Surviving the Dreams

Chapter 25 - Family Talk

 The next time Susan saw Greg was the following morning when he woke her with a kiss before breakfast.

"Oh hello. Good morning," she murmured in surprise. Greg had never woken her like that before. "I take it your talk with Michael went well?"

"Very well," Greg told her looking exceedingly pleased. "Come on, get up. Let's have breakfast. I can't wait to tell you about it."

Susan craned her neck to look at the clock. She hadn't been awake this early since her medical leave began.

"Why so early?" she murmured sleepily.

"Because. I have some good news. I think," Greg answered guardedly.

"What?"

"I'll tell you over breakfast."

In Susan's opinion Greg wore an expression that suggested he'd pulled a fast one on someone.

"What did you do?" she demanded.

Greg said nothing. He just stood there, holding out her bathrobe for her.

"Oh alright. I'll get dressed. But I don't see why we have to do it so early," she complained.

"You will. Come on," he urged. "Or we're going to be late."

"Why?" Susan asked again. "What's going on?"

"You'll see," Greg insisted.

At Greg's insistent urging Susan hurried through her morning routine and they were out the door less than thirty minutes later. She expected him to lead her towards the hotel dining room and initially they set out that way, but Greg turned towards the offices half-way there.

"Why are we going to the administration wing?" Susan asked. "I though you said we were headed towards breakfast."

"We are. But afterwards."

"After what?"

"Something special Michael and I arranged. Come on."

He ushered her into a small conference room with a large view screen and started up a lap top computer already sitting on the table. The screen sprang to life as the computer went through the Windows start up menu. Greg clicked an icon and a grainy video window appeared. At about the same moment, the conference room door burst open and Matthew hurried in.

"Am I late?"

"Hi," Susan greeted him. "Do you know what's going on?"

"You are not late," Greg told Matt as he took a seat beside his mother. "I was just getting it started."

"It's Zack, Mom. He wants to talk to you," Matt explained while Greg set up something on the computer and connected it to the oversized monitor on the wall. "He couldn't come ... Dad wanted me to explain."

"Why? What's wrong with Zackary?" Susan asked suddenly worried that something ominous had happened to her youngest son.

"Nothing. Well, he's grounded, but that's all," Matt supplied. "He's grounded a lot these days," he added almost as an afterthought.

"Why?" Susan asked.

Matt shrugged. "Various things. I try to stay out of it mostly."

"Probably wise," Susan conceded as the picture on the screen cleared and the image of her youngest son appeared. "Zackary?" she said softly.