His Sunflower

Chapter 4

I kick my shoes off, and drop my backpack by the stairs before going to find grandma. I go straight to the kitchen, seeing her there as usual. Grandma's gotten pretty into baking a little bit ago.

"Hey grandma, we're back." I say just letting her know.

"Oh great! How was your first day?"

"It was fine." I say smiling.

"Good to hear." I nod in agreement before leaving grandma to go back to her baking.

"Hey you two, how was your first day of second grade?" I ask Max and Clara who are sitting in the living room playing with their legos.

"It was great!!" Max says happily. "Don't you agree Clara?"

"Yeah, it was great. And we get the most awesomest snacks!"

I chuckle. "That's cool."

Max nods energetically.

"Hey Zoey, wanna play legos with us?" Clara asks holding out a Lego person to me.

"Of course." I grin taking the Lego person from her and playing along with them. The twins have such imaginations it's sometimes hard to not laugh at how they make it feel. I love them so much.

We play Legos for a while, until Max gets bored and wants to run around outside. So he takes Clara and the two go outside, and I stay back. I want a nap.

I get up off the floor, and as I go to the stairs, grandma calls me from the kitchen. I sigh softly and walk over.

"Yeah grandma?"

"The hospital called," I immediately go stiff at the mention of the hospital. "they said your mom asked if you could visit."

I shake my head quickly. "No. No, I don't want to go grandma. You know how it went last time."

"Zoey, she's doing better now." Grandma said, and I closed my eyes.

Last time I went, it was so bad. I swore to myself I'd never go back, but now I feel terrible. How can I not go?

"You don't have to if you don't want to hunny."

Finally I open my eyes. "No, it's ok. I'll go. But if it goes the same way, I am not going back."

Grandma nods, understanding. "Grandpa will be here in a few minutes to pick you up."

I nod and walk off. So much for my nap. I sit on the stairs, waiting for grandpa to come, which didn't take long at all.

He honks the car horn, and I sigh getting off the stairs and walking out to his car. Hoping into the passengers side, I smiling at grandpa.

"Hi Zoey."

"Hi grandpa."

With that grandpa starts driving away. I wish that the hospital was further away, but my wishes never come true, because within three minutes we're at the hospital.

I take grandpa's hand, squeezing it tightly as we go to the elevator going up to the 12th floor. The psych ward.

Grandpa signs us in, and then takes us to the visiting room, where she's already sitting there. I gulp and glance back at grandpa. "I'll... I'll see you soon."

Grandpa nods and leaves the room. I walk over to her, and sit down next to her. Sensing someone sitting next to her, she looks up at me.

"Zoey... baby..."

Forcing a smile on my face, I sign to her. 'Hi mom.'

Mom looks at me for a minute, looking over my face. "I'm so sorry Zoey." Tears fill her eyes as she looks down. "So so sorry."

I shrug, not that mom was looking anyway. I want to tell her it's fine, but she's not looking so I can't. I just sit patiently while waiting for mom to finally look back at me.

When she finally does, I tell her it's no problem.

"How's, how's your dad?" Mom asks, more tears filling her eyes.

"He's fine. I think. I don't see much of him." I say, while also signing. "Has he visited you at all?"

As soon as I've said it, I regret it. I totally forgot mom told dad she didn't want to see him a while ago.

"Actually he has."

I furrow my eyebrows. What? Since when was he allowed to see mom?

"We're going to be ok Zoey. As soon as I can leave, we'll be one happy family again. I promise."

I can't help but scoff at that. Which I know was rude of me, but it's fine, mom couldn't here it anyway. Since you know, she's deaf.

"And when are you able to leave?" Mom takes a minute longer to read my signs, because I was a bit sloppy with them, I tend to do that when I'm upset.

"I don't know yet. Hopefully soon though."

I have the urge to roll my eyes, but I don't. I personally think mom shouldn't be let out soon. As much as I love her, I feel like she's still unstable. I mean, she literally tried killing herself, if that doesn't say unstable then I don't know what does.

"How are Max and Clara?"

"They're ok. Just fine."

"Zoey, I can't read your signs." Mom says with a sigh.

I take a deep breath, trying to calm myself down. But it doesn't work much. I'm mad at her for trying to kill herself. Why? Why in the hell would she try doing that? Does she really not care about the rest of us? What was going through her mind at that point? What?

"I said they're fine." I make sure to sign my words clearly and slowly.

Mom must've sensed I was upset, because tears rise to her eyes again. "I'm so sorry Zoey."

I force a smile at her. "It's fine mom."

Mom nods her tears not stopping from falling down her face. "Will you ever forgive me?"

I sigh. "Of course I will." I just don't know if it'll be anytime soon.

Mom asks a few more questions, before she tells me I can just leave. I kept having to repeat my signs for her, because I was being sloppy, and mom figured I didn't really want to be here. I leave the visiting room, seeing grandpa talking to a nurse. I walk up to him, and he finishes his conversation with the nurse and we go back to their house. Grandpa never asked how it went, and I never said a word about it. Didn't see a reason to do so.