Mistakes Worth Making

By: Skylar Inari

I quit high school at age fourteen because of a man.

I had never been a very good or responsible kid so it came as no surprise to anyone in my family that I was dropping out of school because of a man getting me with child.

I never did learn that man’s name or where he came from…

Even though I had his child.

I named that child Yusuke.

He became as feisty as I had ever been and even more.

For the longest time I resented my son…almost to the point of neglecting him and letting him run wild through the city as he grew older and skipping as much classes in school as I had when school was where I was supposed to be.

Over time though, I came to care for the brash loud boy that I was stuck with – not that I would ever tell him that I cared for him.

I continued the bad habits that had started back when I was thirteen:

Drinking, not being responsible and not acting my age.

Looking back now I can see that I wasn’t just a bad mother, I was a terrible mother.

Mother’s are supposed to be people that can be depended on to provide security and shelter for their children.

I provided Yusuke with the minimum of both…

Then he died.

Saving another woman’s child.

It was then that I truly realized just how much I loved that boy of mine…

And how much I was going to miss him.

I got drunk again and when I opened his coffin to punch him one last time…

He was glowing…

My son…

Was still alive…

And was going to come back to me!

I was so happy to discover that my Yusuke would come back.

When he did, I got him re-enrolled in school…

And began forcing him to go more steadily to it…

I also woke him up as early as possible in the morning so that I could make sure that he was still alive…

To make sure that he hadn’t left me again.

Isn’t it sad?

For me…

It took losing my son to realize that…

Well,

There are some mistakes worth making in this world.

And sleeping with that nameless man is one of them.

Why?

Because it got me a child that has become my most precious possession…

My son…

My Yusuke…

~Owari~

Astuko’s was harder to write than Shiori’s………*grumble*