The Problem with Dreams

Chapter 82 - Naming over Dinner

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The seafood restaurant was a little farther from the hospital than the cafe they'd visited the previous night. They had to wait to be seated since they didn't have reservations, but they didn't wait long and were soon shown to a small table with a reasonable view of the ocean beyond. They talked about the family over dinner and came up with a plan for how they could spend more time with those at home during the onset of the Sabbath the next day.

"So I'll come to the hospital in the morning," Susan said, "after the children go to school. I'll come home for lunch and help Mom get dinner prepared and do our shopping for the baby. We'll eat dinner and pray at home, then come to visit Melody after. Is that what we decided?"

"That's the plan," Greg agreed. "So I won't go to the hospital in the morning, and I won't go on my way home. We'll go together after supper, agreed?"

"Agreed," Susan said.

Neither of them could muster up the courage to discuss the topic of what they would do if Susan's parents decided they needed to go home soon.

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Friday started out exactly according to plan. Susan got up only a little after Greg did, got breakfast on the table, saw him off to the studio and the children off to the bus stop while her parents slept in. Then she went to the hospital to feed Melody. She finished that barely in time to make her appointment with Dr. Daniels, and then rushed back to the hospital again. Susan fed Melody twice more before leaving again at noon, trying to be home for lunch with her parents, to shop with her mother, and to help make the preparations for supper that evening. She was sitting on the sofa recovering from all that when Greg and the children came in.

"Mom!" Zackary said enthusiastically when he saw her.

"Hi Zack," Susan said with a smile.

"Aren't you supposed to be feeding Melody?"

"We switched things around today so I could be here," Susan told him. "We wanted to all be together for our Sabbath dinner this week."

"Yeah, except we're not all together, Mom," Matt pointed out. "Melody isn't here."

"Yeah. Couldn't we go pray with her all together at the hospital, like we did last week?" Zackary asked.

Greg was just setting his keys down in the dish on a side table as he came in, overhearing the boys' comments as he did.

"Should we do that?" Greg asked Susan.

Susan looked at them all, taking in their hopeful expressions, before glancing at her mother as well.

"You're not up to it," Mrs. Abernathy recognized.

"Are you tired, Susan?" Greg asked.

"Sort of. I've done a lot of running around today," Susan explained. "Dr. Daniels thought I should try to avoid quite so much of that for the next week, at least."

"I forgot you were going to see him today," Greg commented. "How are you?"

"We can talk about that later," Susan said. "How about we have dinner here as we planned, then tomorrow we can all go see Melody for our end of Sabbath prayers. How would that be?"

"Aren't you going after dinner, Mom?" Matt asked.

Greg studied Susan's expression and the look of fatigue on her face. "Have you changed your mind about going?"

"No. I know I need to because Melody needs me, but I don't think I'm up to making this a group event tonight," Susan said. "Is that all right?" she asked her sons.