Chapter 1
The church was packed with family and friends as Parvati stood quietly in the foyer, this was a smaller room in the church, just off the side of the nave. It was used for the viewing before the funeral. She was numb, she could not think or even hear what people said as they greeted her and offered their condolences.
Elijah’s casket lay open as people walked past her and gave their last respects to her little boy. She glanced at her husband, Atticus, as he greeted and received hugs from his family. He was putting on a good face, or he was in denial of the reality that was setting in her heart.
After a few more people walked past her and talked to Atticus instead, she decided to stroll away from the view of her son’s perfectly laid body. She found herself looking at the nicely framed photos of him that she had taken throughout his short ten years. They looked so different now; when he was alive, they had been stacked in her office along with dozens of other photos that did not make the cut for display. Now, they looked priceless. Moments that captured Elijahs spirit. They were once something that was easily overlooked in her busy life, now they are all that is left.
Parvati was a short woman with light brown hair and emerald, green eyes, she was petit but had decent curves to her. She always assumed that she was a descendant of Cuban or Mexican ancestry because of her shape and slightly darker complexion. Being an orphan, she was always just guessing as her genetic makeup.
“Parvati?” A gentle, familiar hand touched her shoulder. She turned around to see Sister Agatha, Her’s was the only face in the sea of people that Parvati was genuinely happy to see. Sister Agatha was the nun who had found Parvati when she was abandoned on these church steps 33years ago.
“Sister.” Parvati leaned into her gentle touch and gave a week smile.
“It is time to bring him into the church.” She wrapped a warm arm around Parvati and led her to the pews in the front rows. Parvati held onto sister Agatha’s hand and asked her to stay with her. The sister gladly joined Parvati in the booth as Atticus sat next. The pallbearers slowly brought in the closed casket and set it down gently. The priest started the ceremony and Parvati drifted off in her mind to the day her life changed.
Year and Half ago
“Hello?” Parvati answered the phone, irritated that the call had interrupted an important meeting. She was a highly sought after photographer in New York City and the surrounding areas. Presently she was at a meeting with high profile wedding planner and an engaged couple looking at venues and planning special shots for their day.
“Mrs. Adley? This is Natalie from Doctor Kline’s office.”
“Sorry, yes this is Mrs. Adley.” She mentally smacked herself for sounding so rude when she answered the phone.
“Doctor Kline has received the results from Elijah’s routine checkup and would like you and Mr. Adley to come into his office as soon as possible to discuss the labs.”
“Oh, okay. Well let me get ahold of my husband and figure out a day we can come in together and I will call you back.” Parvati said as she held up an apologetic ‘one second finger’ to her clients that had been waiting patiently.
“Mrs. Adley, the doctor wanted you to come in as soon as possible.” She directed firmly.
“Yes, I understand, and I will call you right back.” Parvati hung up the phone and proceeded with her meeting; surely the news that her son is healthy can wait a few hours.
The meeting with her clients went over an extra hour and she was finally able to call Atticus.
“Darling I am extremely busy today; you know that Wednesdays are busy court days.” He answered. Atticus was a lawyer and a good one, he oversaw a lot of high-profile cases. Making him also one of the busiest. He had also come from a promenade family of politicians and had lofty ambitions for himself one day holding a seat in Washington.
“Atticus, the doctor wanted us both there as soon as possible. Can you please make time to do this with me, I almost feel like a single parent taking him to his doctor’s appointments and school functions.” She pleaded with him.
“Parvati, I cannot do it today. If it can wait until Monday, I think I have an hour free during lunch.” He said quickly, “hey, I have to go. The jury is back.”
He hung up before she could say another word. She grumbled and dialed the doctor’s office back asking for Natalie. Deciding at that moment if she should just go and get the meeting over with today or if she wanted to risk setting it up for Monday and having ‘something come up’ with Atticus.
“Mrs. Adley?” Natalie came onto the line.
“Yes, my husband is not available until Monday so I will be coming in by myself. Is there a better time today for the doctor to meet with me?”
“Um… you can come in right now. He will be available to sit down and talk with you.” She said sounding a little unsure.
Parvati had her assistant clear her schedule for the remainder of the day and left the high rise building where her office was to make her way to her sons’ doctor’s office.
It was early Spring in New York, and the tourists from Spring break have dissipated and the summer breakers would not come for a couple of months still. Traffic was much lighter and the cab to the doctor’s office did not take as long. Parvati checked emails and looked through her schedule for the next few weeks.
Once she got to the counter and told the receptionist who she was, she was taken right back to await the doctor in his office. Elijah’s doctor was a highly sought after physician that a lot of higher-class families used because of the location of his office. The doctor’s office was nicely decorated with a large wooden desk and brown leather furniture, a few plants lined a wall of windows that looked out onto part of Central Park. Parvati stood and looked out at the view as she waited for the doctor to come in.
A few moments went by before the doctor came in with a shallow smile, greeted her and grabbed Elijah’s folder from a nearby filing cabinet.
“Let’s see,” he ruffled through the paperwork as he sat down in a chair and motioned for her to join him sitting in the opposite. “Mrs. Adley, we had some concerning bloodwork come back from the lab. We had them do some additional tests to double check before calling you in here.”
Concern etched her face; this was not the usual ‘he is healthy’ sit down.
“You are scaring me a little Doctor.” She tried to mask her fear, but it didn’t work. He gave out a large sigh and relaxed in the chair as he looked at her.
“I am sorry to tell you this… but I have confirmed that Elijah has cancer.”
