A Fight to Remember

Inspiration Enough

Enjoy!

Meredith:

Smoke. It filled the foyer. A thick hazy layer that stung my eyes and burned my throat.

Where are we going mommy?

I covered my mouth with my sleeve. The study. I had to get to the study.

Away.

There was something I needed. The door was right beside me and I opened it, coughing. Inside, the air was clear. I shut the door and scanned the shelves. There was something...

Something I wrote, about Alzheimer's.

I have a disease for which there is no cure! I think that would be inspiration enough!

xxx

Amsterdam 2000.

"Death?" Sadie asked wearily, "Can you make the ceiling stop spinning?"

"No," I grumbled, as I clutched the toilet bowl, swallowing back the threat of bile. "Can you make my stomach stop flipping?"

"Ugh," she moaned. "How much did we drink?"

"I don't know," I said, slumping back to the cold bathroom floor. "I stopped counting after..." I counted on my fingers, "six shots? And then there was that guy...um, uh-," I scrunched my nose, trying to remember... his name.

"You don't remember?" Sadie asked.

"No," I shrugged. "Prolly for the best..."

"Yeah," she snickered. "Wow, I think this is a new record."

"What can I say? I'm competitive." I said, as my stomach made unwelcome threats again. "Ohh..."

"What's that noise?" Sadie sat up.

I didn't hear anything. "What noise?"

Just then the bathroom door opened, and a long blaring ring tone echoed off the walls in the tiny space. I looked up. Crap. It was that guy.

"Your phone is ringing again," he said in a thick German accent. "You should answer it. It says it's your mother."

My mother?

What?

It stopped ringing. I sighed a breath of relief. She could leave a message, and then I wouldn't have to deal with the yelling. We had a fight before I left in a furious rage, and now...

I was hungover. Across the world. In freaking Amsterdam. My nameless one night stand stood over me with the phone, and my best friend was trying really hard not to upchuck into her lap.

Soo did not want to speak to my mother right now.

It rang again. "Crap," I mumbled. Nameless-one-night-stand guy handed me the phone. He looked sympathetic. "Get out." I glowered at him.

"Are you-?"

"Get out!" I yelled again.

He nodded and left, closing the door behind him.

It rang again, and a terrible feeling overcame me. "Hello?" I croaked, answering it.

"Meredith?" Her voice was strangely different. It sounded...weak. "Meredith." Bolder now, and I swallowed.

"Mom?" I asked.

"Meredith, you need to come home."

"No, mom, I-,"