Alacrimia | √

Chapter Twenty+Seven

09:53am

Mide wouldn't stop pacing around the vast living room and Eartha was starting to get worried. He had been doing that since they came back from the teaching hospital and that was several minutes ago.

'Mide, sit down na,' she cajoled.

He stopped pacing and stood still. Eartha thought he had heard her and relaxed back in her seat.

But he didn't seem to have. He combed his hand through his hair and looked deep in thought.

"I mean, how is that even possible? How couldn't we have noticed?" He turned to stare at Eartha.

Eartha cringed and shifted uncomfortably in her seat. It wasn't as if guilt wasn't eating up her own insides as well.

Mide continued pacing. 'Alacrimia,' he muttered. "But nobody ever had in our family.'

Eartha sighed, slightly annoyed at his peevishness. 'Mide, didn't you hear anything the specialist said? We're both carriers and-'

'But how come we never noticed? How could we not have noticed? For God's sake, she's our daughter! Why didn't we ever see anything weird for the past nine years!'

Eartha swallowed and bowed her head, rubbing at the bridge between her eyebrows with her third finger.

Mide suddenly really noticed his wife from the first time since he'd been pacing. It hit him that he was being so selfish pestering her with all the problems, as if he too didn't have a part in it. Weren't they both guilty?

He stopped in front of her and stooped to place his hand over her knee. She raised her head at the touch and stared into his eyes. Her dark eyes were filled with pain so thick that he could practically feel it in the air.

'Heart.' It was a soft whisper from his lips that gently rolled out and caressed her ears.

That single word just messed with her emotional button again. She looked away from him and blinked back fast-forming tears.

Mide squeezed her knee gently and rose to sit beside her, drawing her into him. 'Dandelion Fluff, I'm so sorry,' he said, each word laced with regret. 'It's all my fault, everything. We should have gone for checkups regularly. If we had at all, it'd have been found out sooner.'

But that wasn't even why Eartha was crying. Her heart suddenly felt like it was weighted with lead.The tears had now won freedom and burst out of her eyes in hot, salty trickles. 'No, it's not your fault, it's mine. I was never around for her, I have never been a good mother!'

'Shush, Rainbow Drip. Of course, you were and you've always been.'

'You don't understand.' She sniffled and looked away.

A certain nine-year-old girl had been perched at the kitchen doorway since the beginning of the whole episode.

On arrival from the hospital she'd gone into the kitchen to get cold water to drink. She was going to come out when she saw her daddy pacing around the living room.

They must have forgotten she was downstairs. So she stayed back in the kitchen and watched.

Now her heart tugged as she watched her mommy cry. As much as she hated them for neglecting her, as much as she had wished they'd live to regret their negligence, she still couldn't bear this. It made guilt poke at her and she felt sorry they were sad because of her.

So she rushed to the living room and hugged her mommy.

Eartha seemed startled at first but on seeing who it was she smiled sadly and drew her to her bosom.