Lost Souls (Completed)

Lost Souls - Chapter Six

     “Hey, mum, how are you?” I asked, as I walked into my mum and dad’s kitchen. 

      “I’m fine, thanks, love.” She yawned. “Just a little tired. Lola had me up most of the night; she’s got a fever again”

      “Sorry mum.” I said, my heart breaking for her. I didn’t know what to say anymore. Lola has stage 2A Neuroblastoma, a type of cancer in her abdomen. She was having chemotherapy twice a week and was on a cocktail of drugs and painkillers. They’d removed part of the tumour a couple of months ago, but due to the position of it; it was very difficult to get it all. She was due in for some more surgery in another couple of weeks to see if there was anything else they could do. It was awful seeing her like this. It affected the whole family and mum was so tired from it all. Lola was regularly awake in the night crying, because it hurt. 

      “Don’t worry about it” she smiled, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes. I knew she was tired and worn out. “She’s got another appointment at the hospital tomorrow, I’ll speak to the consultant about it then” Mum was being so strong. She was going through all this with Lola and she never complained once. 

      “How about I take you both out for the day one day this week?” I asked, hopefully. Lola would need some time out soon; she hadn’t been to school in months, so mum paid a tutor to come here twice a day for an hour each time to keep Lola up to date with her school work. 

      “I dunno” mum started. 

      “Look, even if it’s just for a couple of hours. You both need some time out of this house.” 

      She nodded, sank back into her chair and sighed. 

      “Dylan’s back” I whispered as I watched her reaction to his name. Her head snapped up and her face full of dread. 

      “Oh, no” she warned. “Don’t bother with that boy, he left you. Look where he’s got you. You barely go outside. If you leave the house, you come straight here or go to work. That boy’s no good for you, Casey” 

      I was speechless. Mum had never spoken about Dylan in the 8 years he’d been gone. She knew it was too much for me to bear. I just couldn’t talk about or hear anything about him, so no-one around me spoke about him. 

      Mum spoke again. “When did he get back? Last I heard he was getting married.” She admitted. 

      “You knew as well?” I asked, slightly annoyed that everyone knew more about him than I did.

     “Casey, you didn’t let anyone mention his name, how could we have told you?”

      “I don’t know” I admitted. “But I just feel kind of left out now, I missed out on so much time with him. His wife died, mum” 

      “Oh, god” she said, a stray tear falling down her face. “When?”

      “6 months ago. They’d just got married and were on their honeymoon. Driving down the motorway, there was a collision with a truck. The driver and Dylan’s wife died. Dylan was in a coma. He’s come back here and he’s just got a job at the Trent Street school. He’s doing really well, considering.”  Tears were falling as I told her about it. 

      “You still have feelings for him, don’t you?” she asked after a few moments silence.

     “It’s hard not to, mum. He came back and he’s the same old Dylan that I fell in love with back then. I hate that he loved somebody else. I feel jealous.”

      “you’ve got Nathan, though, right?”

      I nodded. “Yeah, but he’s always out getting drunk. He comes back from work and he throws his stuff in the bedroom before going out and staggers home at gone midnight most days. Sometimes, I have to phone Dan and get him to pick him up. I’m not sure I want that anymore. He needs to change.”

      She nodded and held her arms out for me to hug her.

     “I’m assuming Dylan doesn’t know about…” she started.

      “No!” I snapped. I didn’t want Dylan to find out. Things were great the way they were. Well, not great. But it was working. 

      “I’ll tell him in my own time.” That wasn’t completely a lie. If I decided that I wanted to tell him, I would, but at the moment, he wouldn’t have a clue, and it was best kept that way.

     “I think you should tell him” mum told me. 

      “I know you do, and I will. Just not yet.”

      I walked into the living room and watched Lola playing for a while. She hadn’t noticed I was there... she was sat at the coffee table in the middle of the room, colouring, she was wearing a pretty white dress with a sunflower on and a white cardigan over the top. She looked absolutely beautiful, as always. Apart from her bald head, you would think she was a normal child. She used to have the most beautiful dark brown hair, long, down to her waist, but chemotherapy had taken all her lovely curls. She always had a smile on her face, and you could tell she was in a lot of pain, some days, but she hid it well.

     The TV was on and Scooby Doo was blaring out. She was the complete opposite of me, in that she loved all things scary, whereas I couldn’t stand them. They made me jump and it was creepy. I looked over at her drawing. It was a picture of her, me, Benny, Benny’s wife Louise, Mum and Dad. There was also a dog, a cat and a goldfish and she’d written underneath it: My family. How could I tell her that there was one person missing from that picture? She wouldn’t understand, it just wasn’t something that she was ready to hear. She was happy and I wasn’t going to spoil that any time soon.

     Lola looked up from her drawing. “Mum!” She squealed as she got up and jumped into my arms. She wrapped her arms and legs around me and hugged me tight. 

      “Hello, beautiful” I smiled as I held her close.