Who do you think you are?

“Cassie, come inside. She’s not coming.”
“Five more minutes? Please granny?” a seven-year-old Cassie Daniels pleaded with her grandmother clutching her Disney inspired luggage. Tullah Daniels sighed and closed the screen door. She had a phone call to make anyway. She picked up the phone and dialed the familiar ten-digit number.
Static filled the receiver then a voice, catching the call just before the voicemail picked up, “hello?”
“Bethany, where are you?”
Bethany Daniels swore under her breathe, “what do you want from me mother?”
“did you forget you were suppose to be picking your daughter up at 8? It’s now 9:05 p.m.”
Another swear.
“Mom tell Cassie I can’t make it tonight,”
“I don’t want to be the one picking up your mess. Cassie loves you and-“ Bethany couldn’t hear the rest due to more static clogging up the phone.
“What? Listen mom I gotta run. Tell her I’ll make it up to her.”
“That’s not going to be good enough; Cassie has been waiting all day and- Hello? Hello?” The line was dead. Tullah sighed shaking her head and placing the phone back into the cradle just as Cassie walked through the door, looking defeated with fat tears rolling down her cubby face, “She never tells the truth.”
Tullah wrapped her warm arms around her granddaughter, “Your mom’s just forgetful sometimes.”
“Why does she never remember me?” Tullah didn’t have an answer for that question and it broke her heart to hear the sweet little girl doubt her worth. Tullah wrapped her arms tighter around the girl, “Let’s do something productive tonight, I’ll French braid your hair and then we can make some cookies, ok?”
A small was the young girl’s reply as her grandmother held her hand leading her into the kitchen.
Unfortunelty, Cassie suffered many more disappointments from her mother. Dance recitals, school productions, award ceremonies, and more. Soon the young girl found reaching out to her estranged mother pointless and stopped at once. It was hard for Cassie growing up when all of her friends could bring their mother’s to school and the chair beside her was remained empty. However, soon that didn’t play a fact as the memory of her mother faded away and her Grandmother took the place. Sometimes Cassie would find herself slipping up and referring to her grandmother as her “mom”.
“cassie, see who’s at the door please,” Tullah had just finished putting up the breakfast dishes and was about to begin preparing their Sunday dinner.
“yes ma’m,” cassie answered politely hopping out her chair and rushing to the door hoping it was her friend Ashley, early to pick her up. She flung the door open and her body went rigid,
“Cassie, baby I missed you,” her mother enveloped her in a cloud of her cheap perfume, “Oh your so big now!” Bethany stepped back and took a look at her baby girl all grown up. At seventeen, Cassie was a splitting image of her mother, from the oval shape of their faces to the slim curve of their bodies.
“Girl, close my door you’re letting the heat out….” Tullah trailed off at the sight of her only daughter.
“Hey mom,” Bethany smiled brightly as if dropping by after eight plus years was completely in the norm.
Cassie eyes moved to her grandmother hoping to get an answer from her, but she appeared as dumbfounded as cassie.
“Well,” Tullah said, clearing her throat, “won’t you come in?”
Bethany breezed by Cassie along with her “friend”. A tall dark colored man with a grim expression on his face. Cassie blinked rapidly, pinched herself on the arm, and shook her head a few times. Yes, this was definitely not a dream. She joined the group in the living room. She noticed her mother had left a spot for her to join her, but cassie ignored it and took a seat opposite with her grandmother. Cassie’s eyes darted back and forth watching the silent battle her grandmother and her mother seemed to be having. Finally, Bethany began to speak, “ I know I should have called first, but I have big news…,” she paused for a dramatic effect, “I want Cassie to come back home with me.” Bethany smiled and leaned back in her chair waiting for the joy that would surely attach itself on her daughter’s face.
Tullah snorted, “Bethany that has to be the stupidest thing that has ever come out of your mouth.”
Bethany’s smiled quickly deflated, “ I know I haven’t been there for cassie, but I wanna change that. She’s my daughter and she should be with me.”
“She’s not a toy, you can’t decide when you want to play with her. She’s your daughter, if you wanted a relationship with her you should have started long ago.”
Bethany waved her mother’s words away with a flick of her hand, then turned to Cassie that manipulating grin back in place, “What do you think baby?”
Cassie didn’t know what to think. Her brain told her not to trust her mother’s words, but the ice that remained in her heart needed the warmth of her mother’s love. Her real mother’s love.
Once she thought those words, everything became clear to her. She already had a real mother. Her grandmother had always been there for Cassie, when kids in her class made fun of her for her “nappy” hair, when she started her period in church and bleed all over the seat, and many more occasions in Cassie’s young life. She could hardly remember a time when her mother had done something for her.
“No,” Cassie voice was barely a whisper, but the world tilted the feeling in the room.
Bethany’s face changed again into a snarl not fit for her pretty face, “What?”
“You heard her,” Tullah smiled satisfied.
“I said no.”
Bethany leaned against the couch looking towards the ceiling before rummaging through her purse and pulling out a cigarette,” Really Cassandra? Your gonna let my mamma brainwash you like she did me? You better try to get out like I did.”
This set something off inside Cassie, “who do you think you are? You have never been there for me, ever! And you think you can just waltz in here and turn me against someone who has taken care of me since day one? You did run away. From me, from work, from your responsibility, from everything! And you think you can waltz in here and turn me against someone who has cared for me. You are the most selfish person I know!” Cassie took a deep breathe, as her face had begun to turn red.
The unlit cigarette hung from Bethany’s mouth. The shock of being put in place by her daughter stunned her into silence. Tullah looked at cassie in admiration, and Carlos, Bethany’s friend, looked awkwardly at the carpet.
Bethany cleared her throat, “Fine, we’re leaving.” She slung her bag over her shoulder giving Cassie a deathly glare as she exited the room.
As soon as Cassie was sure her mother left, she was breaking down, sobbing furiously in her grandmother’s arms.
“Shush, no more tears,” it was the same soothing voice Tullah had used to comfort a crying Cassie many years ago.
“I love you,”
“I love you too.”