AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Sometimes, I forget,” I murmur.
“Sometimes, I forget, too,” she says, taking my hand. “It used to be just Archie and Fiona. Then it was Archie, Fiona, and our girls. Now, you girls are moving into your own lives, so it’s back to Archie and Fiona again—and Cancer. We’re never really alone anymore.”
“You just forgot your love language somewhere along the way, ” I say, cupping her cold-to-the-touch ankle in my palms. “It happens.”
She shakes her head, and I take a moment to mourn for the beautiful blonde locks that used to fall down her back like corn silk. There were days—B.C. days, of course—when people would look at Mom and wonder if she was my older sister or my mother. Old age seemed uninterested in her.
But the last few years brought what she was owed and then some. Wrinkles came fast, the hair went faster, and gravity pressed her spine into the shape of a question mark.
“We didn’t forget our love language, sweetheart. It just changed. Even through the worst of it, your dad’s still here, taking care of me. That’s our love language.”
She pats the empty space beside her, inviting me in. Sighing, I squeeze myself into the armchair with her. She wraps her too-frail arms around me and I rest my head against her bony shoulder.
“Used to be that all three of us could fit into this chair,” she chuckles longingly.
“I remember. You used to read us a story every night before bed. You and Dad would take turns doing the voices.”
“Celine always wanted stories with princesses and fairies. You wanted the ones with a little more action to them.”
“So what you’re saying is, I was the more interesting one?”
She nudges me in the ribs and winks. “I know it seems like you and Celine are light years apart sometimes. But the truth is, your deepest nature is the same.”
I frown. My whole life, people have told us how different my sister and I are.You leap before you look. You shoot first, then forget to ask questions. But Celine is an old soul. A wise soul. Cautious, not reckless. Careful, not rash.
“How do you figure that?”
“You both love with your whole hearts. You’re both loyal, kind, and passionate. And you care for each other—that’s another thing you have in common.”
Again, my mind flashes back to that moment two and a half months ago. The reason that those two little blue lines appeared at all today. To a storm on the horizon and a dark-eyed dream standing in front of a car that kept growling like it was alive.
What do you want?he’d asked.What doyouwant?
I told him. And then I let him give it to me.
Celine would never have acted so impulsively. She certainly wouldn’t have slept with a stranger without a condom.
Although now, she’s engaged to a man she barely knows, so maybe Mom’s right. Maybe we aren’t so different after all.
“I’m worried that she might be making a mistake here,” I admit. “She’s already engaged to this guy and she only met him two months ago. She’s twenty-two, Mom! Why does she need to get married now?”
“Because she loves him, dear.”
“So you’re okay with this? Really and truly?”
Mom sighs again, and her soft blue eyes flatline. “I will always worry about you girls no matter what. But I learned a long time ago that you can’t force certain decisions on anyone, least of all your children. I raised you and Celine to be strong, independent women, and that’s what you are. And now that you’re both adults, it means I have to trust you both.”
“Trust, huh? Sounds terrifying.”
“It is. It’s also wonderful.” She smiles and touches my cheek. “You should try it sometime.”
11
TAYLOR
Whenever Mom is really tired, she starts drooping, like a wilted flower that needs reviving.
It still comes as a shock, even after two long years of her sickness. I think I’ve frozen her in my mind at a particular point in time. A time when she could kick around the ball with us in the backyard. When she could drive us to Lake Michigan for the day. When she could stay up with us all night telling ghost stories and eating homemade s’mores around our fake fireplace, a.k.a. the stove, saying,Okay, justonemoreagain and again until we were all so full of sugar that our stomachs hurt.
