Legacy of the Dreams

Chapter 116 - A New Routine

Ashley went to bed not long after her step-father-in-law's relatives and Jessie did. Both Matt and Zack decided to stay up to talk to their mother after she got home. But the hour was late, and Ashley suspected Susan would need her help again the next morning. And so, for the first time since she and Matt were married, Ashley went downstairs to their apartment, expecting to go to bed alone.

Or she intended to. But at the last minute, before turning in, she found herself dressed in her nightclothes, her robe wrapped tightly around her waist, walking on the pool deck outside her apartment and the guestrooms instead. The sound of Hebrew praying came from several of them. It was such an odd sound to Christian ears, but one she heard frequently in the evening while living here. Greg's voice carried whenever he prayed, and so she'd come to associate that style of prayer with Greg. It was only after listening to his relatives pray on this particular evening she realized it wasn't only her father-in-law who prayed that way. All the Hebrew men did. The women tended to pray more quietly, but the men were extremely vocal ... at least Greg and his nephews all were.

Eventually, their chant like prayers came to a close, and Ashley returned to the little apartment beside the other guestrooms where she and Matt lived. She said prayers of her own once inside and climbed into bed. She knew Matt would join her when he could, but she also knew that at the moment he was worried about Melody.

c

Matt and Zack were talking quietly together in the library when Greg and Susan came home.

"Thank you for waiting up," Susan told her sons.

"Sure, Mom," Zack said.

"We decided we probably couldn't sleep anyway," Matt told her.

"Are you still worried about Melody?" Susan asked.

"Shouldn't we be?" Matt asked.

"Not this evening, I don't think," Susan said.

Zack considered this, then thought about the information Matt shared after Susan called earlier in the evening.

"Tomorrow should we worry?" Zack asked.

"You mean because of the tests?" Matt asked.

"Yeah. I mean, if they're going to intentionally stress Melody's heart and try to trigger another asthma attack, couldn't that be really bad?" Zack asked.

"It could be if they weren't watching her or didn't stop the test right away if they need to," Susan said.

"Will they?" Matt wondered.

"I'm sure if conditions pose a risk to Melody and become dangerous, they will," Greg said. "But after speaking to Dr. Lin at length about it again this evening, I feel confident Melody is in the right place to have a test like that done. It will give us the information Dr. Lin needs to balance her medications going forward."

"You talked to her again tonight?" Matt asked.

"She was in Melody's room talking to Julie when we returned from dinner," Susan said. "We talked at length about the tests Dr. Lin is ordering, what they entailed and what we expect to learn by doing them. They aren't risk free, but they are important, and the hospital staff will take every precaution necessary to protect Melody."

"Tell us," Matt requested.

And so Greg and Susan did their best to share everything they knew and answered both young men's questions to the best of their ability.

"Now, do you have any more questions that I can answer?" Susan asked an hour later.

"No ... and we should probably let you go to bed, given you have to be back at the hospital early tomorrow morning," Matt said.