The Neighborhood Watch

Chapter Six - How To Really Mean It

Back inside, my dad made a noise of disbelief. "What did you tell her? Was she suspicious?" He launched into a tirade of what-ifs. "What was she saying before I got out there?"

For a moment, I wasn't sure if I should tell him she is a social worker or not. There was a part of me that wanted her to find out and take us away. But the rest of me knew she couldn't do that. 

"She just wanted to know more about me because I am hanging out with her daughter for school." I decided, taking Shasta's collar off. I'd tell Marrisa first and show her the card before I showed all of my cards. "She started asking about my grades and if I got into trouble often."

My dad nodded, taking a breath. "You know that means her daughter has a crush on you, right?" I'd sure hope so. "That or she's super concerned about her kids being safe."

I took a long sip of my coffee, enjoying how strong it was. "How was your hunt, dad?"

Hank's brain shifted gears quickly, the memories of the night overtaking him. Without missing a beat, he began to talk and walk, leading us out to the two chairs on the back patio that overlooked the barn. It sounded like this hunt had been like every other one before it, filled with scaling buildings and sending his shadow down to the ground to kill robbers and creepy men who followed women home. He liked to say he was cleaning up the town, but I couldn't imagine the strange graves he'd dug in the woods were equal to that.

Throughout our entire conversation, he never mentioned our mom once, never said that he'd gotten a call about her going into surgery. My dad was either trying to protect us from the news or had forgotten, and I wasn't sure which was worse.

I sat and baked in the morning sun enjoying the warmth on my skin at the same time the coffee warmed my insides. Maybe I'd make it this strong from now on. I could bring myself a travel mug of coffee to school, and when I feel like falling asleep in Algebra, I'll chug it.

"This coffee makes me think of my first date with your mother." I turned to my dad in surprise, almost choking on my drink. Hank was looking off into the distance, bringing the cup up to his lips and savoring each sip. "We were both in France for the summer with our families, and somehow, we ended up sitting under the same fountain. We started talking and found that we were from the same state. It was a wild set of circumstances, and I thought to myself, here's this pretty girl sitting in front of me with all these crazy things in common, I can't just forget her. So, I asked her out for a cup of coffee. She agreed and we found this tiny little café where the coffee was so strong, we couldn't drink it. Instead, we just sat and talked for hours."

I'd never heard my dad talk about my mom like this. I'd never heard him open up. Maybe he was trying to protect us from the news, or maybe this was his way to lead into telling me.

He brought his eyes down to the coffee and smiled. "I saw her three more times while we were in France, and then when we came home, I thought I'd never see her again." Hank continued. "But one day, Elizabeth just mentioned that she had a friend in the town your mom told me she lived in. Elizabeth had met Margo after she came back from boot camp while she was working at a dinner. We were able to reunite and I knew then I didn't want to be away from her ever again. So, you can imagine what it was like to go with her to that appointment when they told us about the tumor."

I looked down at my own coffee, remembering waiting with Marrisa in the living room while our parents talked in the other room, deciding how to explain to us that Mom wasn't alright. At first, we didn't understand it, we didn't believe it. But then when the sickness showed itself, it felt like whiplash.

"And you can imagine what it was like to get a call last night that she is in surgery." There it was, the information we'd both been sitting on. "Apparently the tumor grew without us knowing and is pressing dangerously against her brain. The surgery will go fine, but they worry about the lasting effects of the damage. Mainly including her speech."