Falling for Jackson Wang | MARKSON

Chapter 32 | Bad idea?

I left school without trouble.
Hearing about Susan hadn't hit me at all.

Until I got home.

It all happened at once.

One moment I was standing in the space between the kitchen and living room, my feet dragging me to the stairs. I had just got off the phone with my father, and new information had raced through my mind.

Bad idea

The next I was on the floor, sobs racking through me, wave after wave of pain numbing my body.

I was beyond upset

Susan was only young. She was in her 50's. She was supposed to have plenty of time left.
She had a gorgeous smile, and her heart was as pure as gold.
She was my only friend. She wouldn't treat me like a student, she treated me like family.

I was her only family.

She didn't have a husband. Or children.

She just had me.

~

I found out from Dad (they were good friends, through me of course).
She died of a heart attack.
In her own house, no one was there to call an ambulance.

She lived alone.

So she lay, in the kitchen of her house, on the floor.
Her heart, stopped.

They only found out when she didn't turn up into the office for two days that something was wrong. She is always on time, always ready for work, so they thought of it as suspicious.

The staff member found her body in the kitchen, apparently she looked like she was about to eat dinner.

No one knows how long she was there for.

Or if she cried for help.

But I asked Dad a stupid question, and it wasn't really relevant to anything, but I asked him what she had cooked for dinner. In which he replied, 'Pea and Ham soup.'

Pea and Ham soup was what she used to cook for me.

But Dad did tell me about something, about a drawing the CSI found in her room.

A drawing, framed upon her wall.
Of her and a small boy, holding hands under a rainbow.

----- Mark's memories (Grade 8) -----
"Look Suse! It's us!" I grinned, pointing to the drawing I had coloured in.

I had nothing else to do and Susan gave me some scrap paper and colourings.

"This is beautiful Mark! You know what? I'm going to take this home and put it on my wall." She smiled, gently taking the paper out of my hands and placing it in her drawer.
"No you won't, you'll just keep it there until it gets dusty." I teased, handing her the pencils I borrowed.
"I will, I promise." She reassured, taking the pencils from me.
Silence.
"Susan? Do you have any kids?" I asked, moving around the desk to sit by her feet.
"I did, actually. Her name is Shannon."
"Is she pretty?"
"She was very pretty."
"How old is she?"
"She would have turned 16 this year."
"Where is she? Can I see her?" I asked, my smaller self oblivious to the relating of the situation.
"Sorry Marky, she can't really see anyone right now." Susan choked, covering her sadness with a laugh. "Why? Aren't I good enough?"
"No! No! I just... wondered. That's all." I squeaked, jumping up from the ground and hugging her. "I love you Suse."
"I love you too, Marky."