The New Light of Hope: Books I to VI.

Chapter XXIV: Even More Bad News.

TW:

- Mentions/Use of alcohol.

Summer:

Date: June 24, 2020.

On that day when I came home in the afternoon and was settling down to rest up to regain my energy for the next day, I heard my phone puzzing. I looked to see the phone number of the hospital –803-323-201– calling me. Believing that it was a hopeful update on Autumn, I picked up the phone almost immediatly and said: "Hello?"

Nurse (On the other end): "Hello. Is this Summer Smith?"

Summer: "Yes. How may I help you?"

Nurse Holly: "This is Nurse Holly from the Felecity Oak Hospital calling to inform you that we were just told that during the surgery to place the stint in properly, the anesthesia that Brian had given Autumn before the surgery had worn off mid-surgery and Autumn woke up in absolute pain and we are going to work our hardest to stablize her."

Summer: "Are you serious right now?! How did Brain even find a way out of his court case?"

Nurse Holly: "Only he knows that."

Summer: "Where is he? I wanna talk to him."

Nurse Holly: "Hang on for one mintue and I will try to get him on the line with you."

A mintue had passed until I heard someone on the phone ask: "What is it?"

I resumed the conversation by asking: "Hey, is this Doctor Brian?"

Doctor Brian: "Yeah, what do you want?"

Summer: "I've got something to say to you."

Then, I turned my phone to speaker mode, took a deep breath, and pointed my middle finger towards the phone and shputed the very top of my lungs: "FUCK YOU!!"

Doctor Brian: "What did I do?"

Summer: "Don't you even try to play that card right now, you son of a bitch! You know exactly what you did, do NOT play dumb with me right now! You know what you did."

Doctor Brian: "I know and I honestly don't care what just happened. If some random police officer dies, it's not my problem to begin with."

Summer: "Excuse me?! Do you want me to drive all the way over to the hospital so I can pull out a can of whoop ass outside of the building?! Because I will get in my car and I will do it! Just watch me!"

Doctor Brian: "Oh, really?"

Summer: "I would, but I'm not gonna. I know who you really are at this point and I can bet that you called Phillip and he cussed you out and made death threats to you over the phone when you guys called him."

Nurse Holly: "Actually, we've only gotten so far as calling the Williams Family, Adam, and now you. We have yet to–"

Doctor Brian: "Shut your damn mouth, Holly, nobody asked you to fill into this conversation!"

Nurse Holly: "I don't know who in the hell you're talking to, but I'm not having any of it! I am going to end this once and for all for the sake of Mrs. Williams and her family and there's nothing that you can do in your power to even stop me!"

Doctor Brian: "You wouldn't dare."

Nurse Holly: "Oh, yes I would, and I'm gonna do it whether you like it or not! Just try and stop me!"

Just then, they hung up and I just placed my phone down in complete stress. "You know what? Screw it! I-I-I'm going right back to drinking my stress away like I have been doing since the beginning of the year! I don't care what anyone says about it, I'm just going to do it anyway! I don't care! I honest do NOT give a single flying fuck right now! I'm gonna drink anyway! I. Honestly. Do. Not. Give. A. Single. Shit!" I pontificated on the situation, storming right into the kicthen and grabbing a couple of bottles of Shustoff brandy and glasses before sitting down on the couch, turning off the light, began filling up the glasses with the brandy and began by drinking the first glass that sat right in front of me; the cold, rich, full-bodied taste touched my lips and tongue as it went down my throat and I did not care about anything at the moment and I was just not in the mood anymore. Just drink away your stress, Summer. Just drink away. I thought as I slowly guzzled down my seventh drink before I got up to stand up walk only to stumble pass out on the floor drunk and I slowly began to close my eyes.
…
I later found myself in the bedroom, chugging down water and throwing up to get the alcohol out of my system with Kyle helping me out. Once it was out of my system, Kyle asked me: "What happened, Summer?"

Summer: "Well, as you saw, I went back to drinking because I had received a call from the hospital informing me that the anesthesia that was given to Autumn by Doctor Brian-- No, Zachary before her surgery had worn off right in the middle of it and they were having trouble stablizing her, then Docotor Brian got into an argument with the nurse that called me over the phone and by then I was just not in the mood to give a singe crap about anything and so here we are."

Kyle: "I should've known Zachary would do something like this. What did he say?"

Summer: "He simply said he didn't care and that if Autumn dies, it's not his problem all while calling her some 'Random police officer' and I threatend him when he said that in response."

Kyle: "Does he have a death wish or something?"

Summer: "Apprently, he does. And besides, it's his fault that Autumn landed in the hospital in the first place! He outta realize she's not some random police officer either! She's the lead investigator of the Silverville Police Department, the eldest daughter of the Smith family, my eldest sister, the wife of one of the most popular lawyers, Cedric Williams, and she has two daughter who still need her in their lives! Doesn't he have a wife and son himself?"

Kyle: "He apprently doesn't care about his own rivals enough to know that they themselves have families of their own just like he does because he cares about is earning more money than what he already has."

Summer: "Yeah, that's all he cares about today. But the Lord will deal with him in his time. All we can do for right now is pray in the hopes that everything will get better and Autumn will pull through this."

Kyle: "All right."

And that very same night before bed, we prayed for Autumn to pull through this and for her to get better soon enough nd with an "Amen" we went to bed in hopes that everything would be okay.

But with all that was going on, I was beginning to doubt my faith in Christ and wondered if everything was going to take a turn for the better if our prayers would be answered. My faith in the Lord has been quite the rollar coaster for me; ever since my father passed away in 2015, I lost my faith in him entirely all because he did not answer our prayers for him to get better-- but I slowly began to regain my faith sometime in 2018, but come 2020 and after the death of my mother, the start of the pandemic, and Autumn being diagnosed with cancer, I began to question my faith in him, blaming him for things that I knew for a fact was something neither him or I could control even if we could and that it was he who decided whether a person is ready to pass on or not. But I was just... stressed out about what was going on that I was constantly questioning him and my faith to the point it felt I had lost it again entirely for the second time in a row. But I didn't, I still have what's left of my faith in God even though it has slight cracks in it here and there.

Well, maybe you'll gain your faith back entirely some day.

Yeah, maybe some day I will, kid. Maybe some day...