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ChapterSeven
Jo bent down and picked up the phone her sister had dropped to the floor from the shock of the news. “Hello? Hi, Jules… Yes, it’s Aunt Jo… Yes, she’s still here. Hold on.”
Jo held out the phone to her sister, who looked from it to her, eyes squinted in confusion.
“Jules is still on the phone. You need to speak to her, Cora. I know it’s hard to hear such news, but this is the time she’ll need you more than anything. She’ll need your support so she doesn’t make any more bad decisions that might make the situation even worse,” she reasoned with her sister.
After another pause and Cora looking down at the phone as if it was a weapon, she finally scooped it out of Jo’s hand and placed it by her ear.
“Hi, sweetie… no, I’m still here. You don’t start school until September, so this is what I want you to do, Jules. Book a ticket back to Seattle and then take the ferry to the island. I’ll come to pick you up when you get there… and honey… it’s okay. Everything will be okay. I’m here for you, and we’ll make it through this. Okay?”
After Cora hung up with her daughter, then slumped into the nearest chair, feeling defeated. Jo pulled up a chair to sit before her.
“How’re you feeling?” Jo asked, rubbing her knee soothingly.
“Like I just got ran over by a train.” Cora sighed, dejected.
“I know it’s hard, possibly maddening, to know that your twenty-year-old daughter is possibly pregnant, but you have to think about how she is feeling now. You have to be there for her more than ever. The good thing is that you now have me, Drea and Mom, and the rest of the family to be there for you and Jules. It’ll all work out. You know why?”
“Why?” Cora asked, drawn in.
“Because we’re family, and family is everything. Besides with all that we have gone through and how it’s affected us all this time, we owe it to ourselves and to our children not to mess up twice.”
“Thanks, Jo,” Cora replied sincerely. “I needed to hear that. I know everything will be fine because I have you and Andrea. I didn’t realize how much I missed you two until recently and how I made it this far without you guys is truly a mystery to me now.”
Jo gave her sister a bright smile. “The feeling is mutual, Cora.” Reaching over, Cora pulled her into a hug.
* * *
“Ah, sweetie. You beat me this morning,” Becky spoke, surprised to see her daughter in the kitchen with breakfast already prepared.
“I thought I’d surprise you for a change,” Jo replied with a small smile. “Coffee?” she asked, moving toward the freshly brewed pot to pour her a cup.
“Thank you, sweetie.” Becky gladly took the cup from her daughter, inhaling the rich aromatic steam rising from the cup. “Nothing like a fresh cup to get the day started right.”
Jo nodded in agreement and turned to pour herself one. Jo brought the cup to her lips to take a sip of the hot liquid but almost spilled it and burned herself at the startling sound of glass shattering on the floor. She whipped around to see her mother’s empty hand and wide, frightened eyes staring back at her.
“O-Oh… m-m-my… God… it just…fe-l-l.”
Jo was shocked by the slurred words that came out in a thick heavy voice from her mother, along with the awkward curling of her fingers and her slightly shaking hand. In that instant, Jo came face to face with the tangibility of her mother’s illness. She lifted her eyes to lock with her mother’s, which were now registering the fear she felt in their brown orbs. Her eyes glistened as her tears pooled in them before a few slipped past their barrier to run down her cheeks.
“I-I’m… s-s-so… scared… swee-…tie.”
Becky’s revelation freed Jo from the shock, and she sprang into action, crossing to the other side of the island to engulf her mother’s small, fragile frame in her embrace. “Shhh, it’s okay, Mom,” she soothed as Becky’s tears began to fall even quicker, and her muffled sobs filled Jo’s ears. “These things happen. It’s just one of those days.”
The words didn’t carry as much weight as they normally would have. She knew that what she had just spoken to her mother was far from the reality she was in, and Becky knew it as well. “We’ll get through this together. You, Cora, Andrea, and me,” she changed her approach. “We’re all here now, and we’re not going anywhere.” In that instant, she knew there was no way she could leave Oak Harbor again. Her mother needed her.
When the two separated, Jo offered, “Let me fix your breakfast and get you another cup of coffee, okay?”
“Thank you, Jo,” Becky replied gratefully.
Jo realized that the slowed speech had receded and that her hand had stopped shaking and was now by her side. She was happy for that. Giving her mother another reassuring smile and ordering her to have a seat, Jo fixed her mother a plate of eggs, bacon, and some hash browns. She placed it before her, then her coffee. She then proceeded to clean up the glass chards on the floor and wiped up the liquid. Just as she took a seat in front of her own plate, the other three occupants in the house walked in.
“Mmm, it smells like a starving man’s paradise. So delicious,” Andrea commented, provoking a laugh from Jo and the others. “Looks heavenly too,” she continued, looking at the platters of food set out and ready to be eaten.
“Those are the perks of having a chef for a sister,” Cora added. “Thanks for making breakfast, Jo. Everything looks perfect.” She turned to compliment her sister.
“You’re welcome,” Jo returned, looking from her two sisters to her niece. “Please have a seat. Mom and I…” Jo darted her gaze to her mother to see a look of worry on her face. “We just started eating. We just couldn’t wait on you slowpokes to get down here.”
