The Secret Behind Mom’s.s. Mysterious Trip
My 80-year-old mother left for a week to visit an old friend. When she returned, she looked painfully thin and carried a large black suitcase that wasn’t hers.
“Mom, what happened to you?”
“Nothing, sweetheart. I’m just tired.”
But something was clearly wrong. Her clothes hung loosely on her shoulders, her voice sounded weak, and she barely touched the dinner I prepared. When I asked about the suitcase, she said her friend Margaret had given it to her because her own bag had broken.
Worried, I called Margaret using the number Mom had left me. A man answered.
“Margaret hasn’t lived here for eight years,” he explained.
I couldn’t understand. Where had my mother really been?
The next morning, I found a train ticket dated three days earlier and a luggage tag with another woman’s name. Unable to ignore my growing concern, I opened the suitcase.
