Half way across the Water

Suprise!

Picture of Cora above

"What does he want?" I ask Uncle Malcolm who scrunched his face in dismay as a response.

"Will you shut your damn mouth!" Uncle Malcolm shouted through the phone, I flinched at the sharpness of his voice.

He kept speaking and the longer the conversation went on the more heated and violent it sounded. Uncle Malcolm's fist was clenched and I could imagine my dad pacing around our house wanting to chuck something.

He yelled once again through the phone, "fine you want to talk to Kelsey then talk to her."

He put the phone on speaker so I could hear.

I hear my dads familiar mellow voice becoming a screaming train. He was pissed, my dad rarely yelled but when he did it often led to many tears being released.

"Malcolm Evans you think you're all that but you're a worthless piece of.." I blocked my dads voice out because I knew he didn't swear but when he did, he had a good reason for it.

Dad continued yelling over the phone, "how could you not tell me and much worse her, no wonder you deserted Kelsey and I. You never cared."

I spoke just loud enough to be heard, "tell me what?"

I looked at Uncle Malcolm, who for the first time I'd ever seen, looked like he was going to cry.

"What is he talking about?"

My uncle looked at me and I saw a broken man with no hope left and what he said next absolutely broke me.

His eyes shone with grief as he said, "I have... I have... I have...cancer."

I instantly felt my knees giving out as I fell to the ground. I was scared. After today I had realized how much I'd missed my Uncle and now the chance that he could be taken from me was unbearable.

I could barely catch my breath for what felt like an eternity, I mumbled through the staggered breaths, "what stage?"

He looked at me then ended the call before my dad could speak again and said, "late stage three pancreatic and liver cancer."

I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes as he continued speaking, "I went to the doctors a couple days before you came... they said... that they... they couldn't do anything. It was too....too late. They put me on some medication and said try to enjoy the life you have left."

With that I pushed myself up and embraced a man who I hadn't seen in over decade in a hug that felt like I've known him all this time.

I cried on his broad chest for what felt like forever as he gently sat down on my bed rubbing my back telling me everything would be okay.

About 20 minutes had passed and I felt numb, numb from the pain of knowing I was going to lose my Uncle, numb from crying and most of all, numb from the grudge I've held against him for so long.

Uncle Malcolm left me alone and went to his room. He fell asleep and I could hear him snoring from his room all the way upstairs.

I fell back on my bed, tear stained cheeks bright red from crying and a massive headache, I needed someone to talk to. I glanced at the time on my phone, it read 11:03 pm. it would be about 7:00 o'clock I thought in California. I had no wifi here though.

I got up and threw a light jacket on over my shoulders and grabbed my charger from the outlet in the wall. I remembered driving by an old gas station type of place with a sign that said free wifi. I needed to talk to Cora. So I quickly walked out of the room and headed towards the station which was a 15 minute walk from the cabin.