On a day like any other in LA, Helena Peabody was released from prison.  Feeling like she was floating, she walked out the front gate with nothing but a pair of shoes and beat up jeans and tshirt. She walked for two hours.  Strangely enough, she had not wanted any of her friends to get her.  She only wanted her children—and she only wanted them to see her when she was far from the jailhouse.  So Winnie, of all people, met her with Wilson and Jun Ying at a diner, miles from the prison.

“Oh…H.” Winnie said softly. Helena held her children in her arms, almost too tightly, and loosened her grip as she looked up at her ex.  Wilson and Jun Ying sat back down as their mothers embraced for the first time in years. 

“So are you all right?” Winnie looked Helena over as they busied themselves with feeding the children.  The run down diner, with its menu of French fries and hamburgers, was familiar terrain for Winnie.  Helena didn’t care anymore.  She was fully Americanized it would seem.  All she needed to do now was become deathly ill, be refused health care, and perhaps end up on the streets. What else was left for her, she wondered dimly, as she looked around at pictures of Elvis Presley and Dolly Parton on the walls. A shitty jukebox sat in the corner, and Helena had the sudden urge to borrow money for it.  In the end, she decided against it.

Helena shrugged, helping herself to a fry from Wilson’s plate.  She playfully took one, then another, and placed the second back for him, giving him a wink. “You, my darlings,” She addressed both kids, “You’ve grown too much in these past few months. We’ll have to put you on rations.”

“Nooooooooo.” They shrieked jokingly. For once, they were subdued. Helena tried to bring them out of themselves for the rest of the dinner.  They were scared that she might disappear again. It would take a while for Helena to reassure them, but at least Winnie was on her side now.

“I’m fine.” Helena answered Winnie’s question hours later as they checked into a small hotel room under Winnie’s name. “I’ll take the couch.” Helena mumbled. But in the end, the small wounded family slept in the same room. Wilson and Jun Ying fell asleep between their mothers, who looked at one another in strange, compatible silence, for a long time.  Some time during the night, Helena awoke to find her hand clasped in Winnie’s.  The next morning they did not speak of it, but Winnie’s hug goodbye was genuinely warm.