One Way Bridge

Chapter 50

Chapter 50

Bella was really excited to be out with me and Vince. She warmed up to him quickly and became the outgoing girl I knew once again. We stopped at the first mall I found. It seemed fairly empty in the parking lot, but it was a Sunday morning after all, so I don’t know what I expected.

“Can I-can I skip ahead to the door?” Bella tugged on my hand.

When I looked down, there was no way I could say no to the girl smiling up at me. “Sure, go ahead, but wait outside the door for us.”

“Okay,” she pranced away swinging her arms back and forth.

“She doesn’t understand what’s going on, does she?” Vince spoke from beside me.

“I don’t think so.” I watched her pony tail bounce up and down. “Her dad is preparing to die.” Maybe I shouldn’t have said it so blatantly, because it filled the think air and suddenly, I yearned for a breeze to blow it away.

“Emma!” Bella ran to where I was stepping up onto the curb and pulled my hand towards the door. At her touch, the stale air seemed to fall and was once again a brisk fall day with an autumn breeze. I laughed but let her drag me through the door. She didn’t hesitate to skip ahead of us straight to the gumball machine. “Please,” she began to plead, but before she even finished, Vince fished a quarter out of his pocket.

Her eyes lit up so much when she got a red gumball. She chomped happily on it, this time keeping pace with Vince and me.

Just as we came to the last store on the corner, Bella shrieked. “Can we, can we, can we, oh please?”  She pointed into the darkly lit store with neon lights outlining parts of the floor.

“Mini golf?” I turned to Vince who shrugged, but I don’t think his reply really mattered because Bella ran into the store, dragging me along by my hand.

Vince was actually pretty good at mini golf. I, on the other hand, was not. And Bella, well she won, but that’s only because Vince let her. Sadly, I didn’t have to let her beat me; she did that on her own.

Her eyes lit up when the man behind the counter gave her an ice cream bar for winning. I chuckled at myself as I realized my thought of “that’ll ruin her lunch” is something my mom would say. Would’ve said. The smile fell off my face.

I’m pretty sure Vince saw my sudden change of emotions, but he didn’t say anything as the now messy-faced Bella asked him a question. I didn’t catch the query until Vince repeated it. “I don’t know. Emma, do you want to go get lunch somewhere?”

“Uh, yeah sure,” I tried to shake the thoughts of my mom out of my head.

“Yay!” Bella shrieked. “No bad hospital food!” She skipped ahead allowing Vince and I to share a glance.

We ended up at a malt shop where Bella got more ice cream. I felt kind of bad, sugaring up Bella to bring her back to her dad, but it was impossible to say no to her. I guess I shouldn’t have been too worried, because the moment we entered the hospital, she changed. Her smile fell and her skipping slowed.

It was a slow, quiet walk to Michael’s room. When we did get there, he was sitting up in his bed. His mom sat in the chair to his side, but quickly stood up.

“Daddy!” Bella broke the deafening silence that filled the room and ran to her father’s side. She began telling Michael everything we did, but he cut her off.

“That’s wonderful, sweety. Even Bella could see past the happy façade. “But will you let us adults talk for a moment?”

Bella nodded and got up to leave the room. Her grandmother joined her. “Um, I’ll be in the waiting room, Emma.” Vince edged towards the door.

“Nonsense!” Michael spoke up. “You’re welcome to stay, Vince. Any friend of Emma’s is a friend of mine.” Vince smiled and returned to stand next me. “Come here,” Michael motioned so I took the chair beside him and Vince stood behind me, not completely comfortable.

“So,” I spoke after taking a seat. “What did the doctor say?”

He fiddled with the bed sheets before speaking. “It spread.” I felt all the air leave my body.

“How much?” Vince spoke up first.

“Yeah surely they can still fix it?” I felt relieved knowing that Vince knew more about cancer than I did.

“Yeah,” Michael didn’t seem happy about the cure. “I’d need surgery to remove the biggest tumor and then chemo to kill the rest.”

“That’s great, everything’s going to be alright!” I smiled, ready to jump out of my chair, but Vince placed his hand on my shoulder. It felt like a million tons. I wasn’t the only one that noticed Michael’s lack of joy.

“I don’t have the money for it, and besides, it’s too risky, there’s only a fifty percent chance it will work and then, even if it did, it could always come back.” Obviously he had already thought it all out.

I wanted to argue, I wanted to yell and tell him that nothing was too expensive when the alternative was leaving a child parentless, but my voice failed me. Instead, I stormed out of the room.

I knew when I felt Vince hand leave my shoulder that he would follow me, but I didn’t care. I ran until I couldn’t see through the tears and sat down on the cold floor in the middle of a white hall.

Author’s Note:

Buller…Buller? Yeah I’ve been a little Ferris-y lately, sorry. If you hadn’t found out already, I’ll be updating once a month from now on. I wanted to get this up before finals so I’ll have a couple weeks of summer to write the next one. And you don’t really care. Thanks,

Devin4862

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