Dusting Off A Heart

Chapter 5

After Dane exited -and Lauren woke up from her surprise, Lauren turned to Alby and offers her hand.

"Let's go see Dad." She smiled, hiding her worry. She offers her hand for Alby to take it. Alby took her hand without any hesitation. And with that, they went through the doors of the emergency room.

"How may I help you, miss?" the nurse behind the counter asked.

"I'm looking for Simon Snow."

"Oh, he's in stall number 11, miss."

Lauren hold her brother tightly and half-ran to the eleventh stall, to where their father is laying. She opened the curtain slowly to see her sleeping father. His chest goes up and down as his breathing steadied. A bottle of medication is seen on the table at the side of the bed.

The worry inside Lauren has gone a minute ago when she saw her father has been much okay, and more importantly, he's breathing.

Since they found out his father got the CAD or known as the coronary artery disease, Lauren has been nothing but a worrying self. Especially when she know that the disease is made worse by the stress her father have been holding.

CAD is the condition where there's a plague that form on the walls of the coronary arteries. This plaque makes the arteries stiff and causing them to narrow, limiting the flow of blood to the heart.

The CAD could cause death, and clearly, Lauren and Alby doesn't want that.

Alby sat on a chair that's been provided inside the stall. Lauren crouched beside him and ask him with the questions she's been holding.

"So..." She begins her questioning, "How did you and Dad get here? Did you...drove the car? Or did you used the Apollo 11? Again?" she smiled playfully at her brother.

Alby chuckles at his sister -not so amusing- joke. "I wanted to use Apollo 11, but Neil Armstrong needs it, so I drove the car.", he crossed his arms and stare intently at Lauren.

"Oh really?" Lauren raised her eyebrows, "Case closed then!"

Alby replied with a train of giggles, "Of course not, Laury! Let me tell you the real one.

"It all started when Dad was cutting the tomatoes, for you know, the pizza, but then he started to gasps for air and his breathing started to get heavy. I panicked and don't know what to do.

So the first thing come to my mind is to call 911, but I can't find dad's phone and I'm already panicking. So I went to get help from Mrs. Mayer. I rang on her doorbell but nobody came out!

Then I saw a car coming. My instinct told me to get help from somebody inside the car, and I did. Thank God the person inside the car was someone like Dane, not someone selfish or arrogant kinda thing...."

Someone like Dane?, Lauren thought about her brother's choice of words, If only he knows.

"So I told him -well, actually I half shouted at him- and begged him to help me get Dad to a hospital. He agreed and helped me carry Dad and we went to the hospital. He waited with me in the waiting room, and we chatted, blablabla, and you suddenly come, blablabla, we hugged, Dane said goodbye, and now here we are!" Alby smiled -and pant, at the same time. His story is finally done!

Knowing that there's a good part of Dane, something moved inside her. A gear in her heart moved a little, although it stopped the next second. It's nothing lovey-dovey, it's just a change in perspective.

"Good thing someone actually pass by, huh?" She patted her brother's hair.

"Yeah" Alby mumbled and smiled. "Dane said he's in the Hanleys High-School too"

"Yeah, I know, I saw him at the hall at some time"

"And did you know, that he's the captain of the soccer team?" He looked at Lauren with excitement in his eyes. Well, he's always excited about anything related with soccer.

Lauren rolled her eyes. Tired of talking about Dane. "Yes, I know that too."

"Dane also said there's a game next Friday. Will you take me to watch it? Please please please?" Alby pleaded.

Watching the game would return the memories. And that's clearly not what Lauren is looking for.

"Well, I don't know Alby. I gotta work next Friday."

"But if your boss suddenly decided you should not work next Friday, will you take me to the game?"

Lauren rolled her eyes -and smiled once again. "Alright, fine..."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

Lauren knows it's not wise to promise something she can't actually complete, but hey, she can't -suddenly and out of nowhere- lose her job next Friday.

"Oh, and Laury?" Alby spoke again.

"What? You need a bag of chips now?" she raised her eyebrows and smiled playfully.

"Well, that'll be good, but nope..." he paused,

"Dane also told you once have a crush on him."