A Fight to Remember

Always Go With Blue (Back Together)

Bailey

We gathered around the kitchen table, all of us awkwardly silent. Speechless.

"Umm... anyone hungry?" Zola asked, checking the cupboards.

"God, yes,"

"Starving-"

"Mmm-"

"I can whip something up," I said over all the others. "Pizza?"

"You're gonna make pizza?" Mom asked hoarsely.

I smiled at her warmly, grey-green eyes met grey-green. She smiled back with a look I hadn't seen in a long time. Pride. My throat ached as I turned to look for the flour. "Yeah, I'll make a big one, you guys can put whatever you want on it."

"My son can make pizza..." Mom said with astonishment.

"Our son." Dad said.

I went to work on the recipe I'd memorized in college. It had been a lifesaver, probably saving me hundreds of dollars in the long run. Combining the ingredients, I kneaded the dough into a ball and plopped it onto the pizza pan.

"So..." Mom sighed, "I'm... I'm lucid. And your father is here, well, most of him, and well..." she trailed off, her fingers tracing an imaginary pattern on the tablecloth.

I looked up from the pan as my fingers stretched the dough and pressed it against the edges. Everyone was staring at her, waiting for her to say something, but as her gaze flicked over us all, she released a small sob instead. "Oh," she choked.

Zola wrapped an arm around her. "Shhh," she comforted.

I opened a jar of pizza sauce and poured it into the middle of the pan, and then used the underside of a spoon to spread the sauce from the inside out.

"It's just..." Mom continued, "This better not be a freaking dream. You're all grown up, and-" she looked up at Dad, who seemed to be lost in his own thoughts as he too took in the sight of us and the kitchen. Maybe he was having flashbacks, who knew? "You're here." Mom pulled him from his daze as she rested her palm on the back of his hand, stroking it with her thumb, an intimate gesture that spoke more than words ever could. Dad kissed her on the top of her head, and she blushed like a teenager. She needed him. We needed him.

Ellis setttled in beside me with a huge bag of shredded cheese. I stepped away, grabbing the bowl to soak in the sink, my thoughts going a mile a minute. If Ellis thought dad being here would fix everything... she was wrong. We needed him, but could he handle it? When mom slipped away again into the fog of her mind? When she pushed him away or forgot him, would he still be there?

And that was only half of my concern. The other half was for mom's health. I knew Alzheimers now like the back of my hand, and the research said that seventy-five percent of patients who experienced lucidness in this manner rapidly deteriorated afterwards, many of them passing away within two weeks.

I wasn't sure I could grasp that fact right now.

"Pepperoni?" I asked, reaching into the fridge.

"Extra pepperoni." Ellis said.

"And cheese. More cheese." Mom added.

"What do you have for vegetables?" Dad asked.

"Vegetables? You don't put vegetables on pepperoni pizza." Mom stated.

He arched an eyebrow at her. "Green peppers? Onions? Mushrooms?" He smirked. "You need your vegetables."

Mom shot a look at me, "Well at least that part hasn't changed."