A/N: hehe…okay, so…it's been awhile. I realize this, and I'm not sure if anyone is even still reading this…but if you are, then thank you very much. I appreciate it and I hope you like this. But in my defense, I am currently in a college-leveled English course right now, and actually I shouldn't even be posting this right now when I have a ten-page paper due in three weeks along with various other papers that are due along with it.  lol. FUN!

"And?" Heidi anxiously pressed on, oblivious to the tension traveling around the room.

"And…" Mom smiled, breaking her glare with me, "And you're going to need to wait, until I get to that part of the story."

Heidi sighed, sitting back in her seat and crossing her arms with a pathetic pout. "Fine, fine!" she said, "Go on with the story."

Mom nodded, "Okay. So right, like I said, there was this pregnant woman that was due to give birth to twin baby girls. She was extremely ecstatic because she and her husband had been unsuccessfully trying for over a year to have children…"

I was barely even listening to the story this year. My mind kept buzzing around, my heart thumping into my ears as my hands beginning to sweat. I hated this. It was so stupid anyways—why couldn't Mom just get over it??? I knew I was acting harsh and insensitive, but still. The girl from the story, she wasn't coming back, she'd been kidnapped, and she could not be located. It only made it worse to dwell on it.

Heidi was on the edge of her seat, listening intently as Mom continued, "She'd painted the nursery in beautiful colors, light pinks and yellows and lavenders with flowers and rainbows and teddy bears, and two adorable cribs. She was as prepared as a first-time mother could be…"

Mom's voice began to break and I fought against rolling my eyes. I sincerely hoped she would not cry. It would not be realistic to sob over simply retelling a story she'd read at work.

"What happened?" Heidi questioned softly, Mom's emotions finally melting her hyper attitude about the story.

"She gave birth to two beautiful baby girls. Beautiful, healthy, identical baby girls. And they were everything to her. Her life was so wonderful, she'd never been happier in her entire life."

"But what's so sad--"

Mom held up a hand to silence my friend, "She was checking out of the hospital, both babies in arms when it happened. A man came out of nowhere. He wasted no time, not even a second. He took her! He stole her right out of arms! Kidnapped her!"

"Who? What? But--"

Mom had reached her breaking point. Her voice was hysterical, her eyes were wide, and she was no longer with us.

"That's the worst part. He was masked. She never saw his face, and no one else did either. He was frightening, though, intimidating beyond measure. And she feared him beyond anything. She allowed her fear to dominate her life, and therefore she never told a soul outside of her immediate family of what had occurred.

"She did not want that man coming after her, and she especially did not want her other baby daughter to be taken away, too. You have to understand. She was threatened. Her life had mutated into the worst of nightmares. Was that so wrong, though? Was that so wrong??? Heidi... Lilly...was it wrong for that woman to lie, to report to her friends and even family that one of the girls had not survived? To kill her off when she wasn't even dead?"

Mom covered her mouth with her hand as tears slid down her face. "Was that so wrong?"

Heidi sat in silence for a moment, and I almost believed that the story was over, that Heidi still would never know, would conclude that my Mom was merely extremely emotional, and that everything was going to be okay.

"Lilly. Lilly, and Rose." Mom mumbled, nodding her head, "Those were her babies. Those were her babies. Both of them. And Rose was not meant to be taken away!"

Mortified, I sat as still as I possibly could, attempting to look casual, trying to pretend that I was not uptight and that nothing was out of the ordinary. But I did not succeed, and besides, despite Heidi's outward personality that resulted in the accusation of her being dumb, she in fact was not.

Heidi's eyes were wide, just like my Mom's had been, and she looked over at me, expecting some sort of response or something, and when that did not happen, she glanced back over at my Mom, and then at my Dad, and back to me, and then…then she just looked down, at her empty plastic birthday plate.

I myself decided to stare straight ahead, at the blank white wall as if it were the most fascinating thing that ever I had laid my eyes upon before. I starred, and I bit my lips, and I felt faint, as the silence grew deeper and deeper and more awkward by the second.

I had the strangest sense that, beside me, Heidi was opening her mouth, closing it, opening it again, and then closing it. A sigh escaped her lips in the end. For once, Heidi Lorraine Perkins, my loquacious best friend, was at an utter loss for words.