Part One; Withering
The tranquility of the pond was nice, the water was as still as a statue and so were the trees. The sky existed solely to look amazing in that moment, and the golden haze made everything absolutely magnificent. The occasional breeze barely ever interrupted the tranquility and stillness of it all. The headwind brought an amazing floral scent with it, and I’m so glad I have my dad to share it with.
“I wish mom was here.” I’m not sure if dad heard me though, he looks so fixated on the scenery, or deep in thought.
”Yeah, I’m sure she’d love this.” He sounds a little sad, I understand why though. We’re all a little sad thinking of mom. It’s been almost a year now, and she hasn’t gotten any better.
“Oh, I know what we should do! My friend from school taught me how to make a necklace out of flowers! We should make one for mom!”
”Yeah, that sounds nice, I think she’d like that.” His gaze is set on the water, I don’t think I’ve seen him blink since we sat down now that I think of it. I got up and started walking to the other side of the pond where all the flowers were, they were really pretty. There were a lot of red and blue ones, I think I saw some purple ones too. When I got there I saw more colors than I could have ever imagined, it looked like a rainbow on the ground. There were the reds and blues I saw earlier, but there were purples, whites, pinks, and even ones that were a mixture of many colors. It looked so much better up close than from across the pond. I only take as many flowers as I need for mom, I don’t want this to look any less pretty than it is now. I realize after standing back that it looks even prettier when you notice the bed of clovers under it. I spent ten minutes looking for one with four leaves. I think mom will really like this necklace.
It took me half an hour according to dad, it only felt like five minutes though, but the necklace is done. We get in the car and I hold onto the necklace like I’m protecting it with my life. I don’t want my gift to mom to get hurt.
It takes a little while, but eventually dad drives into the parking lot of a large brick building. There’s a sign near the entrance that says “Polyclinic Hospital.” After walking inside, a woman greets us from the front desk.
”Hello Mr. and Ms. Mirana, so are you here to check on your mother then Susan?”
I always love how nice she is to everyone. Even though she has a mask on, I can still tell she’s smiling at us.
”Yeah! I made this necklace too! Do you think she’ll like it?”
I hold out the necklace for her to see. She takes a long pause admiring it.
”It is very lovely. I’m sure she’ll like it.”
I can’t help but smile after hearing that, I’m really glad mom would like it.
”Thank you Ms. Adler!”
“Of course, now, I need to talk to your dad for a few minutes, would you go play in the other room for me?”
”Okay!”
I hurriedly go into the waiting room and fiddle with the toys that are sitting around. I can faintly hear talking from the other room, but I can’t tell what about. I hear dad almost yell, which I haven’t heard since someone tried talking to mom. She said she felt uncomfortable near someone, and dad snapped. But, it wasn’t the same kind of yell as then. He sounded sad with it.
After a few more minutes of waiting, I hear a knock on the door, and Ms. Adler walks in. She reaches out her hand, and I grab it. She leads me down some dark hallways to a small room furnished with a few chairs, a couple desks, and a television. Mom is laying on a bed with some slightly dirty sheets covering her lower half. I can see her bones against her skin, like her skeleton is eating away at her insides trying to escape. Her skin is coarse, and a strange spiral pattern is on her chest that I can only see the ends of due to the gown.
“When will you get better?” My voice is a little shaky when seeing her like this. I hold her hand, it’s really rough. It feels like alligator skin.
”Soon, I hope.” Mom’s voice is faint, but I can understand her well enough. I want to believe that she’s getting better, but it’s hard when I see her like this.
“When will you be able to leave? We could go on walks and see the flowers. Me and dad found this really cool pond that you’ll love! Oh! That reminds me, I also made you this!” I hold out what I made excitedly for her to take it, and when I see she can’t fully extend her arm towards it I hand it the rest of the way to her.
”I’m sure I’ll be okay by your eighth birthday, it’s coming up soon, right? You must be excited. And thank you for this, it’s really pretty.”
”Really?! You think it looks good? Thank you, I’m really glad you like it. And I really hope you’re there for my birthday, but if not then we’ll have to have the party here.”
“That would be fun, but I don’t think the doctors would like that too much.”
”We could ask them!”
”Yeah, we’ll have to…”
She passes out with that last breath. She’s been doing that a lot recently, the time she spends awake seems to get shorter and shorter. I don’t know why that happens, but it’s probably just her being sick, that’s what the doctors say it is at least. I hope it’ll stop soon.
