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It was a rash decision, but Teresa was fed up with England with all its pomposity. What people could be so stuck up that they would take a child away from her mother?
William told the judge that she had a problem with alcohol and that he worried she was unfit to raise her daughter and the judge believed him. She’s admitted to still drinking, but there was a big difference between having a few drinks and not being able to raise your daughter.
She was drunk when she bought her flight ticket and regretted it even as she sat waiting for take-off at Heathrow
Her mother’s illness had been her excuse, and she imagined it as just a quick break from the country she felt persecuted her so much. But as she transferred flights in Lisbon, she wondered how she would pay the bill for the credit card she used for the flight, much less raise the money for the return fare. Teresa promised Annabel that she would call her by Skype and that she would be back before her daughter knew it, but she felt as if she was letting her daughter down. There was nothing she could do other than leap up and down like a maniac and demand that they let her off the flight. She had been in England long enough to pick up some of the English reserve and enough pride to not want to go back to William with her tail between her legs and admit she was wrong. She was not sure she had enough credit on her card to buy a flight back from Portugal to England.
Teresa hoped that her brother and sister-in-law would put her up for a while until she found her feet and they would be sympathetic to her need to come back to her sick mother. Teresa hadn’t told them about the last year since the accident or William during for custody. They still hadn’t got used to the news that she was married with a baby, telling them she was getting divorced and had lost custody might be a step too far at this stage.
Teresa pushed her trolley out into the arrivals area of Sao Paulo’s Guarulhos airport and looked around for Selma, who had offered to collect her.
“Well, look what the fucking cat dragged in!”
Teresa turned to see Selma had sneaked up behind her. Selma was the most butch woman she knew and had always assumed she was a lesbian until Selma married her brother. But then Teresa always assumed Geraldo was gay until he married Selma. He always looked so androgynous. Teresa wondered whether Selma was the dominant and Geraldo the submissive; she couldn’t think of any other reason for them to be together.
Selma was a police officer and was passionate about justice. The thing she was more passionate about that justice was Jesus. Selma was born again and was very evangelical about her faith.
“Thank the Lord that you arrived, Teresa,” she said. “We’ve all been praying for your mother, but the Lord moves in mysterious ways.”
“Thank you. And thank you for collecting me. It’s kind of you.”
“It’s nothing. I have the day off today anyway, so the criminals of Sao Paulo will run amok. Come on; I’m parked over there.”
*
“What’s she doing here?” Teresa’s mother asked Geraldo when Selma and Teresa entered the hospital room.
“I came to see you,” Teresa explained.
“Why? You never told us you got married, or that you had a child. Why are you bothered with us suddenly? Do you think I might leave an inheritance or something?”
Teresa took a deep breath and looked at Geraldo, whose androgynous face looked apologetic.
“Hello brother, are you as pleased to see me as my mother?”
“I’m always pleased to see you, sister.”
Geraldo hugged her.
“All this sibling affection is making me sick,” Teresa’s mother growled.
“Praise the Lord that he has seen fit to restore your humour,” said Selma, who was the last person to take on the role of the diplomat. “It’s so lovely to see the whole family together.”
“Apart from my sister,” said Teresa.
Selma gave her a hard stare.
“Has she not been to visit mother?” Teresa asked.
“They don’t see eye to eye,” said Geraldo
Teresa was astonished.
“Even so. Do you mean to tell me you are the only one who’s been visiting?”
“You see the family I’ve raised,” Teresa’s mother chipped in. “The kind that is too embarrassed of me to take care of me in my old age. My son visits me, and that’s because his wife forces him to.”
Geraldo glanced at Selma, who gave him a dismissive wave of her hand.
“I made the most of it, under the circumstances. Your father made everything so difficult.”
With this statement, everybody agreed. Nobody had been sad when he passed away. His death had been a blessing to everyone.
Teresa looked at her mother. It was like looking at an older, much thinner version of herself. She thought that she had been wrong to exclude her family from some of the most important moments of her life, like getting married or getting pregnant, but she did it because of how judgemental they all were, and she had been afraid of their reactions.
Now, as she looked at the frail woman with the sharp mouth in the bed in front of her, she wondered whether it was already too late to make amends.