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Allison jumped off the chair and happily ran to the living room, launching herself on the couch to watch her favorite cartoon.
Olivia turned her attention back to her sister, who was pushing wispy tendrils of her strawberry blond hair back out of her face and wiping the corner of her eye. Looking at her gratefully. Her eyes were red and bloodshot, and bags were beginning to form under them. Making Olivia sad for her sister.
Her eyes flicked upwards, seeing Vanessa's normally bouncy hair was limp in its ponytail.
“Hard night?” Olivia asked Vanessa softly, before dropping her bag on the tiled counter and leaning forward to wrap her in a tight hug. She rubbed her hands empathetically against her sister’s cheap wool sweater, which was currently half hanging off her curvy form. She felt Vanessa’s soft body pressing into hers, so much like their late mothers, and fought back from crying.
“She was throwing up last night. I don’t know how much longer we can do this Ollie,” Vanessa said. Her freckled face contorting as she turned and leaned against Olivia’s shoulder, crying silently.
Olivia rubbed her back comfortingly, staring at the water-stained popcorn ceiling and blinking back tears of her own. She didn’t want to break down, too. Her sister and niece needed her to be strong, consistent. And as the person who had to deal with a sick child twenty-four seven, Olivia figured Vanessa deserved to cry over this situation before she did.
“Nessie, we’ll get through it,” she crooned back to her sister, hating that they were in this situation. Lamenting that life was so hard. Despising that little girls who had liver disease needed to suffer, and their families had to scrimp and scrounge to try to figure out how to afford the expensive drug to keep her alive until they found a liver match for her.
Olivia pulled back, grasping Vanessa’s shoulders firmly. Noting unhappily that her once vibrant twenty-seven-year-old sister was starting to lose her luster. She barely even sang anymore, her light beginning to dim from years of stress catching up to her.
Olivia stared in sympathy into her sisters’ cat-like gray eyes, so unlike her almond-shaped emerald ones.
“Hey, I put an extra five hundred in there so that you can take Ally to do something fun and have a little extra grocery money this month. Spend time with your daughter. Don’t pull any more doubles this month please,” she pleaded with a small smile, reaching over to grab the sealed bag of money from her tote.
Vanessa nodded, taking the money from her with a thankful smile in return.
“Run to the bank and deposit this and call her doctor’s office. I’ll finish making her breakfast and drop her off at school. I’ll lock up the house when I leave, okay? Don’t sweat anything," Olivia pressed into the sore spot on her arm, the pain stealing her breath for a moment.
Vanessa nodded again before grabbing Olivia’s hand hard in thanks. Her eyes searched for hers again, always more astute and observant.
“Ollie,” Vanessa whispered softly, turning her reddened eyes to her and imploring. “Please tell me you’re not… -for the money... you’re not?” Vanessa’s voice broke as her eyes shifted back and forth between Olivia’s.
Olivia never shared with her sister how she managed to give her twelve grand a month to help with Allison’s treatments. She smiled and squeezed Vanessa’s hand back reassuringly, once again promising to take her secret to the grave.
“Never that Nessie,” Olivia whispered, leaning forward to kiss her cheek before turning to the gas four-burner stove and turning it on. “Go!” she shooed her sister towards her purse. Vanessa mouthed an ‘I love you’ to her, placing her hands in a heart symbol before disappearing through the door quickly, the door banging behind her.
“Ally! Want pancakes or French toast this morning?” she yelled towards her niece.
“Frense oat!” Allison garbled around the straw of her juice box, which was a crumpled mess in her hands.
Olivia nodded before reaching into the fridge to grab the milk and butter. Sighing as she again wearily rubbed her sore arm and blinked sleep away as she looked at the oven’s clock. She had just enough time to possibly get a two-hour nap before her ten-hour shift at the diner. Sighing again tiredly, she began making her niece breakfast, trying to calm her own hunger pains. She didn’t want to eat their food and deplete their already sparse resources.
Olivia finished up breakfast, cleaned quickly, and locked up the house. She put a Disney CD into her car and sang along with Allison as she drove her to preschool. She smiled and waved as she dropped her off, seeing all the little kids run to Allison when she walked her into the classroom.
Normal, for a little while anyway.
Smiling to herself, she got back in her car and started the route back to her apartment, praying for the nap she so desperately needed.
***
Thanks to a tragic accident on her way home from dropping off Allison, Olivia couldn’t make it home in time for a nap.
She put a five-minute rice cup in the microwave before rushing into her bedroom and hurriedly pulled on her yellow diner uniform. Her arm stung anew as she brushed her dark red hair into a tight bun.
Going back into the kitchen, she noticed irritably that there was no butter, no milk, no nothing except salt in her cupboards. Groaning to herself, she dashed a couple sprinkles of salt before shoving it in her mouth while she stood at the counter. Not having room in her small space for a table. She only owned a two-person used loveseat she detested sitting on.
“Shit, that’s gross,” she said softly, scrunching her nose up in disgust at the taste of the salty rice.
Vanessa offered to move her in with her and Allison, but Olivia declined. Not wanting her family to see the grueling schedule that kept her coming in and out of the house all hours of the night.
No, Allison deserved consistency in her already hectic world. So, Olivia worked harder. Taking on more clients than she was comfortable with to afford to stay close to them in the expensive area of Connecticut where Allison’s doctors were.
However, her monthly expenses were twenty-four hundred dollars a month. And she was barely scraping by enough every month to pay for her own apartment and utility bills. Much less her car, insurance, and food. Forget luxuries and clothing. And her cabinets were bare. She’d need to go grocery shopping soon.
