English teacher. It was really Mom. Me: Mom. R: Oh, Andli. You are so beautiful. Those words were so unexpected, and so sweet, that I choked a little, and then covered my face and wept. She was here, right here with me, and she loved me! How I |