Bette hung up the phone, staring blankly into the wall in front of her.  She sat the phone beside her.

“Bette, what’s wrong?”

“Um…” Bette ran her fingers through her hair, “I have to go to the Planet.  Kit said there’s a woman there who says she’s my mother.”

Helena started to get out of bed, “Well, fuck, let’s go.”

“No, you stay here.”

“Bette, I want to be there.”

“I need to do this on my own.”  Bette reached for the clothes she wore that day, which reeked of the beach.  She moved toward Helena, taking her into her arms and pulling her close, “Please, don’t be mad at me.”

“I’m not.  I just want to be there for you.”

“I know, but the best thing you ca do for me right now is to let me handle it for myself.  I promise you, I will tell you everything afterwards, I just need to figure out what’s going on.”

“Ok.” Helena conceded.  Whatever Bette needed, she’d give her.

“Thank you.” Helena nodded, “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

Bette kissed Helena softly on her lips and then her nose and finally her forehead, “I’ll call you when I’m on my back here.”

**

Bette drove to the Planet, not finding anything on the radio worth listening to at a moment like this.  Her mind was all over the place.  This woman couldn’t be her mother.  Her mother said she wanted nothing to do with her.

She parked in the empty lot, as the Planet was closed this time of night.  Bette walked inside spotting Kit and the unidentified woman sitting across from her.  The woman turned and Bette would recognize those eyes anywhere.  They looked the same, maybe a tad older, as the way they did when Bette last saw her—when her mother told her she’d be back in a few and never returned.

“Oh…” Maxine Porter was never one to be at a loss for words, but upon seeing her daughter, she was speechless.

It had been so long since she looked at her daughter.  She was tall, she was beautiful.  She wondered what she had missed.  She missed her sweet sixteen, she missed prom, and she missed her high school graduation.  Had she went to college?  What was her major?  Oh, God, did she get married?  Did she have kids?