It's Hard To Be Holy

EP. 110: Chapter VII (Cont'd)

Coarse and Offensive Language. Reader Discretion Advised.

His heart sank as he entered. Alanna, sitting up in her chair, stared out the rain soaked window and made no motion to show she had heard her brother's entrance. It had been a wasted trip. She was alone.

And that will be my fault too, thought Alan Carr.

The surgeon had predicted a long, if not impossible, road to recovery, but his assessment, surely born from a great education and many years of study, was plain wrong. Alanna took to rehabilitation faster than anyone could have expected. There were no outward signs of mental anguish from her, only impatience when someone—mother mainly, but husband too!—fretted. Two weeks after she awoke, Alanna Kathleen Carr was able to walk small distances with the help of a cane. Three weeks after that, she complained to Christopher Mooney that she was bored and miserable being 'cooped up'. A week later, she was openly talking of returning to work.

Alan had learned all of this from his mother, but it was still a shock to see how fast the Fat One had recovered. He hadn't seen her since the waking, and though, sitting in the chair, she still looked gaunt, there was at least a recognizable vision of life on her face.

'What are you doin' here?' she asked, eventually turning to stare imperiously at her brother.

'I,' said Alan, peeling off his wet coat and holding out the Tupperware, 'have been sent.' Alanna scowled. 'I'm guessing' you don't have a microwave? I don't think you should eat this cold...' he opened and inhaled a smell that reminded him of burning sulfur.

'She thinks I'm starvin' to death,' huffed Alanna. 'Said I was too fat for how many years, and I'm now starvin' to death. Make it make sense!'

'As if there was sense to it,' sneered Alan.

'Did she send you here to spy?'

'Yes.'

'So she's annoyed?'

'Yes.'

'How how annoyed?'

'You're still the favorite.'

'Would I be if I wasn't here?'

'Just barely.'

Alanna scratched at her temple and, try as she might, could not repress a grin of her own.

'Can you drink?' asked her brother.

'Water.'

'That's not what I meant.'

'Then no.'

'Shame...You mind if I...' He took a flask from his jacket and swirled it around in his hand. He wouldn't normally have asked for permission, but Alanna had always enjoyed the thought that she was an authoritarian figure where her siblings and their wants were concerned. Seeing her trapped still so feebly in this room, Alan felt himself rather a gracious man for humoring her.

'Is that Pa's?'

'Yeah, I took it off him a couple of weeks ago just to see if he'd notice.'

'Did he?'

'Of course he did, but he blames Ma. Says she's playin' tricks on his mind.'

Alanna's eyes twitched with sternness. 'Are you gonna give it back?'

Bossy, fat bitch!

Alan ignored the question and pulled up a spare chair to sit beside her. He had one mother at home yapping at him. He didn't need a second one. 'So...you're not dead. How are you?'