Chapter 4 - Memories

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"Yes Pen?"

"Is Mommy gone?"

Daddy just nodded.

That's when the tears started to flow. My second grade teacher later described these as waterfall tears. All of the sudden, doctors came and they took Colin away. 

"Where are you taking my son?" Daddy asked one of the nurses.

"They are taking him to an operating room."

"Why are they doing that?" Daddy asked warily.

"I am not allowed to disclose that information."

"Disclose? Disclose?!" Daddy's voice raised to a yell. "Do I not have the right to know how my own son is doing?"

He then reduced to tears and knelt on the floor, face in his hands

The nurse's face softened. "The team is doing everything they can."

"But what if it's not enough? What if..." Daddy trailed off but I was smart enough to know what he meant.

"Colin's strong, he'll be fine." I try to reassure Daddy.

He looks up, surprised as if he forgot I was even there.
"Of course, Penelope, he is."

Dad never called me Pen again.

A doctor came in, a grim look on his face.

He whispered something into the nurse's ear.

The nurse turned to me and Daddy.

"Mr. Edwards, I'm sorry, but your son didn't make it."

Daddy's face crumpled and I went over and hugged him tightly, both of our tears falling fast now.

After coming home from the hospital, Daddy shut himself up in his room, coming out only when I needed feeding, and for the funeral. It was hard for me at first, but since then I've learned to be independent.

I make my own lunch most of the time, and I walk home by myself (unless I'm with Daisy) and I've learned to cope with things by myself. If I need help with a math problem, I just look it up on YouTube. If I need help studying for a vocabulary test, I just put it into Quizlet. And Dad just does his own thing. He's sad most of the time, and for the first 6 months after Mom and Colin died, I could hear him cry at night. Now he doesn't cry, he just doesn't laugh and make jokes and goof off like he used to. Until 2 months ago. Until he met Lynne. Now he's happy again. He's been making more jokes and he even made my lunch for me the other day. It's nice, seeing him happy again. It just hurts a little that I didn't make him happy enough, after 8 years, and she made him happy after 2 days. I try to push that out of my mind, because I should be happy as long as he's happy.

I'm startled out of my thought by my phone dinging. I read the message.

(773) 846-3324

^^ GUYS THIS A RANDOM PERSON I DONT KNOW THEM PLEASE DON'T DO ANYTHING

Anyways, back to the story

(773) 846-3324

hey loser

I saw you talking to aiden at lunch

he'll never like you

you know why?

cause he likes me

loser

Of course, this is ridiculous, because Aiden and I have been friends for 7 years, and I would never have a crush on him. He's basically my brother. 

I sigh and turn off my phone

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I sigh and turn off my phone. Luckily Bianca doesn't know who I actually have a crush on, then she'd tell everyone and I'd be the next Maggie. Maggie was my best friend from kindergarten to third grade, until Bianca told everyone she had a crush on Dylan. She got teased so much she switched schools.

I then take out my piano sheets. I've been learning to play Rainbow by Kasey Musgraves.

I start playing and singing and by the end a memory pops into my brain.

I'm young, maybe 3 or 4, and my mother is singing to me. 

"Swing low, sweet chariot. Coming forth to carry me home." I laugh and she smiles, then kisses my forehead. "Go to sleep now."

I don't know why, but there are tears on my cheeks. I walk over to my dresser and put on the necklace Dad gave me for my birthday this year. He got it for her on their 10th anniversary. A few weeks before she died. I hear footsteps and all the sudden Ricky is in the doorway. He starts to tell me something but stops when he sees my tears.

"What's wrong?" he asks, concern in his tone. I sit on my bed.

"I'm just thinking." I say, looking at the photograph of Mom and Colin. Realization hits him and he looks a sad. 

"Well, if you ever wanna talk abut anything, just know I'm hear for you. Well, not physically here, as I live 1,396 miles away." he jokes. I chuckle a little. He looks pleased with himself.

"You know, you and Colin probably would have gotten along well." I say, turning to him. "He was just learning to skate when..." I trail off, knowing he knows what I mean. "I can't believe you're going home tomorrow!" 

"Yeah, this week has flown by." he replies. "I heard you singing. You're really good."

I shrug. "Maybe."

"You should post covers, like on YouTube, or Instagram."

"You think people would watch me sing?" I ask.

"Yeah, I'm sure they would." he says. He gets up. "I have to go pack, come talk to me if you need anything."

I nod and smile a little. Maybe I will.

Maybe I will.

Hi. I'm sorry that this chapter is kind of a downer, I tried to make up for it with some brother-sister interactions at the end, but I still have like 1,000 words of sad flashbacks. Sorry. ✌🏼 ~ Mere

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