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"I believe that there should be affordable health care coverage available to every person in the United States,” I stated.
His father asked, “Why? We don’t have it now. What difference does it make if we do?” He was looking at me expectantly, trying to gauge my stance.
I took a small breath and said, “When I walk through the emergency rooms, the waiting rooms are filled with people - young and old, with no health insurance. When I go to clinical rotations, I see the struggles of working parents who cannot afford healthcare coverage and they bring their children to the hospitals when they're already very sick. Our nation is supposedly a superpower, but how come our infant mortality rate is almost the same as that of 3rd world countries? How is it that we tend to overlook the health of our people? Without healthy people, there will be no workers, there will be no employers. Basically, we are nothing without our health." Whew. That was a mouthful. I was passionate about this and hopefully, my passion didn’t come out as arrogance.
His motherhad a strange look in her eyes; I couldn't tell if it was good or bad. Mr. Zobowski spoke first, "Well said, Sedona. I believe I just found the CEO for my healthcare company."
Zander kissed the top of my head.
Zander’s momfinally spoke, "I don't think I was quite that eloquent when I was your age."
"Don't take this the wrong way, Sedona,” she added wistfully, with the forewarning, “When my son was in high school, he brought alot of girls to our house."
Zander looked like he was about to squirm in his seat, his eyes were a shade greener. His ears were turning red. Hewas getting uncomfortable.
"Haven, I don't think Sedona wants to hear that," his father interjected.
"No, I am trying to say something," she silently reprimanded her husband.
"Anyways, before I was interrupted, I was saying that Zander brought a lot of girls to our house when he was in high school. I knew the girls' names because I knew their parents. I would hound Zander to personally introduce me to them, but he'd just say, 'Nah, nothing special, Mom'."
She took a sip of her wine. Zander’s ears were still red and now his whole face was a shade redder too.
"Through the years, I stopped asking him about girls or women. I figured, that’s his business. He has a good head on his shoulders and I believe that we've raised him well. So just imagine my surprise when I talked to him, about a month ago and asked him on what's going on."
"You know what the first thing he told me was?"
I shook my head no.
"He said, 'Mom, I met a girl a few months back. Her name's Sedona. And,she's very special to me'."
I was still. Quiet. I didn't know what to say or how to respond. His mother, however, wasn't done with what she had to say.
"Now, I know firsthand that you're a very special girl, Sedona. I'm really glad that my son sees that." Her smile was wide; her perfect teeth glimmered against the lights. She reminded me of Zander when he was burstingwith happiness, excitement.
Zander's father steered the conversation to lighter topics after that, such as, wines and the fascinating places that they've been to.
In all the years I've lost my mother, I could honestlyit was during moments like these, conversing and laughing with Zander’s mom, that I missed her most. Zander's mother was an epitome of a great woman who was beautiful, inside and out. She reminded me so much of my mother; her easy laugh, kindness, and grace.
We left the restaurant close to midnight. Zander's parents had an early morning trip to Philadelphia so we hugged and said our goodbyes. They invited me to come visit them the next time they were in town.
Chapter Twenty
“Don’t ever be afraid of love, to love…”
Sedona
Thanksgiving and Christmas came and went. Zander and I spent the holidays apart because of our parents. He was with his in Aspen, Colorado. I spent mine catching up with my dad in Brazil. I was really lucky to have a dad who traveled as a job. I got to visitbeautiful places because of him.
Zander and I talked every day. We made very good use of our time practicing safe sex. He called phone sex as ‘safe sex’ because it happened from a distance, thousands of miles away.
A few days before we were due back to school, Zander called and he sounded so sick. He said that he might have caught a bug that was going around their hotel. He barely kept awake during our conversations.
I arrived a day later than he did. As soon as I arrived,I wanted to see him after dropping off my luggage at my apartment. I called a cab from the airport because all our friends were still away for winter break. Most of them were coming back in a day or two.
His eyes were so red when he greeted me at his place. As I walked inside, I saw his footsteps staggered. He barely managed to walk to his room. I was scared that he would fall on the floor so I tried to assist him by holding himto my side while we walked.
On his nightstand was a box of Cough and Flu medicine, a box of Kleenex, and his trash can was almost filled with used tissues.
