She rooted through her bag as she searched fruitlessly for her phone. Finally locating it she snapped into the receiver.
“Hey sis, do you remember those stories mum used to tell us about that discord server?”
“Uh which one?” She asked mindlessly as she struggled to open her front door.
“The cuddle pile.” He answer as though it was obvious, she rolled her eyes at that. "Anyway, so I was in the loft and - did you know she still has her old laptop?“
"Yeah, something about not having the motivation to transfer all her photos or something.”
“Huh. Well guess what I found?”
“A job? Because that’s what you’re supposed to be doing.” She snarked stepping through the front door finally.
“Uh yeah. Anyway, back to mum’s laptop. So I was going through her documents because I was trying to find that list of wedding guests for her upcoming anniversary, when guess what I found?”
“I don’t know. The Easter bunny. Is there a point to this story?” She asked growing bored with his theatrics.
“Of course, there’s a point. I found a list of all of her social media logins and right there was her discord login.” He crowed gleefully.
“No. Tell me you didn’t!” A manic cackle was all she received in response. “Seriously!”
“Nope. But I’m sending the information to you.”
“You just got off of work didn’t you?”
“Yes but that’s not the poi-”
“Great.” And with that he hung up.
She scoffed at her brother’s behaviour. Suddenly her phone vibrated in her hand. Speak of the devil. Sure enough, there were the login details, whether they worked was another thing.
Oh what the hell. She thought to herself.
Grabbing her laptop she quickly logged into the old website that was surprisingly still functioning. She hesitated for a couple moments. She’d heard the stories about the legendary ‘cuddle pile’ her mother had spent most of her youth hanging out in.
She’d heard her mother speak so highly of people she had never met even when she had struggled to hold onto the friends she did have. She remembered her telling her about how when she was having a rough day, week or month just listening to the other would be enough to distract her and bring a smile to her face.
It was odd to think that the people who had occupied her bedtime stories - and she had come to think of as fictional characters - were literally only seconds away from her.
Before she could talk herself out of it she clicked on the designated server. It took a couple of seconds for the messages to load but when they did, the first thing she did was scroll up.
Reading through the old messages was a foreign experience. These people had been chatting to each other for so long, way before the thought of her existence and ever crossed her mother’s mind. It felt like sacred territory.
There were a couple of recent messages. Odd greetings to each other. But the most poignant was from someone that had been a common character in her stories as a child. Space dad.
“Hello. Welcome to the Pile. It’s been a long time since anyone has been here. We welcome you, whether you are returning after a long break, or newly arrived. I am Shiro, more commonly known as Space Dad. Welcome back, friends.”
A grin bloomed on her lips as her eyes scanned the small passage.
Suddenly, her phone rang cutting off all thoughts. She rolled her eyes expecting it to be her brother.
“Hey mum, so I was thinking about Granny’s anniversary and I was wandering what to get her. I know she’s a right chatterbox and always has been but she never really says anything useful so I don’t have a clue what she’d want. What do you think I should do?”
She opened her mouth to respond when the illuminated screen of her laptop caught her eye again.
Well, She thought, mother did say she had always wanted to meet them. I wander if they’d be up to sending a couple of selfies?
“I’ll get right on it sweetheart.”
Her fingers flew across the keyboard as she composed a quick message.
And send. Smiling to herself, she closed the lid of her laptop and set about sorting her own anniversary gift out.
“Dear 'Cuddle Buddys’ while I have never spoken to any of you personally I have heard of you and I was wandering - while I still have access to my mother’s account - if I could ask a small favour? While it is unlikely that any of you would be able to plan an impromptu trip to England, maybe you could send a couple of photos or a video of yourselves as my mother’s wedding anniversary is coming up and I know she’d love it. Thank you. Faithfully, The Daughter of awkward-ace.”
