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“…Alright. I’ll send them back.” You said, “But they’re here. You’re here. I don’t need things to be a family outing or whatever,” Winnifred seemed to twitch a bit at that word being used. “But I want to see my son and his mother together with my own eyes. Just once. He’s already grown so much, honey. Just see him one more time. Hold him. Indulge me a little more before you have to go, and they’ll be gone as you want.”
“I should not.”
You put your hand in hers and squeezed it softly. “Please.”
“…” Winnifred sighed. “Fine. Only for a moment. Once.” She brushed your hand out of hers. “There is no need to drag me along. Lead on.”
“Thanks,” you breathed out. “Really.”
As you led Winnifred back to Dolcherr’s headstone, you waved to the other company remaining-Linda stared quizzically at Winnifred, perhaps remembering if she had seen her, but likely not. Not with Winnifred usually concealing that her eyes bore different colors, and most assuming that a different color of eye surely meant a different person, even if they looked exactly alike in other ways.
“So.” Linda said, “You’re Winnifred Von Lowenkreuz, huh.” She looked into Eike’s eyes, then to his mother’s. “Who else could it be?” She said faintly, neither woman stretching out any hand of greeting, but Linda stepped forward, and proffered little Eike to Winnifred. “I won’t ask why you left him,” Linda said measuredly, “I don’t expect you to take him back, either. But you should hold him.”
Winnifred reached an uneasy pair of hands out, and took her baby. “I want him to have the freedom that I was denied,” she said to Linda, before cradling Eike in an arm and gazing down thoughtfully, her son looking back up, surely mystified by the sight of his own eyes. She touched her own head to his, wrapping an arm in embrace around the swaddled bundle, saying nothing for a full minute as the wind rustled the trees. “You were born…” She said slowly, so quietly you could barely hear it. They weren’t words for you. “…so you could have everything I could not have. I am sorry.” She kept him held close. “…Reinhold. Take him from me.”
You stepped closer, arms extended to accept the baby, but Winnifred still held him close.
“<span class="mu-i">Take him...!</span>” she urged with a strained, tight and thin voice.
You had to stick your arms under Winnifred’s own to do her bidding and loose her child from her, but you did, and with a feeble, reflexive following grasping after you, Winnifred hung her head clenched her elbows, took a deep breath, and her arms went limp. Another breath, and her back straightened, a hand rose to fix her hair. A cool, placid look had been stamped upon Winnifred’s face once again, before she turned her back.
“Here,” you passed Eike back to Linda, “Take him back to your place, alright?”
