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“You really should tell him what’s going on.”
I sit as worry washes over me. “What’s up?”
Leah bites her bottom lip, then says, “It really should come from her, but I bet if you went to Hannah’s place right now, she’d appreciate it.”
I sit up straighter, my worry turning to pure panic faster than a hundred-mile-an-hour fast ball. “Why? What happened?”
“She didn’t tell you why she was back, did she?”
“No. I just figured they came home to visit family. I mean, it’s been five years. It’s about time.”
She sighs. “I agree, and I know they planned to once the record came out, but this wasn’t planned, like, at all.”
“Then, tell me what’s going on.” I’m getting a little irritated she isn’t coming out and saying whatever is on her mind.
“It’s her mom … she’s sick,” she says as her entire demeanor falls sullen.
My heart stops. Her mom has always been the absolute most important person to her. They used to say it was them against the world.
“With what? Cancer?” It’s all I can think of that would be this devastating.
She shakes her head. “She’s been diagnosed with dementia.”
I sit back in my seat as I take in what she just said. I’ve never known anyone with the disease, but I took a class on the human body in college, and a section of it covered the over seven hundred different types.
“How bad is it?” I ask, still in disbelief.
“They had a brain scan done today.” She pauses, and her eyes meet mine. “I shouldn’t be the one to tell you. I really think she’d like to talk to you about it. Can you go over there?”
I think about it for all of two seconds and stand up. “Yeah, I’ll go right now.”
I forego my food and head straight to her house.
When I get there, it’s dark, but I see a light on in the backyard, so I head to the side gate and enter the way I used to so many times back in high school.
I startle her as I turn the corner, but when her eyes lock with mine, she rushes to me, wrapping her arms around my neck as she cries into my chest.
“Shh,” I say as I hold her close and rub my hand down her hair. “It’s going to be okay.”
She shakes her head. “It’s not going to be okay. The scans came back, saying she has advanced frontal lobe dementia.”
My heart sinks to the ground at the news, but I stay strong, hold Hannah tighter, and let her cry into my shoulder for as long as she needs to. After a few minutes, her sobbing calms down, and I decide to guide us back to where she was sitting, so we can have a seat and talk.
When her eyes meet mine, my heart actually rips in two at the way her eyes are bright red and swollen with tears.
I wipe one away as I ask, “Does she understand what’s going on?”
She shakes her head as more tears slide down her face. “Why was I not here to help her?”
I scoot closer and hold her tight “Hey, don’t do that. You didn’t know.”
“Exactly. I didn’t know. If it had been caught earlier, then we could have done something to at least slow it down. Now, the damage is so far gone that there’s nothing we can do.”
I hold her into my side and keep her there as she cries some more.
“What’s the next step then?” I ask as I place my cheek on the top of her head.
She sits up and rubs her eyes, then looks up to the sky, trying to stop herself from crying. “I don’t know. I don’t know what to do. She can’t live here alone.” She pauses and looks back at the house she grew up in. “I can’t believe she’s been this gone and living alone. She’s lucky nothing serious happened.”
