Chapter 7 She Has A Baby

Chapter 7

Ken

I had forgotten how blue Freda Seely's eyes were. I watched her as she left, feeling a strange twinge of unease. Was it just me, or had she been acting a bit shifty?

"Dude, what are you doing?"

I flipped around to see Felix standing behind me. He looked at my half-filled cart abandoned inside the door. "What are just standing there for? Amalia is waiting for us."

"Oh, hey." I cleared my throat. "I ran into Hunter."

His eyebrows basically touched his forehead. "Freda Hunter Selly or Stelly?"

"Yeah."

"Isn't it the first since you guys did it?"

I gave him a look. "Yeah, it is."

"What did you say to her?"

I shrugged. "Just regular stuff... Then she gave me a hug."

"A hug. That's a good sign."

"Dude, she's got a kid."

"What? No way!"

"Yeah!"

"Did you see the kid?"

"No. I did hear her shout 'mom' from somewhere, though."

"So, it is Drake 's?"

I shrugged. "Probably."

"Wow. I can't believe Drake has a kid."

"It's a frightening scenario."

"Is she still with him?" Felix asked me.

"I don't know, dude. We didn't exactly start playing twenty questions."

"Alright, alright." He handed me a large brown bag. "Go put this in the car. I'll finish the rest of the shopping."

"Thanks, dude." I was really starting to crave a cigarette and grocery shopping was too boring to hold my attention now.

I stepped out into the cool Susanville evening. The sun as just setting, filling the sky with a bluish, red hue. The parking lot of was full of cars with people milling about. When had this area become so commercial? I observed the people walking about me as I lit my smoke.

Almost without my permission, my mind was reminded me of small details of the night I spent with Freda. It had been a really strange evening for me – one of those nights where so much happens, the whole thing starts to feel like a blur. She and I had gotten off on an extremely weird foot, then we shared an incredible vibe, we had sex, and then it got weird again.

I remembered how much it bothered me that she hasn't finished, and I had to chuckle at that memory of my younger self. Such a confused soul. Thankfully, Felix had been around to give share his sex wisdom. "No guy can make a woman cum on his first time – that's impossible shit that happens in movies. Take it as a compliment that you were so good, she didn't even realize it was your first time."

There were some sense in that. Besides, when it came to sex, practice made perfect.

Again, I began to wonder about her and Drake . Had they decided to stay together after all? Had that night been only a temporary setback and not an actual break up?

Maybe they made it work for the kid, I thought, trying to make myself stop feeling weird about it. Freda may have been my first, but I had been with many women since then with whom I shared a lot more intimate memories with. This shouldn't bother me. I nodded to myself, sure in my resolve that I would no longer think about Freda Seely.

The door to the supermarket glided to the side as Felix walked out with several bags full of an assortment of things. "Ready to go?" he asked me.

"Alright." I said, nodding. "Let's get into the spirit of Christmas, already."

I HAD TO ADMIT FELIX was a lot better at Christmas shopping than I was.

Our house looked fantastic. Holly decorated every doorway, with delicate twinkling lights lining the wooden frames. A fire sparkled in the fireplace, filling the room with its soft glow, an instant tonic for the cold winds outside. The kitchen smelled of chocolate chip cookies, freshly baked bread, and an assortment of other dishes that my mother had prepared for our Christmas feast. She was now putting the "final touches" on the dining table, something she had been doing for the past forty minutes.

"Ma, I'm starving," I told her.

"Just five minutes. I need to make sure this works-"

"Of course, it will, it's just dinner." I threw tinsel onto the tree that towered over us.

"No no no. You're hanging it wrong," Amalia told me.

I rolled my eyes at her at her. "It's bunches of silver thread. There's a wrong way to hang it?"

"Don't hang it over the other ornament."

I shifted the piece of tinsel she was referring to. "How about this?"

"Better," she said to me, smiling.

I smiled back at her, my eyes searching her face for any signs of sadness or disquiet, as I was oft to do ever since I arrived. She hadn't mentioned anything to me so far about how she felt about the whole situation; we mostly talked about the technical details and about how the process of the curing the cancer would go.

