Married For Now

CHAPTER 43 - HOPES

PHOENIX BLANKLY stared at the floor in front of the closed door of Jewel's room after letting go of the knob, the room which held the safety of his wife's life.

He blew out a loud breath to release the nerves pent up inside him.

'She's going to be fine.' He told himself, or more like convinced.

A pat on his left shoulder woke him up from his reverie.

"Grandpa."

His grandpa Fred was smiling, but he could tell that deep inside, he was also immensely worried. It was evident in his eyes.

His parents and Jewel's parents, sat on the waiting chairs, also had the same expression as Grandpa. He could sense that Aunt Beryl was the most worried of them all and Uncle Jim was whispering something to her.

His eyes bored to the floor again. "Grandpa..." He spoke in a low tone. "...no matter how many times I remind myself to trust Jewel's words and to not worry too much...I'm still scared."

Grandpa remained silent, then patted his shoulder twice. "Come with me Phoenix."

His Grandpa began walking along the hallway. Phoenix followed him silently, not knowing where he will take him.

He watched grandpa's steps, across the marbled floor, passing by different rooms, turning in different corners. The people they would come across with were becoming lesser.

Grandpa stopped in front of a familiar looking wooden double door. Grandpa opened one door and the view inside corrected his hunch.

'A chapel?' He glanced at his Grandpa with confusion.

"Come on, Phoenix." Grandpa said and pulled him inside the chapel.

Grandpa was leisurely scanning his eyes all over the place. The walls and pillars painted in white, small portion of green curtains hanging from ceiling to the marbled floor, small lights and lit candles were illuminating the whole place in a warm and solemn way. Stained glasses with a figure of a white dove with distorted shapes in bright colors as background on the right side, depicting faith. Rows of chairs were placed facing the small wooden cross on the wall. The room was silent but not eerie. The silence was actually calming him, almost removing all his nerves. There were no other people inside except him and Grandpa.

"Grandpa, I didn't know you were religious."

Grandpa Fred gave him a small calm smile. "We rarely see each other, so how would you know."

He's right. They do rarely meet with each other these past few years so there are a lot of things he might not yet know about grandpa, or yet, he forgot about them.

"We used to bring you in churches every Sunday. But you stopped coming with us after 'that' summer." He said.

He clearly knows what he meant.

"Why did you bring me here?"

"I think you already know why." Grandpa sat on one of the chairs and patted the chair beside him. He sat and faced the small altar up front.

"For now, we can't really do so much to help Jewel. The one thing we could do is to wait and pray for her safety. No one could guarantee her well-being except Him." He said, his hands pointing upwards. He unconsciously followed it with his eyes.

"But grandpa, I'm not exactly," he quoted, "a good person. I don't know if He's going to listen to what I want."

Grandpa chuckled at him. "Phoenix, I'm your Grandpa...and I still listen to you, because I will always love you, no matter what type of person you are. That will never change."