Lost Connection

How long?

'I'm sorry Mrs Bennett. It isn't good news.'

She wasn't paying much attention to the doctor's words, specially not after the C word came rolling off his tongue. All she could do was look at her mother's face.

Her mouth was moving. She was asking questions. From the muffled words she heard, the doctor was answering them. Then she saw her mother's lips move and saw her tongue flick down. She felt as though her mother's words were louder than what they were. It was barely a whisper, but Alys' ears were ringing. Her mind just kept repeating those whipered words. "How long?"

How long? How long? How long? ...

Alys didn't look in the doctor's direction for an answer. She just kept looking at her mother. Her heart stopped when her mother's eyes grew wide. Her chin met quickly with her chest. She watched as her mother's eyes shut tightly, the sides of her mouth dropped.

No no no no no no no no ...

Alys' world stopped, barely. They walked together, leaving the doctor's office door open behind them. Her mother holding her hand as they kept walking in silence.

Mrs Bennett pressed the down button for the elevator and proceeded to put her coat on. Alys took the papers from her mother's hand to free them in order for her to put in her jacket. The ding of the elevator. The doors opening. Mother and daughter stepping inside.

Alys looked down at the papers. Brochures. Brochures about meetings. Brochures about how to cope. She heard her mother move to press the ground floor button. She watched as her mother reached out and pressed the G button with her left index finger. The button lit up. Her mother's finger tip was still covering the G. She wasn't moving.

At that moment, it was all a blur. Alys' mother dropped to the floor. All those 'helpful' brochure fell to the floor and Alys hung on to her mother. Alys' ears were ringing with the cries of her mother. Her mother was on her knees. Alys fell to her, wrapping her arms around her mother's shoulders. Her left arm grasping her mother tightly. Her right arm around her mother's front and pressing her mother's face into her own chest. Her mother clung onto her only daughter's arm as tightly as she could. The tears, the cries, the noises her mother made. She had never seen her mother like this. All Alys could do was hold her. They swayed back and forth with her mother's breaths. Alys held her mother even tighter.

"Why?" Her mother cried out.

Glimps of Alys' life with her mother flashed in her mind. Then her thoughts went further. A life without her mother. Alys' heart stopped and she couldn't hold it in. She held on to her mother tighter and cried.

"Mom!"