The Fast Lane

Chapter 15

The next week went by too quickly, but it was probably the best week that I had ever shared with my mom.  She stayed in Harry’s guest room each night, and every day Harry and I would take her to do something exciting, even if it was going to the pool or out on a picnic.  Because of the pain in her stomach, she never really ate much.

She decided that she wanted to shave her head at one point.  We went down to the nearest salon and had them cut what was left of my mom’s beautiful blonde hair, inch by inch, until there was none left.  Harry snapped pictures of me cutting some of her hair too, which was fun for a little bit, but then I had to leave because I got so emotional.

One of the days, we even drove my mother down to Carowinds, a theme park close to us.  She laughed and watched as Harry and I conquered the larger rides.  She went on smaller spinning rides with Harry and swings with me, and the three of us split multiple bags of my mom’s favorite amusement park concession - cotton candy.  Eventually she had to stop because she was in so much pain.  She bought each and every picture that Harry and I took on the rides, and when we got home she stuck them on the fridge.  

We took about a thousand pictures with the Polaroid, and Harry’s nice, clean apartment turned into a page from a high school yearbook.  Pictures of us swimming, cooking, playing UNO, playing the Wii, cutting hair, and shopping were scattered around the bar, the tables, and even along the floor. Each night, after my mom would go to bed, I would look at the pictures from that day and try to replay what was happening when the picture was taken.  

Each night, my mom would watch the sunset with Harry and I. 

The last night she was with us, Harry made her a magnificent three-layer cake, all white with dark blue fondant flowers all over it.  I snapped pictures as she dug into it like a baby digs into their first birthday cake.  She threw some of the cake across the room at Harry, who then threw some at me. I had pictures of the aftermath of our little cake war, and they were some of my favorites of Harry and my mother.  Both of them were laughing, and the pictures captured the sincerity of their smiles, which I was in love with.  

As Harry cleaned up the cake, my mother sat and looked at pictures with me.  I could tell she was in a lot of pain.  ”Please, go to bed if you need to,” I urged her.

She picked up another picture.  It was one of Harry sticking his tongue out at me as I tried to cut up some peppers.  ”I will soon.”  She put the picture down and looked at a picture of me laughing and looking out the large window.  ”You look so much like your father.  Your smile, at least.” 

I glanced over at the picture and immediately in my mind began to pick out all of my imperfections.  I stopped when I noticed my mother studying my face.  ”You know,” she began. “I always worried about you.  You were always so stressed and so serious.  This last week has been amazing, and while most of it was because of you, a lot of it was because of HIM.”  She nodded over at Harry.  I looked at him.  His brown curls shook as he bounced to the beat of some song he had stuck in his head.  I giggled as he swung his butt back and forth. I turned back to see my mother staring at me, smiling.

"I’ve never seen you smile like that before," she said, raising her eyebrows at me.  I blushed and looked down. "I just want to make sure you’re taken care of when I’m not here to take care of you." 

"I think I’ll be alright," I whispered as my eyes teared up, partly because I was thinking of how good Harry had been to my mother this week and partly because I thought of my mother not being here anymore. 

She sighed and stood up slowly, taking a picture of all three of us with her as she walked to her room. “I think you’ll be just fine,” she said, looking once more over at Harry and then disappearing into her room.