She was about to turn around, convinced it was a mistake, when she saw someone in the garden. It was a woman with white hair, watering the plants with infinite patience. She looked younger, more upright, with a light in her face that Carolina couldn't remember seeing in years. It was Mercedes.
Carolina's heart stopped. She felt an overwhelming urge to run and hug her, but shame weighed her down like lead. She remembered the rain. She remembered the slamming door. She remembered her cowardly silence. She stood by the gate, trembling. "Mom..." she whispered, but the words wouldn't come out.
Mercedes, as if she had a radar in her heart, looked up. She saw that haggard, dirty, and sad woman in the doorway. Her eyes filled with tears. In that instant, time froze. In Mercedes's mind echoed the words of Jesus in the park: “Your daughter is going to look for you… and at that moment, you will have to decide: will you be like Rodrigo was with you, or will you be like I have been with you? ”
Her flesh urged her to shut the door. To scream at him: “Now you’re coming! Now that you have nothing!” Human pain craved revenge. But the Spirit blew stronger. Mercedes let go of the hose. She walked slowly toward the gate. Carolina took a step back, lowering her head, waiting for the scolding, the insult, the rejection she knew she deserved.
"Mom... I... I have nowhere to go... forgive me..." Carolina sobbed, covering her face with her dirty hands.
Mercedes flung the gate wide open. The creaking of the iron broke the silence. Without a word, she held out her arms. Carolina fell to her knees, clutching her mother's legs, weeping with heart-wrenching pain, the cry of someone who knows she is unworthy but desperate. "Forgive me, Mommy! I was a coward! I abandoned you! I'm worthless!"
Mercedes bent down, with the difficulty that comes with age but with the strength that love gives, and helped her up. "There, my child, there..." She stroked her dirty hair, kissing her forehead. "Get up." "I don't deserve to come into your house," Carolina cried. "No one deserves grace, my child. That's why it's grace. Come in. You're home now."
