Heartbeat

17| Degenerative

One thousand and one.

One thousand and two.

One thousand and three.

One thousand and four.

One thousand and five.

One thousand and six-

"Salted Caramel Frappuccino for Alex!," the barista said and I shot up from my seat and grabbed the coffee then said, "Thanks."

I put a dollar into the tip jar and I sipped the coffee as I made my way back to North Haven. On the way, I bumped into Kellan and he gave a small smile and said, "Good to see ya Alex."

I smiled and said, "Good to see you too cowboy."

"Well, I'll see you when I'll see you Alex, got some patients to attend to still," he said and I smiled and said, "Of course, I won't hold you from that."

He nodded and walked past me as I collected my charts from the front desk to get to the rest of my patients for the day.

I walked into the room to see a woman who looked to be in her early 40s just watching the old woman in the bed cautiously.

I cleared my throat and said, "Hi, I'm Dr. Huang and I'll be your doctor today."

The younger woman smiled and extended her arm and I shook her hand and she said, "I'm Lily Brown and this is my mother Elizabeth Brown."

The old woman looked shocked as she said, "Me? Mother?! Ha! I, Elizabeth Brown am at the tender age of 16! I haven't even had my first kiss yet! Although, I've had my eye on this boy named Johnny......"

Elizabeth starts trailing off so I took a chair and gave one to Lily.

"So, Lily, how long has your mother been like this?," I asked, "It says here in my charts that she's been experiencing memory loss, how long has it been like this?"

Lily sighed and said, "I honestly don't know, I've been so busy with my job that I hardly have time to visit my mother."

She sighs and buries her head in her hand. She exhales loudly then removes her hands and looks at me.

"I just thought it was part of old age to be forgetful," she said, regret filling in her eyes.

"I still remember the last time I visited her and she almost burned the house down because she left the cookies in the oven for 5 hours," she said and I nodded in understanding.

"When was the last time you visited her?," I asked and she gulped and said, "S-six months ago."

I was mentally gasping but I held it back.

You have no right to judge this woman Alexandria. You haven't even talked to your parents for nearly a decade.

I nodded and said, "It says here that you checked in at 9:00 am, which was just an hour ago, what happened?"

"Well, I was going to buy groceries but I found her going around the streets looking for my dad, his name was Johnny," she said as she sighed again then said, "You see, he's been dead for a few years now and she can't seem to remember."

She looked at her mother then turned her attention back to me and said, "When I tried to tell her that before we came here, she started crying then she passed out."

I nodded and gave her a shoulder a reassuring grip then said, "I have an idea of what your mother is going through but I'll get a second opinion first."

She nodded and I left the room to go and look for Dr. Hudson.

Gosh Alex. What if mom and dad also end up like that?