By the time we get home it’s already dark and I’m tired. By the time I get into my bed I’m about half asleep. I hear dad walk in and ask me something, but I don’t hear him. I hear him walk out a minute later and for just a second, I thought I saw something move out the window, but it’s probably just me halfway in a dream.
The morning air is nice, the bird’s songs are always my favorite part of the morning, but eating is a close second. I hop out of bed and go out into the kitchen to eat. I make myself a bowl of cereal and plop myself down in my chair. Dad’s already sitting in his chair, sipping coffee and looking out the window like he usually does. I remember he said something to me last night so I looked at him and asked what it was.
“What did you ask me last night? I heard you say something but I didn’t hear what it was.”
”What do you mean?”
”You walked into my room last night and said something, I heard you, I was too tired to respond though. What did you say?”
”I wasn’t in your room, I don’t think I was anyway.”
”That’s odd, I thought you came in and said something to me.”
”It might’ve been a dream.”
Maybe, but I don’t remember falling asleep before that happened. But I probably hit the bed and fell asleep with how tired I was. What else happened last night? I feel like I’m forgetting something but I don’t remember what. Probably some dream I had that I’m mixing with real life.
“What should we do today?”
”Do you want to go back to the hospital and visit mom?”
”Yeah! I’m sure she’d love to see us!”
”I’m sure she would.”
I hop back to my room and quickly get changed, I hope mom’s awake when we go to see her.
After dressing myself in my favorite blue flower dress and matching blue shoes, I bolt to the kitchen and eat as fast I can, then yell for dad to get ready. After he does, I throw myself in my seat and wait for dad to get in the car too.
“Dang, Susan. You’re really excited to see mom, aren’t you?”
”Yup.”
”Alright, let’s go then. I hope she’s awake so you can see her.”
”I’m sure she will be when we get there.”
He says something that sounds like it’s supposed to support my hope, but he says it so quietly I can’t hear it.
After driving back to the familiar brick building, I excitedly run into the hospital, but dad yells for me to stop and not run so far ahead, after we walk inside I hop over to the counter and ask Ms. Adler if we could see mom today. A strange expression falls on her face that I can’t quite pinpoint what it means. She looks at dad, then me, and back to dad.
”I don’t believe that you’d be able to, but I could speak to the doctor and ask them. I just need to speak to your father first.”
”Alright! Should I wait in the other room like normal?”
”Yes, that would be quite nice, thank you Susan.”
”Mhmm!”
I walk back to the room and play with the toys in the waiting room.
After a long while, dad and Ms. Adler came into the room. Dad looks really sad and distressed for some reason. Ms. Adler is looking at him, then turns to me to say something.
”Hello Susan, I talked to the nice doctors and they said that you won’t be able to see your mom for a little while. She’s not doing well right now and the doctors are trying to help her right now and they really need to focus for a while, so let’s not disturb them, okay?”
”Alright! As long as mom is going to feel better then I’m okay with anything.”
She tenses up a little bit, and her eyes start to look a little sad for just a second, then she goes back to how she was before. I look at dad who seems to be nearly crying, I’m not sure why, Ms. Adler said that mom was getting helped by the doctors. I guess he just really wanted to see her. I do too.
After getting back in the car and driving a bit I realize that we’re not going the way we normally go to get home.
”Dad?”
”Yeah?”
”Where are we going?”
”We’re going to go to one of my friends. I’m going to need you to stay there for a little while, until mom gets better at least.”
”Why can’t I stay with you?”
He tears up a little bit, and his grip tightens on the wheel until his fingers are white.
”I’m going to be busy for a while, I’m sorry.”
”It’s okay! I just hope you can come back soon so we can both go and see mom together!”
Now he’s bordering on crying, he’s also shaking a little bit. I don’t get why, mom is going to get better, right?
After a while we pull up to a large house and a young man in an expensive looking suit greets us at the door. He introduces himself to me as “Chris Stevens.”
After dad hugs me tight and tells me that he’s sorry for the fiftieth time, he eventually drives away with tears in his eyes. I look at Chris and ask him a question.
”When will dad be back?”
He waits for a while before answering and without looking back to me, he answers.
”Not for a long time, sadly.”
