A Fight to Remember

Loving You is Never Exhausting Pt. 1

A/N: There is still a lot of story to be played out here... so a face to face meeting will be awhile yet. :( That's not to say there won't be some ... reliving, memories, subconscious thoughts in the coming chapters. This is not just MerDer, it's also about family, and the ramifications of living with Alzheimers, etc.

I wanted to give a shout out to the book "Still Alice," By Lisa Genova. There is also a movie by the same title based on the book, starring Julianne Moore, Alec Baldwin and Kristen Stewart, among others. I found these materials especially helpful in coming up with ideas, thoughts, feelings of a professional woman and mother of young adults going through this disease. Strongly reccomend the book, if you're interested in these sort of stories.

Also big shout out to my amazing reviewers! Thank you so much for your support here! I

Anyway, Onward Ho!

Seattle June 16 2034

Zola

My 2022 Mazda five was a little rusted and smelled faintly of gasoline, despite all efforts to take good care of it. Uncle Alex helped me buy it, after my last car broke down. But it was reliable, and handled the roads well, which was why I liked it so much.

"How old is this car?" Bailey asked as we rumbled up the hill. The muffler was quite loud, especially when I changed gears.

"Not that old..." I muttered in defence. It was only twelve years old, and still in good working order, it was just loud.

"Old enough!" Bailey scoffed.

"Shut up! You can't complain until you get your own car, and then we'll actually have a choice next time."

"Weren't you gonna go electric?" Bailey asked.

"I want to, but they are stupidly expensive, and there still isn't enough places to charge them. Especially out on the island."

"Would you guys please shut up!" Ellis interjected.

"What?" I replied, annoyed. "We were just having a discussion Ellis."

"You always do this," Ellis continued, "How can you do this? Just chat... like nothing happened, like nothing is wrong... we just lit a candle and went to a ceremony for our missing dad... and you guys just yammer on, blah blah blah..."

I sighed, frustrated. I'd forgotten how grating Ellis could be sometimes. I sucked in a breath and focused on the winding road. We were almost there.

"Well? Are you going to answer the question?"

I said nothing, the day had drained me. An early morning, the memorial ceremony, the palpabale tension between us siblings as the weight of our grief over our dad and worry over our mom seemed to press on us all.

I didn't want to add anymore weight with a pointless fight. Instead I drove, only another minute or two and we'd be there.

Ellis huffed, and I shot a glance at Bailey not to press it. He turned his attention instead to the road ahead of us, his knuckles lightly knocking against the passenger window. Finally we arrived. I found a quiet spot to park, and the three of us exited. I popped the trunk and removed the thick blanket while Bailey grabbed the picnic basket. Ellis took her camera and tripod.

I checked my watch. Amelia and Owen would be here soon too.

The view from the hill overlooked the ferryboats. It was our favorite spot since we were little. In spaces between work and school and the hospital, this was our stop. The spot to observe the city waking and sleeping, the coming and going of people on the way or going home. As kids, with our busy lives it was often a quick look before we were shuttled elsewhere. Or on good days it was a place for picnics and celebrations and laughter. But sometimes... we would linger here. When things were tense. When there was tension between mom and dad, they would linger here...