CHAPTER TWELVE MOTHER KNOWS BEST
After Filomena hangs up from her phone call with her dad, she slinks to the floor. Mum is in the hospital? This all makes no sense. Her mom is one of the healthiest people Filomena’s ever met. And sure, maybe some of that is because Bettina’s really intense about hand sanitizer and doesn’t leave the house much, but she always makes jokes about her “strong English constitution.” Filomena can’t even remember her mom having the flu, let alone needing to go to the hospital.
She decides to put together a care package. It’s exactly the kind of thing that Gretel would suggest. Filomena feels a pang of missing Gretel but tries to push it away. How is it that, no matter which world she’s in, she’s missing someone? Being biportal definitely isn’t as easy as it seems.
There are limited supplies in the house, and Filomena doesn’t have a car, nor a driver’s license come to think of it, nor a way to get to a shop and back in time to meet her dad. So she makes due with what’s around: a packet of cookies in the pantry, some of her mother’s favorite English breakfast tea, and a couple of Filomena’s stuffed animals for some extra-plush support.
As she packs up her care package, she can’t help but think of her friends. She never feels alone when she’s with Jack, Alistair, and Gretel. But she feels so alone now.
For a moment Filomena lets herself wonder how they’re doing, what they’re doing, if they’re safe and whole. She hopes Jack’s leg is healing well. She fingers the Seeing Eye around her neck.
It will show you what you need to see, Jack told her.
She puts the Seeing Eye up to her face, looks through—and gasps.
An army! A huge, commanding, terrifying army is headed north.
King Richard is about to invade Northphalia and take the kingdom by force! She has to warn them! She has to help them!
But she can’t! Her place is here. She has to stay and take care of her mom. She must be here for her mom.
Filomena’s dad pulls up outside then, and she gets into the car with him. He smiles at her care package and pats her on the head. He looks in good spirits, despite it all.
At the hospital, Filomena throws herself onto her mom’s bed.
“Mum, I’ve been thinking about you all day! I could barely focus at school, just thinking about how much I love you and how I hope you’re okay. And what’s going on now? Why are you in the hospital?”
Bettina pets Filomena’s hair. “Sweet girl. It’s okay. I just had a bit of an incident and wanted to check in with my doctors.”
“Are you okay? What did your doctors say?”
Her mom sighs. “The good news is that I don’t have cancer.”
“That’s amazing! That’s incredible!” Filomena’s heart swells. But Bettina doesn’t share in her joy. “Why don’t you seem happy about that?”
“The not-so-good news is that they don’t know what’s going on. They can’t find anything they understand about this illness. It’s like nothing they’ve seen before.”
“But how can that be possible? We need to go to a better hospital! We need to get better doctors!”
From his place standing in the doorframe, Carter speaks: “Filomena, we’ve got great doctors. It’s not that, honey.”
Filomena feels tears welling in her eyes. She feels so helpless.
“I brought you something, Mum,” she says. She lifts the care package onto her mom’s bed, emptying out the cookies and tea and stuffed animals and all the other comforts of home.
Bettina looks at her with so much love that now her eyes start to tear up. “Filomena, you are the most caring daughter a mother could ever hope for. Thank you for bringing me these … but I’ve been thinking about something.”
“What, Mum?”
“You’re worried about your friends, aren’t you?” her mother asks.
Filomena thinks of what she saw in the Seeing Eye.
“I don’t understand everything that goes on in that place, but I know it’s dangerous. And that they need you,” Bettina tells her. “They do, don’t they?”
Filomena nods.
“So here’s the thing. We are so proud of you and all the brave things you’ve accomplished. There’s nothing you can do for me here, sweetie. Your dad will take care of me, and I’ll take care of myself. You need to go help your friends. You’ll just be worried sick if you stay here.”
At this, Filomena starts to cry. She knows her mother’s right—there’s nothing Filomena can do for her—but feeling unable to help her mom makes Filomena feel like everything is out of control. On the surface it seems ludicrous to leave her mother when she’s suffering. But she is less useful here, and she can be useful somewhere else. She can help prevent Never After’s suffering, even. But she can’t prevent her mother’s, not even if she stays.
“I bet that by the time you come back, we’ll have things more figured out. Right?” Bettina says, looking to Carter.
To Filomena, he says, “Your mother’s right. Of course we want you here; we always want you here. We know you and we know you’re thinking about everything going on in Never After. You should be there to help your friends.”
Filomena realizes that if her parents—the most protective, cautious parents in the worlds—are urging her to do this, to take this risk, then it’s worth listening.
Her mother looks at her, wiping tears from her eyes.
“Never After needs you, Filomena.”