AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“An assistant for what?” I ask.
“Unpacking, of course. I realize we are on a tight schedule, and I wish to complete my unpacking so that I may assist with other tasks.”
“You don’t need to—”
“I will,” she says, lifting her chin. “Kenny is arriving in two days, and he is unfamiliar with the construction crew and will require an aide he is comfortable with.”
“Ah.” I look at Yolanda. “April has a point. If you can spare someone for a few hours, we should do that.”
“Three hours,” April says. “Up to four, if you send me someone incompetent. But I would like Nanette, and she will do it in three.”
Yolanda looks ready to argue. Kenny doesn’t actually need April as his carpentry aide. This is about April, and if my sisterwants something—wants it enough to make up excuses—then I’m making sure she gets it.
At the last second, Yolanda bites back whatever she’d been about to say and instead mutters, “Fine. Whatever.”
Yolanda prods me into the room and shuts the door behind us.
“It is very late,” April says.
“I have Parkinson’s.”
April frowns. “You think you have—”
“No, I have it. Diagnosed last year.”
April’s frown grows. “This was not disclosed to me.” She looks my way. “Why was this not disclosed to me? Parkinson’s disease is a serious condition, and I presume it is still early, given her age, but I still needed to know this.”
I throw up my hands.
“No one knows,” Yolanda says. “It’s a private medical matter, between me and my doctor.”
“Iam your doctor, for all intents and purposes at this moment, and thus I needed to know it.” April pauses. “I believe Casey did mention mild prosopagnosia. That is a potential—though rare—symptom. Parkinson’s is also rare among people from the African diaspora. Are you certain of the diagnosis?”
“Very certain. My grandfather—Émilie’s husband—had it. A special little gift from that side of my family.”
“I’m sorry,” I say. “I really am, but presuming that’s why you’re smoking cannabis, I still don’t see the need for that level of secrecy.”
“My grandfather’s disease nearly destroyed Gran. To see him like that, with all their money, all their connections, and nothing she could do. You know what happened to Petra, right? Gran swooped in and saved her when she was ready to give up. Well, after Pops died, I did that for Gran. Everyone else saw what she wanted them to see—a tough old bird who’d acceptedhis decision to end his life and made her peace with it. I saw the truth.”
She walks to the window and looks out, her back to us. “I dropped everything to stay with her because I was terrified of losing her, too. And now I’m supposed to go to her and say I have the same thing? At my age? Hell, no. I am not telling her, and part of that is because I won’t do that to her, but part of it is because I don’t want to spend the rest of my life undergoing whatever radical new treatments she finds for me, and I don’t want her spending her last years looking for them. You better believe I’m hoping for those treatments, and I’ll take whatever my doctor suggests, but if this is the fates cutting my lifeline short, then I’m making the most of what I have left.”
Yolanda turns to face us. “And that was a bit of a speech, wasn’t it?”
“I’ll need to know your current treatment regime,” April says.
Yolanda looks at her and laughs. “I like you, Dr. Butler.”
April’s brows knit. “That’s… good. But I still need to know your regimen, in detail, as well as having access to your medical files. Presuming you have not had a checkup in months, that will be the first order of business. I realize you will not want to surrender that time, given your current schedule, but I insist.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“You are aware that I specialize in neuroscience, which means I am very conversant in the nature of your disease? You may discuss it with me and expect a professional level of comprehension.”
“Always good.”
“Casey mentioned cannabis. I presume that means you have tremors.”
“Mild ones.”
