Staying with the Parkers

Chapter 26

Chapter 26

The last two weeks have been crap. School has been long and frustrating. I’ve had way too much homework and the teachers are starting to really piss me off. The Parker household hasn’t been any better. Everyone is quiet and keeps to themselves. The happy, fun, busy, and loving home I first came to know is now long gone. Everyone is taking Andrew’s cancer really hard.

The day after everyone found out about Andrew’s cancer, Alison told us that he had stage 3 chronic Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. He already started chemotherapy a week ago. Alison said it was going pretty good, but it was taking a tool on poor Andrew. She said he got so sick he could hardly sit up. The chemo also caused most of his hair to fall out, so he ended up shaving his head. Now he wears either a green bandana or his favorite SpongeBob hat. Luckily, his cancer wasn’t to the stage where he needed to spend the night at the hospital, but if he gets worse than the hospital could possibly become his new home.

It was currently 7:30 p.m. on Thursday and I was laying on me bed, thinking about anything and everything. All the boys have been pretty distant and detached. Whenever I try and talk to them, they don’t listen or just walk away. I get what they are going through, but did they have to act this way? There is a better way to deal with the news than doing this. The only person that doesn’t seem totally dead inside is Cayden. Every night for the last week he and I have watched tv or a movie in my room until he’s too tired to keep watching. 

The house was quiet, except for the tv on down in the living and the quiet sobbing that I could hear all the way from Alison’s room. Since the day she found out about Andrew’s cancer, Alison’s eyes have been read and her cheeks blotchy from crying. And I’m pretty sure she isn’t getting any sleep. I feel so bad for her.

A loud cry brought me out of my thoughts. I recognized Sabrina’s sweet little cry. Instead of just letting Alison or Austin get her, I sprang out of bed and quickly scurried to her room to comfort her. I walked into her pink and orange nursery to find her wide awake and playing with her little monkey stuffed animal. A toothy smile bloomed across her face as she saw me walk in.

“Hey baby girl, what’s all the fuss about, huh? You’re going to wake your mommy and daddy up, and we don’t want that.” I picked her up and cuddled her in my arms. She cooed and nestled her head into my shoulder. I love little kida. How could you not? It’s the moments like this that I can’t wait to have kids of my own. Ten minutes of walking around a soothing later, I was rethinking that thought. She still hasn’t fallen asleep.

“Okay Sabrina, this isn’t going to work. We both need sleep. How about this?” I grabbed her blankey, pacifier, little monkey, and her porta crib/ pack-n-play out of the closet and dragged everything into my room. I gently set the little angel on my bed and she occupied herself with my pillows. Quickly, I set up the pink and brown flowered bed for her right next to my bed. Next, I rocked her for about another five minutes and then sat her down in the bed and covered her in her blanket. She wasn’t hysterically crying, so I took that as my sign to quickly use the bathroom.    

After I relieved myself and washed my hands, I came back to find her sound asleep. Well, that was easier than I thought. I switched off the lights and crawled into my bed and snuggled into my soft blankets.

*****

Morning came way too soon. I hardly got any sleep last night. Sabrina only woke up once, and I got her back to sleep. But besides that, I was laying there awake listening to her to make sure that she was okay. I’ve never watched a little kid through a whole night and I was terrified that something would happen to her.

I slipped into my bathroom and had a very quick shower, taking advantage of Sabrina still being asleep. I wrapped a towel around me and walked into my closet. Hmm, what to wear, what to wear. Well it’s Friday and I have nothing special going on tonight, so that crossed dressy off the list. There was no school today because it was some teacher in service day, which was fine by me. Now how about cute, flirty, retro, or new?  Screw this. I grabbed a pair of sweatpants and my Under Armor sweatshirt. I decorated my eyes in a small amount of makeup, only a little mascara and eyeliner. Not caring how my hair looked I brushed through it and them braided it into a fishtail.