Continuing Story Part 26

The next day at school, went smooth, and Dahlia was able to get all of her homework

completed in each class. This left her time to meet Drake after school and help him grade papers. She knocked on the door and heard the word enter, and as she went through the door way, he was there to greet her. He took her hands and led her over to the table, where the papers were sitting.

The room filled with senses of love. There was no need to talk as the air was speaking with heavy perfume of love. Each of them took their time grading, as they didn’t want to give up this special time of them being the only two in the room. They were in school rooms, so there was no mention of love, and no exchanges made of any kind.

After there was no more time to be wasted, the two of them, walked out of the room together and out the school doors. They got half way home and Drake grabbed her hand and brought it to his lips, where he gently kissed it, grazing her hand with the touch of his lips everywhere he could feel. Emotions stirred inside of Dahlia and she never wanted him to stop. Before any words could be exchanged, he let his lips leave her and grabbed hold of her hand as they walked silently the rest of the way home.

Rachel was standing in the door,  as if she was waiting on them to come home. She raised her hand to Drake signaling him to not let Dahlia enter without Rachel first speaking. The two of them stopped, and Dahlia asked why are we hesitating, is something wrong? Rachel took Dahlia’s hand and guided her to the swing, and Drake followed and they all sat down.

Rachel explained that she had received a phone call today, and that she was so sorry to have to inform Dahlia that her mother had passed away in the early morning of today. Dahlia sat in silence, not even batting an eye lash. All she could think was that the night mare was over. The dreams could be put to rest. There was no one left to use or belittle her ever again.

Rachel told her that the funeral was in two days and that she thought it appropriate, that Dahlia go. Although there had been bad times, and sad memories, and no contact, this was her mother. Dahlia knew she was right, and she did not want to go. She did not want memories brought back to the surface, but she found herself saying yes, that she would of course attend her mother’s burial. Rachel said that she and Ralph would accompany her, and Drake said that he would call the school and find a substitute teacher, that he himself, wanted to be at her side.

With the announcement of her mother, and arrangements being made, the three made their way in through the front doors of their home. Dahlia went to her room and put her ballot shoes on and went to the back yard to practice on her balancing bar. Her mind drifted back into time to the two people that she knew were her parents, but two strangers, that never allowed her to get to know them.

She could remember cleaning and never being quite good enough, fixing meals, and cleaning up after these two strangers, she was made to call mom and dad. She wondered how dad was going to handle having mom gone. Mom had been the leader in the house. She barked the orders and he followed. Did he follow her because he loved her so much, or had habit set in plus old age, and he felt it was better to stay silent  then to cause more grief in his life. She wondered what he would say to her, when he saw her after all these months had gone by. Would he speak to her? She wondered how he looked, although, she had never physically seen him, she had a picture of him in her mind.

Before any more thoughts could be done, the call for supper was heard. She had worked so hard on her dancing that she had lost track of time and had not helped to prepare the meal. She made her way back to the back door and let herself in. It seemed like everyone was in their own world as conversations were minimal, and the atmosphere was stagnant.

The next morning the quietness was even thicker, as everyone knew that Drew was going back to the doctor to get his results. Breakfast was hurriedly fixed and eaten, and everyone was out the door except Drew, Ralph, and Rachel. Drew had told the office yesterday, that he would be out half of the day, and they had found a substitute to fill in the whole day, so he did not have to go in.

Lingering around the house, watching the clock tick by, waiting to go to the appointment, each of them just sat on the furniture in the living room and made useless conversation. Finally, the clocked ticked down and they all got up and let  themselves into the car and took off for the doctor.

The receptionist greeted them with a smile, and said that the doctor was waiting for them in his office. Please go through the door here at the side and go back to the last door on the right. They followed her directions and found themselves knocking on the door and instantly the door was opened, and they were shown to seats that he had provided for the three of them.

He walked around to his big black leather chair behind the desk, and put his wire-rimmed glasses on and opened the chart lying in front of him. He cleared his throat and coughed, and looked up at all three of them, and said, the tests are back, and I am afraid the results are not good news.

The room grew dead in silence and everyone looked at each other, waiting for the words to come out of his mouth. The doctor hesitated a brief moment and then went on to say, that with all the years that had gone by, he had been so happy with all the progress that had been made, and he was still surprised to be sitting here with them discussing old news, but the sad news was that the scan showed brain cancer. There had been a mass found on the back side of his brain, and it was growing so quickly, that it was putting pressure on his skull, causing the headaches Drew was having.

Even sadder was that with the location of the mass, and the speed of its growth, there was no hope in surgery. He had taken the opportunity to telephone a hospital two hours away to talk to a specialist in brain cancers. The two had met and went over the x-rays, and both came to the same conclusion, no surgery.

Rachel started to cry, and Ralph put his arms around his wife to console her. Drew quietly asked how long, and the doctor said if nothing else came about, maybe six months. The doctor got up and came around to the three, and placing his arms around Drew, told him how sorry he was that he had to be the one to deliver this terrible news. He then pulled out of his jacket two prescriptions for pain medications, that may help with the headaches. He also told them that no matter what time of day or night, if any problems arose, please do not hesitate to call them.

The doctor asked them if they had any questions, and I believe that they were all in surface shock and each shook their heads in a no gesture. The doctor then said that they could stay in his office as long as they needed to and when they felt up to it, just to close the door behind them when they left. He said again how sorry he was, and then left them to their own thoughts.