You Were Always Meant for the Sky

One in the morning, and my phone rang. It was my mom. “Honey, the Evans boy downstairs… his parents died in a car crash. It’s just awful. He’s all alone. Can’t you do something to help him?” I yawned. “Mom, I only make five thousand a month. How am I supposed to help him?” A few minutes later, she called back. “He’s got that limp, he can’t find a job. Why don’t you talk to your boss, see if they can give him a position at your company?” Drowning in sleep, I mumbled a few noncommittal words. Half an hour later, the ringing jolted me awake again. “No, I just can’t bear it. My heart aches for him. You know what? You should marry him. That way, you can take proper care of him.” I fought back a surge of anger. “Mom, you need to let go of this savior complex and respect other people’s lives. Besides, I already have a boyfriend!” I figured that was the end of it, turned off my phone, and went back to sleep. The next morning, I turned it on to a flood of notifications: 99+ missed calls.

1 My stomach dropped. Worried something had happened to my mom, I immediately called her back. She picked up on the first ring, and her voice exploded through the receiver. “Clara! What do you think you’re doing, turning off your phone like that?!” “Have you no conscience? You think you’re all grown up now, too good to care about your own mother?” I held the phone an inch from my ear, rubbing my throbbing temples. “Mom, I have to be at work early. It’s normal to turn my phone off when I sleep.” “Normal? The Evans boy’s parents just died! He’s all alone in the world! I was so worried about him I couldn’t sleep a wink, and you were sleeping soundly?” Caleb Evans. Again. Ever since his parents died in that car crash a week ago, his was the only name on her lips. “I want you to go to his apartment right now,” she commanded. “Check on him. Comfort him! It’s what any decent human being would do!” “Mom, I’ve told you,” I said, my patience fraying. “I have a boyfriend. His name is Marcus. It’s not appropriate for me to go visit a single man alone.” I’d never liked the quiet, withdrawn Caleb. There was something dark in his eyes, a brooding intensity that made me want to keep my distance. “Boyfriend? What boyfriend? Without my approval, he’s just some random guy!” Her tone turned sharp and venomous. “He’s not from around here. Do we know anything about his family? Can you trust him? I’m telling you, Clara, I will never approve of this relationship. You can forget about it right now.” “Caleb is a good boy. I’ve known him since he was a baby! And now, after this tragedy… if you marry him, he’ll worship you like a saint for the rest of his life. He’ll be eternally grateful!” Her logic was so twisted it was almost laughable. “It’s my life, Mom. If you keep talking like this, I’m hanging up.” “You wouldn’t dare—” I was already late for work. I ended the call and rushed out the door. I had just reached the lobby of my office building when my phone vibrated again. I answered, exasperated. “Mom, I’m at work! Whatever it is, it can wait until I get off!” But it was an unfamiliar man’s voice on the other end. “Hello, is this Ms. Clara Reed?” “Yes?” “I’m a community outreach officer. Your mother is here at our office. She’s extremely agitated. She’s claiming that you’re abusing her, that you don’t feed her and you’ve kicked her out of the house.” “I need you to come down here immediately.” My head felt like it was splitting in two. I had no choice but to call in late to work and race over to the community center. I could hear my mom’s wailing before I even stepped inside. “You’re here to serve the people, you have to help me! You have to be the judge of this!” “My daughter… she has no conscience! I’m a good mother, a kind person. People say I’m a living saint! How could I have raised such a cold, heartless child?” “That poor Caleb Evans downstairs, his parents gone, his leg crippled… All I wanted was for her to help him, to marry him, and she turns on me! Says she wants to disown me!” She twisted the facts, painting me as an ungrateful, monstrous daughter. The young officer looked completely overwhelmed. “Ma’am, marriage is a serious decision. We really can’t interfere. It has to be Ms. Reed’s own choice.” “I don’t care! She’s been brainwashed by that boy from out of town!” My mom slapped her thigh and began to make a scene. “If you don’t solve this for me today, if you don’t make her agree to marry Caleb, I’ll be back here every single day! I’ll sleep on your doorstep!” The room spun. I had to grab the doorframe to steady myself. I walked in, forcing myself to sound