A month and had gone by without incident. No word- nothing. Sarah was beginning to forget the dinner with the Greans. Instead, she was focusing on her birthday that was a week from today. It was July 6th, 2019, and she had just come home from shopping with Kesha. The day was good, continuing to be so as they walked back from the mall back to their neighborhood. They laughed and talked, holding the bags that they got for themselves.
Everything seemed to go by quickly, and soon, Sarah was waving to Kesha, the straps of the bags slipping down her wrists, creating a small pain in her skin. Soon, Sarah was walking into her foyer, hoping to get the bags off her hands.
Kicking the door shut, Sarah cringed at the noise as it echoed off the walls of her home. Her mother was in the kitchen, silently cleaning. Making her way to the stairs, Sarah silently slipped the loops of the bags to her fingers, hoping the tightness of them wouldn't effect her fingers that bad. When she stepped on the first step, her mother called out to her. Sarah froze, hearing her voice.
"Sarah. We need to talk." That sentence never frightened her, because she knew for certain that she had done nothing wrong. But now, there was a fear, and she couldn't pinpoint the reason.
"Okay, let me just-..." She glanced at the bags in her hands. There was no regret nor guilt in her thoughts when she stared down at the clothes she got using her own money.
"Let me just put these down really quick,"
"Now, Sarah." She froze, her other foot on the second step. Sarah wasn't given the chance to climb the stairs, so she slowly stepped down, dropping her bags on the floor at the bottom.
Slowly, she walked down the hall and into the kitchen where her mother stood over the countertop, messy rag in hand. The atmosphere reeked of heavy bleach use, almost causing Sarah to gag.
"What's up?" Sarah watched as her mother slowly breathed out before picking up the rag. She walked across the room, and tossed the rag down the basement steps.
"Mom?" Sarah watched as her mother seemed to mope around, eyes pinned low in a kind of shame.
"Sit. Please." She said. Sarah did as she was told, suddenly growing anxious about the well being of her small family.
"Is grandma okay?" Sarah asked, watching as her mother nodded.
The two sat down, one anxious and the other seemingly full of regret.
"She'll be okay." Sarah chewed the inside of her cheek, suddenly feeling the same fear she felt when she heard word of her grandfather's illness. When Sarah was around 15, her mother got a call in the middle of the night. It was her grandmother. She was frantic almost, but with an overwhelming solemn acceptance laced into her tone. Astrid's father was dying.
That night, Sarah was woken up and brought to the hospital. They stayed there together with her grandmother as her grandfather passed. It was about four in the morning, the monitors were beeping rhythmically, seemingly keeping him alive. Sarah was the only one awake, and she was watching her grandfather breathe shallowly. She wasn't filled in about his condition, but judging from his bald head and bandage, he went through treatment for a cancer.
All was quiet. Sarah started to believe she stopped breathing for a few minutes. Then, the sound of his heart flatlining shocked her back into the present, her breath hitching as she watched the monitor's line stay flat. Sarah sat there frozen, eyes wide as she watched his chest stop moving. She didn't know how long she was still in her seat but by the time any doctors were notified, it was too late to try and save him.
"Why do you seem sad?" Sarah asked, furrowing her eyebrows as she stared at her mother. Astrid was playing with her fingers. Slowly, she looked up, locking eyes with her daughter.
YOU ARE READING
The Grean Household
Romance"It was a mistake..." She told her mother, folding her hands into each other. "Marrying him..." Her mother said nothing, she simply sat there as her only daughter stood across from her, on the verge of collapsing from bruised ribs and cracked shins...
