#2

Author's Note: If you haven't read my first memoir it was about a family friend taking care of us while my mom was recovering from surgery. Since my exigency is how I was raised with by a "village" of people and exploring those relationships I wrote a similar one with someone in my "village taking care of me. However I chose to write a story about how us kids took care of one another juxtaposing this story to the first one where the adults took care of us.

 

The dream of a fish farm died that day.

From Left to Right: Molly, Sarah, Emily, Abby and Claire

The phone rang just after dinner. Its ominous echoes rang through the unusually empty house. It was just us four girls tonight, Dad was off on a business trip. Emily and Sarah and I continued to clear the table as Mom answered the phone. Reading the caller ID she smiled to herself, picking up the phone.

My mom didn’t even get the chance to say hello. Her face crumpled into full panic mode. In a matter of seconds my sisters and I were told there was an emergency. Abby, our neighbor had had to go to the hospital and her older brother Andrew and her little sister Molly were to come over and stay with us while my mom left for the hospital.

Minutes later the trudging steps of Molly and Andrew sounded in the front hall and my mom flew out the door.

Having Molly over at our house was no strange circumstance. She had been a permanent fixture in our lives ever since that competition with Sarah on the monkey bars. Coming over every day after school and often staying for dinner. It wasn’t uncommon for Abby to be there as well. As Molly’s older sister she often played with us but lately she hadn’t been around much. Being in six grade and I in a mere second there was a quite a bit of age difference especially as Abby was ready to move on to middle school.

Getting over our original shock we quickly made our way to the basement. As fought voted and eventually settled on a game to play we could not forgot. Images of shocked faces and panicked voices floated to our memories and our questions could not be held in for long. Because Andrew was the oldest he was the target of these questions. Shifting uncomfortably with each new question he would quickly divert the subject. We knew he didn’t want us to know but that only made us want to more.

After much prodding and many puppy dog eyes he told us. Talking so softly I almost didn’t catch it, Andrew said, “diabetes”.* Diabetes a new word of very little meaning. The burn of curiosity intensified as the unanimous question “What’s diabetes?” echoed around the cement walls. Unable to avoid the topic, Andrew relented. He explained to us how Abby was sick. Something called her blood sugar was too high and it was making her sick. I shuddered as he told us how she had to go to the hospital so they could teach her how to give herself shots, which she would have to take for the rest of her life. He reassured us, Abby was going to be okay, he said. She would be home in a few days and she would be okay.Our curiosity satisfied we turned back to the game at hand. 

Mom got home a few hours later. My heart raced. I was anxious to find out what happened, how Abby was doing. But even as my heart told me to run my feet dragged behind me weighed down with the dread of worst case scenario. Sarah and Molly and Emily and Andrew lagged behind as well. Our fears not yet alleviated.

Mom looked okay, worried but okay. She had seen Abby she said and Abby was okay. She would be home in a couple days and we need not worry. Her soothing voice calmed my racing and heart and eased the butterflies in my stomach. My fears were gone. My mom was a nurse she would know whether or not Abby would be okay. My worries gone I skipped upstairs ready to read before bedtime.

It was strange almost surreal after that day. Years of lemonade stands and one extremely successful snake petting zoo had given us a fair bit of money. It had been sitting in our piggy bank waiting for the day we could finally open up our own fish farm. After that night Sarah suggested we donate the money to Diabetes. Abby and Sarah and Molly and Emily and I agreed there was no other option.

Life returned to normal except when Abby pulled out that little black pouch with the orange syringe and needle. Emily thought it was cool. “Everyone come watch! Abby’s giving herself a shot!” she would shout and all her little friends would come racing with eyes as wide as saucers. Too old for that kind of nonsense I rolled my eyes and laughed at her. Abby did too. Whenever it happened we’d share a glance and chuckle and in those brief moments I knew that everything truly was okay.  

 

* “In a voice so low that Dad didn’t hear him, Brian said, “Yes”” (78 Walls); I don’t know why but this line gives me chills. Perhaps it’s just the context that it is in but I absolutely love it which is why I wanted to mimic it.