All Of You

Chapter Eight

Days had turned into a week but it still felt like yesterday when her father passed away from the life ruining disease that is called cancer. Her heart still yearned for him as she would wake up every morning with the thought of him. The thought that it was just an awful nightmare that had lasted longer than she thought and that when she opened her eyes the funeral and the death would just be a nightmare that she conjured up in her head because she was under a lot of stress and was unhappy with her life as she was unable to find the right guy for her.

But the truth hit her when she saw booklet from the funeral of her father's that stood up on the desk on the opposite side of the room from her. With a picture of her father with his beaming smile that he was known for. It also had a quote underneath that he would always say to everybody in the town. 'Every day may not be good, however there is something good in every day.'

The pain that she felt on the day that she found out about her father's passing hit her once more. The pain of realisation that she was never going to see his cheerful face again. His bright smile that would stretch from ear to ear, even until the day that he died and was going through a lot of pain, he still smiled and he smiled brightly. She would never hear his cheerful quotes and of course, seeing the good in everything even if there wasn't any good there to be seen. He always seen the goodness in people, even if there was nothing good about them, he had always been positive about people and that's what she would miss the most. As there was no more positivity in her life. The positive light that once shined in her life was gone and she couldn't see the light lighting up again. And she definitely couldn't see it being as bright again.

Even though the weather outside was awful as the waves crashed against the harbour and the wind whooshed past the window, the townspeople of Lakedale were still going about their days as if nothing had happened. The family owned stores still opened and were full of customers buying their usual items, the grocery store was full of townspeople gathering the groceries for their dinner in the evening as they always liked things to be fresh, especially at this time of the year. There was a queue in the local hairdressers/barber shop as the customers wanted their traditional Christmas haircut.

And for the first time in a while there was more than one customer in the record store where Ethan leant against the counter, his mind wandering and his vision blurred as he was deep in thoughts. He also didn't have his earphones in his ears, blasting the hit music loudly, so loudly that the customers were also able to hear the songs that he was listening to.

Mandy walked out from the back, brushing through the curtain of beads which rattled as they collided against one another with Nick, her father following close behind her. Nick's attention was soon caught by Ethan who he thought was acting strangely. He placed his hand on her shoulder which stopped her from moving any more. She turned around and looked at him with a frown of confusion.

Nick nodded in the direction of Ethan. "Have you noticed anything different lately?" He asked quietly.

Mandy continued to frown. "What are you talking about?"

"I mean with Ethan. Have you noticed something different about him?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "What? That he's actually doing his job for a change? Yeah, I've noticed that, so?"

"Don't you think that it's a little strange that he's just changed all of a sudden? Like something inside of him has snapped him back to reality."

"Just be grateful that he has returned. Why are you questioning it if he's doing such a good job?"

"Because it's weird. Dontcha think that it's weird?"

Mandy shook her head. "No. I don't think that it's weird."