Legacy of the Dreams

Chapter 115 - The Next Thing

Zack arrived home to find most of the family ready to sit down at the dinner table. Alan and Cindy had their car loaded, ready to leave for home. They planned to depart as soon as dinner was over. But everyone gathered around the table first, eager to hear what Zack had to say while they ate.

"How's Melody?" It was the question on everybody's lips when Zack sat down to join them.

"Scared," Zack said truthfully. "They were loading her into an ambulance when I left, to take her to the other hospital. They wouldn't let Mom or Greg ride with her. They're going to follow her in their car, but she really didn't want to go in there alone."

"I'm surprised they didn't let Susan ride with her," Malcom remarked.

Zack shrugged. "They said it was an insurance thing. They're only covered for patients they carry, not for other passengers."

"Figures," Matthew remarked. "Did they do anything to make her feel better before they decided to move her?"

"They put her on oxygen. Greg thought they might give her an inhaler or some of those other things you see for asthma sometimes that helps ease breathing, but Mom said they're afraid of cross reactivity with the heart medicine she's taking," Zack said. "Dr. Lin seems to know what to do, but she said the equipment they need to treat and monitor Melody is at the other hospital, so they ended up moving her as soon as they could."

"Then she's not any better than she was when she left," Alan said.

"Not really," Zack said. "She could still hardly talk to tell Mom she didn't want to go in the ambulance alone."

"Is she still talking about going home?" Jessie wondered.

"Not too much. Mom's trying to discourage her from talking like that, and it's hard for her to talk anyway so she's not saying anything for the most part," Zack explained.

Matt frowned. "So, exactly what happened down in the cave? Why did Mom have to take Melody to the emergency room in the first place?"

"Melody insisted on climbing up all the ladders by herself," Jessie told him.

"Even the big one?" Matt asked in surprise.

"Especially the big one," Zack said.

"Why didn't Mom make her ride up in the basket, like before?"

"They wanted her to, but Melody was acting sort of weird. It was like she thought God wanted her to climb up the ladder, so she did. She started to go up it as soon as she could get away from Mom. Greg went up in the basket so he could meet her at the top, and Mom followed behind her as close as she could. But Melody was out of breath and wheezing before she got to the top. I sent the safety line down to her and Mom clipped it to her harness, which was a good thing because she sort of fell. Greg and me had to pull her up to the top using the winch. By the time she got there, she sort of collapsed and Mom was sure she was about to turn blue," Zack said.

"But she didn't?" Matt asked.

Zack shook his head. "It was hard to tell for sure using the candles we have in the cave. She didn't look blue to me, but she sounded really bad, Matt. To me, she looked worse than she did when she turned blue at your wedding. I carried her up the last ladder on my back, and Mom and me immediately took her to the hospital. It was sort of an emergency."

"Yeah, I guess," Matt said. "Did they say at the hospital if its congestive heart failure again?"

"They're not saying ... at least they didn't when I was there," Zack said. He took a bite of his mashed potatoes and paused, mid-thought. "These are really good. Did Cindy make them?"