I had never been as glad to be a billionaire as I was in the moment we discussed the expenses involved in treatment. It's almost as though they don't want people to get treatment, I thought darkly, thinking about the millions of people in the world who couldn't afford the care we could get Amalia.

"Do you guys want to use the red or the green table runner?" Ma asked us.

"Anything, Ma," Amalia and I responded together, at the same time. I threw her a grin.

"How was shopping with Felix?" Amalia asked me.

"He's better at it than I am."

She had to laugh at that. "Did he take over the shopping?"

"You know he did."

"Well, when he told me what happened, he said you were so distracted after running into Freda Seely, that you were kind of just standing there not doing anything-"

"–What? That's not true! I was buying things, but then I ran into her, and of course, I had to stop and say hello... I mean, it's rude not to. And, Felix came back to me just in that moment when she left, and I was just standing there... Okay, it may have looked like-"

"He told me you went outside to smoke a cigarette."

"So what? I smoke all the time," I protested.

Amalia gave me a muted look. "You said you cut down."

"I had a stressful week going on at work."

"Ken, take it from me: you don't want to suffer the side-effects."

I would've given anybody else a sharp retort about how they should mind their own business, but Amalia's expression was so full of concern that I didn't want to sully the conversation with some insensitive reply. I sighed, feeling exhausted by the turbulence of the last few days.

And, I knew there was a lot more to come.

I reached out and held Amalia's hand, squeezing it gratefully. "I know, you're right."

She smiled at me. "I know I am, too."

"Alright, smartass," I said, throwing more tinsel onto the tree. I was only allowed to decorate with the tinsel and the star ornaments – no one trusted me with putting up the Christmas lights around the tree. It was apparently a job that required some skill. I had to admit they were pretty good. The tree towered over us with its soft glowing lights, looking like the epitome of Christmas.

"Why didn't you talk to her?" Amalia asked me.

"Who?"

"Freda".

"Of course, I talked to her."

"Really? With words?"

I gave her the side eye. "You know I'm not 16 anymore, right?"

She shrugged. "Oh, I thought you might have asked her out for a cup of coffee or something."

"Why would I do that?"

She gave me a strange look. "Why not? You don't think Freda is nice?"

I was a little taken aback "Of course, I think she's nice. When did I say-"

"Well do you like to go out with other nice people?"

"Yeah I do, but she has a kid with Drake ."

"So what? They're not together."

"Are you sure?" I asked her with narrowed eyes.

"Yes, I'm sure. They're having a custody battle," she clarified.

"I don't know..." I trailed off, recalling Hunter's fidgety behavior. "She seemed kind of eager to get away from me when I met her."

"Maybe it's because when you guys did it, she didn't-"

"When did you and Felix get this dynamic where he tells you all my secrets?" I asked. She giggled at my obvious discomfort, and I felt a small smile reach my lips at the sight of her mirth.

A sudden thud followed by a crash interrupted our conversation. I jumped in my seat and turned around to find the source of the sound, but the room was empty.

"Oh, no!" Amalia exclaimed, pointing to something behind out dining table. I looked and saw my mother's arm on the floor from behind the chairs. I leapt out of my seat and raced around the dining table to find Ma's unmoving body next to a heap of shattered ceramic.

"Ma!" I shouted, running over to crouch next to her. I brushed the broken ceramic aside and brushed her hair away from her face. Her head lolled to one side with my touch.

"What's going on? Is she okay?" Amalia asked me fearfully as I pressed a finger to my mother's neck to check her pulse.

"I think she's unconscious," I said, her pulse beating reassuringly against my finger.

"Again?" she asked me, her eyes widening with panic.

"Has she fainted like this before?"

Amalia bit her lip. "Yeah, once...when I got my test results. I thought she was just upset..."

I pressed her shoulder lightly. "Hey, don't worry. She'll be fine. You've got her doctor's number?"

"Yeah." She nodded. "I'll go call him. You watch her."

"Guys, what's going on?" Felix asked, the kitchen door flying open behind him.

"Mom fainted," Amalia said, picking up the phone and putting it to her ear.