Parvati was speechless, the air in her lungs sucked out like a vacuum; she looked at him in disbelief. She felt dizzy and rubbed her temples.
“Did I just hear you correctly? My son doesn’t have cancer, he’s not sick. You have the wrong results.” She became agitated and emotional, standing up she started pacing around the room, feeling her heart start to thump wildly in her chest. “He’s a healthy nine-year-old boy…. Right?” Her voice cracked.
“Mrs. Adley, we really needed your husband here to be able to discuss treatment options, it appears to be a more advanced stage. We need to start treatment before the weekend to get ahead of this before it becomes unmanageable.” He handed her a pamphlet guide to treatment options along with his personal cell phone number for any questions and told her to come back on Friday with her husband to decide what to do.
Gaining her composure so that when she moved, she was no longer trembling, she walked out of the building shoving the papers into her purse. Hailing a cab with ease she slid in and directed him to go to her son’s school. As the Cab glided through the streets she watched as the buildings whizzed by. The whole way there she couldn’t wrap her mind around how her little boy could be so sick. Looking at her watch she noted that it was about lunchtime and the children should all be outside playing. Handing the cab driver his fare money, she asked if he would stay for a while and told him to keep the meter running and that she would be back.
Parvati walked along the tall fence until she could see some children she recognized from Elijah’s class. Smiling sweetly as she found her little boy’s face in the crowd of running children. She thought to herself, he can’t be sick. He seems perfectly fine right now; he is running and playing with his friends. That is not what a child with cancer is supposed to look like. A tear slid slowly down her cheek, wiping it before any strangers could observe her raw emotions. She stood and watched her son play for a few moments, noticing that he was slower than the rest and seemed to become fatigued quicker. He was even a little pale after a while of watching.
“Great,” she said to herself quietly. “Now my brain is going to start seeing things.”
The bell at the school rang letting the children know that lunch recess was over. Parvati climbed back in her cab and directed him to drive to the courthouse.
The opulent building was modeled after the capital buildings in DC and had big white pillars and details all over the outside. She walked into the large building under the beautiful arches; her heels clicking loudly against the marble floors as she found an unoccupied bench in the lobby. She sat down and discreetly opened the brochure as she waited for the court to let out.
Reading through the brochure, she quickly became emotional again. As soon as she could feel herself giving way to the pending tears, she closed the pages and tucked them back in her purse. Now was not the time or place to break down. She needed to be strong to face her husband with the news.
When the doors to the courtroom finally opened, she stood and waited patiently for her husband to appear, he didn’t. After the last person left the doorway, she made her way inside. She greeted the bailiff as she heard some voices from the Judge’s chambers.
“May I?” she asked the bailiff as she walked past him, not really giving him the option to protest.
“Knock, knock.” She said as she slowly entered the room.
The Judge’s chambers was a large office space, he had a wall lined with bookshelves behind his desk, a large wall sized window to the right of him. And to the left there was a small seating area with two black leather chairs, and a black leather couch that matched. In the other corner was a small table with three chairs looking out the window.
“Mrs. Adley, what a pleasant surprise. Not very often do I have the pleasure of seeing your beautiful face around these parts. I always have to look at his ugly mug.” The Judge chuckled as he pointed to Atticus who turned around and looked shocked to see her there.
“Judge Monroe, pleasure.” She walked around the large chamber to greet the Judge, He took her hand and kissed it. “I have some very important things to discuss with my husband.” She looked at Atticus and firmly grabbed his hand.
“I was getting ready to go grab some lunch with the Judge here.” Atticus kissed her forehead.
“Att, we really need to discuss something in private.” She looked at him with a stare that he knew she meant business.
“Sorry Judge, some other time maybe. It’s not often that we are not in the middle of a case and have that conflict of interest.” He chuckled as Parvati practically dragged him out the room. The Judge gave a slight chuckle at Parvati, wearing a thin pencil skirt with high heels and silk blouse, pulled out one of the best lawyers in the state.
“Jeez Parvati, what could possibly be so bad that you yank me out of Judge Monroe’s chambers.” He yanked away from her and stood firmly in the lobby of the courthouse. His voice echoed loudly through the halls. “You are lucky the jury came back, or I would have still had to be here.”
“Elijah has cancer.” She blurted out, stunning herself. She couldn’t believe that the words flew out.
“What?” He dropped his briefcase with a loud thump that echoed in the large marble lobby.
“I wanted to meet with the doctor and get it over with, knowing that something always comes up when we try to plan anything. So, I went this morning right before lunch.” She whispered as she walked him outside the courthouse and found a bench to sit on. She explained what she could to him and handed him the pamphlet. “We need to decide by Friday, he said that it’s imperative we get treatments started right away.”
“Okay.” He said as he looked through the pamphlet. After a few moments to compose himself, he grabbed his cell phone and dialed his office. He had his secretary cancel everything for Friday. “Now what?”
“We have to tell Elijah.” She could hear her voice crack as she said his name. Telling him would make it seem real. She wasn’t ready for it to be real.
Present
“Parvati,” Sister Agatha rubbed her back gently as she led her out to the hearse waiting to take Elijah’s body to the church’s cemetery. She watched as her husband climbed into one of the police cars that were to escort the parade of cars following the hearse. Giving Sister Agatha a big hug, she climbed into the second police car. She looked out the window, absent from her body. Watching ahead as the busy streets of New York became bare, making way to the large line of cars that followed to the cemetery.
