Preacher's Son

𝐗

Houston, Texas

May 3rd

2:43 pm

"Did you grab the gifts off the table?" Maelia mutters to Ashton who sat in the drivers seat beside her, he nods adjusting the bill of his hat.

"Yeah, they in the trunk. We still gotta grab his new meds from the pharmacy right?" Maelia nodding as she sits back into her seat, taping her foot against the floor of the car as her brother sped off down the road towards a near by Walgreens.

They were on their way to see their father, Maelia had gotten a call from the doctor that he was diagnosed with another illness to add on to the ones he already had. Being prescribed new medication and even more nurse coverage, Maelia and Ashton begin to grown worried about his condition.

It seemed as timed past, he only had gotten worse.
More money being pulled from his account to cover medical expenses and hospital visits. Maelia not mentally prepared for the day Hospice would walk through her fathers house with papers ready for her to sign away on his life.

Closing her eyes, she decides to pop her ear phones in and play some music. To drown out all her overthinking for the rest of the ride.

—

Pushing the key into the door, Maelia twists the nob to push the black enforcement back. Moving inside as Ashton comes shortly behind her with the rest of the bags, kicking the door closed with his foot.

Scanning the floor Maelia and Ashton's faces scrunch in confusion at the two extra pairs of blue moccasins that sat beside the coat rack. Only used to seeing their fathers same old brown house slippers, the two look at one another oddly.

"Daddy?!"

"Who's that?!"

The siblings here a feminine voice echo upstairs before they both begin to walk up, making it into the hallway and down only to run into two nurses. A darksin women with blue scrubs on, and a white women with gray.

The two sigh in some sort of relief, moving aside to let the two walk past them.
"Sorry Mr. & Ms.Anderson, we weren't expecting you. We just got finished giving your father his bath and lunch."

Maelia nodding as she turns to the women, "That's fine. We picked up all his new medication, do you have any information on the new things the doctors has found within his condition? They said they'd let us know soon."

The nursing nodding as she walks past Maelia and into the room, Maelia and Ashton following as the darkskin nurse grabs a clipboard. Maelia looking over to see her fathers face turned toward the tv as the second nurse placed a new IV into his arm.

"Well from what I have collected here you father has been diagnosed with some early stages of dementia. Test where ran on him yesterday and we had found signs within his brain activity, he was asked a series of questions and for most we got the same answer- 'I don't remember' or 'I don't know'."

The nurse giving a sad smile as Maelia's heart partially
dropped, the fear and realization setting in that her father was starting to lose his memory. The fear that he would soon forget who she was, having to beg him to even remember her name. She wasn't mentally prepare for that type of change or rejection, wanting to believe there was some type of cure to stop the diseased from growing any stronger since it was in its earliest stage.

Swallowing slowly she blinks a few times, "And uh..what exactly comes with his dementia? H-how did it start..what caused it?"

Ashton noticing the shakiness in his sister voice as he steps closer to her, placing his hands on her shoulder to sooth her. Not wanting her to have one of her anxiety attacks, considering she had gone so long without one.