conciliatory. “Mom, stop it. I never said I wouldn’t help Caleb. If he’s really in trouble, I can help. But marrying him is out of the question.” I turned to the officer. “I’m so sorry to trouble you. My mother just has… an overabundance of empathy.” While I was talking to the officer, my mom lunged, snatching the phone right out of my hand. “Let’s just see what kind of poison that boy has been feeding you!” “Mom! Give it back!” I cried, lunging for it. She dodged me, her fingers flying across the screen. She’d known my password for years. She opened my messaging app. My chat with Marcus was pinned to the top. All of our sweet, sometimes intimate messages were laid bare for her to see. “Disgusting! You have no shame! So cheap!” she spat, her body trembling with rage as if I’d committed some heinous crime. The next thing I knew, she had pressed the call button, video calling Marcus. He answered. My mother shoved her face up to the screen. “Hello! You must be that Marcus character. I want you to stay away from my daughter! Clara is going to marry Caleb! A poor nobody like you from out of town doesn’t deserve her!” “Are you crazy?!” I screamed, tears finally breaking free. I lunged again and managed to wrestle the phone away from her. The call had already disconnected. I stared at her, my whole body shaking as I sobbed. “Why are you doing this to me? Why are you trying to ruin my life?” Her eyes were red too, but her justification plunged me into an icy abyss. “Because my heart aches for him! I can’t stand to see Caleb suffer! He’s been through so much, I just want him to have a better life!” There it was again. That damned, twisted, suffocating “empathy.” When I was in elementary school, my mom had just gotten paid. On her way home, she saw a beggar kneeling on the sidewalk, claiming his child was sick and needed money for treatment. Without a second thought, she emptied her wallet, handing over her entire month’s salary. The man didn’t even say thank you. He just grabbed the cash and ran. Our family ate plain rice porridge and pickles for a month. Years later, my dad got pneumonia. He needed surgery, and we were short on money. My grandmother told my mom to ask our neighbor to repay a loan. But my mom just wrung her hands. “They’re not well-off either,” she’d said. “How could I ask them for the money back?” My dad died in a cold hospital bed because we couldn’t afford the surgery. His death was a wound in my heart that never healed. My hands trembled as I tried to call Marcus back, to explain. The phone rang and rang, but he didn’t pick up. Looking at this unreasonable woman, lost in her own self-righteous martyrdom, my heart felt like a dead thing in my chest. “Mom,” I said, my voice numb. “Go home. Let me think about it.” I was on edge for days. Marcus never returned my call, and my messages went unanswered. With a knot of dread in my stomach, I left work and headed home. As I approached my apartment building, I glanced up at my window and my blood ran cold. The light was on. I crept up the stairs, my keys in hand, only to find the door was unlocked. The scene inside made me gasp. My mother was helping a man move a pile of shabby luggage into my bedroom. That man was Caleb Evans. He moved awkwardly on his bad leg, but the smile on his face was chilling. “What are you doing?!” I demanded. My mother saw me and showed not a shred of guilt. “Oh, you’re back. Perfect timing. Give us a hand.” “I asked you, how did you get a key to my apartment!” My voice was shaking. “I had a copy made last time I was here,” she said, as if it were the most normal thing in the world. I saw black spots. “Even if you wanted to stay, you should have at least told me!” “It’s not for me,” she said, pointing at Caleb. “It’s for Caleb.” Her face glowed with a saintly light. “Caleb is all alone, and with his leg, it’s hard for him to manage. I figured you have plenty of space here, so he could move in with you. That way, you can look after him.” “Besides,” she added brightly, “you’re going to marry him sooner or later anyway.” Caleb stopped what he was doing and turned to face me. His dark, unsettling eyes raked over my body, as if he were inspecting a piece of property that already belonged to him. My skin crawled. I vaguely remembered his parents as quiet, humble country folk. I couldn’t imagine how they had produced a son so different. I swallowed down my fear and disgust. “I said I would think about it! I never agreed to anything! I want you both out of my apartment, now!” My mother’s face hardened. “What has gotten into you?” “Don’t push it, Clara. A daughter is supposed to