Gardens of Destruction
CHAPTER 24

Jana was trapped in a nightmarish trance, her reality twisted into a surreal, terrible dream from which she hoped to awaken any moment. She seemed catatonic, barely moving, entrenched in the bungalow’s room for an age. Hours were spent on the bed in tears or glued to the window. Her gaze was fixed on the immovable colossus in the field, where she believed her little one was somewhere.

Sometimes, her grief morphed into uncontrollable fury – a tempest wreaking havoc on everything within sight. Chairs thrown in anger collided with walls and crumpled to the floor. The small bedside tables would have defied gravity and clung to the ceiling if not for the relentless pull of the earth. Her room resembled an avant-garde tapestry from an art exhibition, strewn with clothes, blankets, and various trinkets. The shattered mirror’s fragments twinkled under the dim light of a surprisingly intact lamp lying somewhere on the floor. Then, silence would reign again, punctuated by a profound, insurmountable sorrow.

General Patterson had visited, assuring her that he would do everything possible to bring her child back unharmed. But Jana knew these were hollow words. She was aware of his presence but showed no sign of hearing him. She desired no contact with anyone. To her, everyone was a phantom, characters in a forced film she neither liked nor wanted to watch.

Even Professor Bernstein couldn’t elicit a word or spark a reaction in her vacant gaze. Doctors and psychologists, sent by the General, failed to pull her from her timeless void. She clung to this trance, as it dulled the pain, if not erasing it, always aware that her wound might never fully heal. Yet, Jana strived not to lose her sanity. Her moods oscillated between utter despair and fleeting hopes for her child’s imminent return.

She hadn’t eaten for hours, devoid of any desire to do so. Her stomach protested loudly, but she paid it no heed, lost in memories. She yearned to recall every word, gesture, and expression ever made by Valentina. Then, she delved deeper into her memory vault, revisiting every one of her child’s quirks and idiosyncrasies.

Tears burst forth again, another mood shift in her day. As evening approached, after another bout of crying, a decisive thought struck her – she couldn’t wait any longer. She knew what she wanted: to ask General Patterson for permission to go to the asteroid. That was her only option, or so she fervently hoped. Any sense of self-preservation had vanished. She believed that going there might lead her to find her child or to her own end. No other options seemed viable. She couldn’t imagine continuing life without her daughter, her only true essence in this life. Only a mother could comprehend the turmoil tearing Jana apart.

She began to envision traveling to the asteroid, finding her daughter, embracing and kissing her all over, then taking her hand and leading her to a peaceful, sunlit place. Lost in these fantasies, Jana’s exhausted body finally succumbed to sleep on the bed, overwhelmed by her emotions. In her slumber, she thought she heard a distant cry echoing in her mind:

“Mommy!”

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