Brokenhearted Girl (Continuing & Editing)

Chapter 42

The finished drawing lay on my desk. It was by far the best piece of art I had ever accomplished.

"Hey Aaron, can you take me to the hospital today? I want to see Mrs Holland." I asked him at breakfast.

"Yeah sure, what time?" He looked up from his phone.

"Soon as? Then I can get to the library for my shift." He nodded and finished his tea while I went to get dressed.

It was still chilly out. The cold February air brought a sprinkle of snow with it. I pulled on my thick coat and double socked my feet to try and keep myself warm.

Aaron emerged not long after me and together we rode towards the hospital.

"How is she doing?" Aaron asked after a short silence.

"She's doing okay, but not better. Mel rang me the other day and the doctors think it's something to do with her heart. They're not sure what yet, they will be doing some more tests." I explained.

"What about you. Are you okay?" He looked at me briefly before turning back to the road.

"I guess. Everything's got me a bit overwhelmed." I admitted. I still couldn't get it out my head the fact we'd discovered a whole goldmine that had been buried for decades.

"I get it. Just try to not let it run your life, remember the important things." He said. We pulled into the hospital car park and I jumped out.

"Give me a call when you want picking up." I waved him off and watched as the black car drove out of sight.

It was a short walk to Mrs Holland's room. The door swung open under my touch and I let myself into the room.

"Ah Christie, Mel mentioned you'd be coming up soon." Mrs Holland's eyes glinted under the bright lights.

"Hi, sorry I haven't been down for a few days. But here, I drew you something." I pulled out the paper from my coat pocket and showed the picture to her.

"Wow! Look at that, how beautiful. Is that what it looked like down there?" Mrs Holland held the paper with tentative fingers, as if it would crumple to ash suddenly.

"It was beautiful. Everywhere I shone the torch, the walls just glinted a magnificent gold." I said excitedly. Mrs Holland examined the portrait generously.

"You could draw more like this and sell them, I'm sure they'd be a big hit." I smiled, feeling my heart surge at Mrs Holland's kind words. It meant a lot to me that she favoured my work.

"I'd have to set up an art station in the store cupboard." I joked. Mrs Holland lay the picture down gently on the table.

"How's Twinkie? I haven't seen him for a while." My mind suddenly brought the image of the small dog to the surface. He was usually by Mrs Holland's side through everything and it was surprising to not see the little ball of fluff curled up against her side.

"Mel is looking after him, my poor boy. I miss him, the hospital staff has said that he's not allowed to visit any more because he's not a service dog." She frowned, I could tell she was upset about this. She was clearly missing her pooch, as was I. Everyone at the library had come to love the patchy pup.

"I'll find a way to smuggle him in next time, I promise." I sat down in the chair next to the bed.

"Tired, dear?" Mrs Holland asked as I ejected a yawn. I'd been managing to bag myself a couple more hours of sleep, but I was still being terrorized by nightmares every so often.

"I haven't been sleeping well lately. I keep having this weird dream, but it's getting better." My eyes watered a little after the second yawn, Mrs Holland watched me closely.