listen to her mother. I’ve already made the decision for you! You two will be married by the end of the year!” “You have no right to make my decisions for me! I am your daughter, not your pet!” My control finally snapped. “Get your things and get out! If you don’t leave right now, I’m calling the police!” “You dare!” she shrieked, pointing a finger in my face. “You’d call the cops on your own mother, for a stranger? Clara, has your conscience been eaten by a dog?!” “Yes! I have no conscience! I’m not a saint like you!” I screamed, pulling out my phone and dialing 911 without hesitation. My mother froze, shocked that I’d actually done it. The police arrived quickly. After hearing the story, they looked exhausted by the sheer absurdity of the forced matchmaking. They gave my mother and Caleb a stern lecture. Under their supervision, my mother and Caleb reluctantly began to move the luggage back out. As she left, my mom stood in the doorway and screamed a torrent of vile, unspeakable insults at me. As Caleb limped past me, he paused. He leaned in close, his voice a low whisper only I could hear. “You’re even prettier up close. I like that.” His voice was a cold, sticky thing, like a snake’s tongue flicking against my ear. A violent shudder went through me, and I stumbled back. He just smiled, a cruel, possessive smirk that promised he would get what he wanted. As I watched them leave, I sank to the floor, my clothes soaked through with cold sweat. I couldn’t stay here. I had to move, immediately. I had to get as far away from them as possible. I found a new apartment with frantic speed, packed through the night, and moved out the very next day. For two weeks, there was peace. My mom didn’t find me. Caleb seemed to have vanished from my world. Marcus finally called back. After I tearfully explained everything, he just said, his voice warm and gentle, “You silly girl. Why would I ever listen to those words? I just had something important come up that I had to deal with, I didn’t have a chance to call back.” What could be so important he couldn’t even answer his phone? A sliver of unease pricked at me, but I chose to trust him. Friday afternoon, I was in a meeting at work. Halfway through the presentation, the conference room door was thrown open with a bang. My mother stood there, dragging Caleb behind her. The entire room fell silent, every head turning to the door. The moment I saw them, my mind went blank. The blood froze in my veins. “Clara Reed!” My mother’s voice boomed through the room, capturing everyone’s attention. She pointed a trembling finger at me, her voice breaking with crocodile tears. “Everyone, look! Look at my wonderful daughter! She’s a social-climbing gold digger who abandoned her disabled fiancé and abuses her own mother!” Caleb stood meekly in the doorway, the picture of innocence. Fiancé? A wave of murmurs swept through the room. Everyone was staring at me, their eyes filled with morbid curiosity. I was shaking with rage. I shot to my feet. “Mom! What are you talking about? Since when is he my fiancé?” “I’m not lying!” Seeing she had an audience, my mother hammed it up even more. “My daughter and Caleb were promised to each other as children! All our neighbors know! But now that his family has fallen on hard times, she’s trying to back out of it!” “My conscience wouldn’t let me stand by and do nothing, so I had to come here today! I hope you, her bosses, will help me talk some sense into her!” “If she doesn’t have a sense of responsibility, she certainly can’t handle her work!” I never imagined my own mother would publicly slander and humiliate me like this. She wasn’t just trying to ruin my reputation; she was trying to destroy my career. Caleb stood behind her, his head bowed, his leg bent at an angle, playing the part of the long-suffering victim to perfection. “Wow, I never would have guessed Clara was that kind of person.” “You really can’t judge a book by its cover. Abandoning your family… that’s cold.” “I just hope this doesn’t reflect badly on the company.” My mother, completely ignoring the professional setting, pointed at my boss. “Sir, I came here today to ask the company to step in. Order my daughter to see reason and marry Caleb! If she refuses, you should fire her! Our family can’t afford this kind of embarrassment!” The room was tilting. I felt faint. “Clara, would you care to explain what’s going on?” My boss’s face was as dark as thunder. I was trapped, speechless, about to be drowned in a sea of shame. Just then, a familiar voice cut through the chaos from the doorway. “This wedding… I’m afraid it’s not going to happen.”