"Oh, shit."

I stuck one arm under my mother's knees and one under her head to pull her up and carry her to the couch. She was dead weight in my arms, but she was lighter than I expected. Felix quickly removed the decorative cushions off the couch and placed a pillow on the end. I gently placed my mother on the couch, making sure her head was resting comfortably.

"Yes, yes," Amalia was saying on the phone. "Dr. Nash, my brother wants to speak to you. Okay...got it."

She extended the phone toward me and I put it to my ear. "Hello?"

"Hello, Mr. Forester? I'm Dr. Nash. Can you tell me what happened to Lyla?"

"She just collapsed," I replied tersely. "Her pulse seems fine, though."

"Yes, she's been having fainting spells lately. I told her to take some rest, take it easy... Hasn't worked, I see."

"Because she hasn't been taking it easy!" I told him. "We're sitting around a four-course meal that took her two days to prepare!"

"Well, I made it very clear to her that she needs rest. She hasn't been dealing with you sister's cancer well, and if she keeps pushing herself, she will damage her heart."

I stared at my mother's drawn, tired face and felt a ton of guilt crash onto me. "I'll talk to her, Doctor. Meanwhile, what do we do when she faints?"

"Check her pulse-"

"Done."

"Then raise her legs a bit off the ground to increase blood flow into her brain. When she gains consciousness, give her something to eat and something sweet to drink. How long has she been unconscious for?"

"About two minutes."

"Well, she should come around right about now." The guy was on point – I could see my mother's eyebrows shift as the first rays of consciousness touched her face. "Make sure she takes the meds I prescribed and make sure she gets rest."

"Yes, Dr. Nash," I told him. "Thank you so much. She's stirring right now."

"Good, good. Keep me posted if anything comes up."

"I will," I told him, hanging up the phone.

"What did he say?" Amalia asked me with wide eyes.

"He said she'll be alright, but that she badly needs to rest and relax."

Amalia nervously glanced around the Winter Wonderland our house had been painstakingly morphed into. "She has not been resting."

"I can see that," I deadpanned, watching Ma's face twitching as she regained consciousness. Her eyes opened little by little as she tried to ascertain what was going on.

"Hey, Ma," I said softly, holding her hand in mine.

"Hi, baby," she whispered. "What happened?"

"You fainted," Amalia told her.

"Ah, shit," she said thickly, surprising me. My mother never cursed.

"Your doctor told me you were supposed to be resting," I said, grabbing a bottle of water and pouring some in a glass. I handed it to her.

"Oh, that Billy Nash. He keeps telling me to 'take it easy.' What does that even mean?" she said disdainfully, as though the thought was beneath her.

"I'm sure it doesn't mean spending all your time planning and organizing grand feasts and decorating the house."

She lay back down after drinking her water. Amalia gave her a small chocolate off the table. She munched on it and looked at me. "I know. But who's going to do it then? I wanted to make it special for Amalia-"

"Mom, the best thing for me would be you taking care of yourself," my sister told her, brushing away the thin film of sweat that coated Ma's forehead.

Ma shook her head slowly. "I'm fine, kids, really. I'm usually this busy in life and this rarely ever happens..."

I rolled my eyes. "You're so stubborn."

"Of course. Whom did you think you got it from?" she said, throwing me a look.

Amalia went over to sit by her on the couch, giving her hand gentle, supportive squeezes. I wanted to talk and be active, but I couldn't take my eyes off the image of them sitting on the couch together.

How often had this happened? How often had my mother and sister had no one else to depend on other than each other because I was off in some other city, trying to conquer the world? How often had they been each other's only support?

And, what would they do now that they both were weakened by the trials of life?

I picked up an empty glass off the table to go fill it – a reason to excuse myself from the room. Felix had been standing mutely behind us this whole time, his eyes fixed on the couch. I gave him a look and motioned for him to follow me with my finger. He nodded, walking behind me into the kitchen.

"What's up?" he asked me as I turned around to face him.

"I can't let this go on anymore."

He shrugged. "Well, what can you do? Your mother is never gonna relax and let loose – just like you never do."

"That's not the point," I told him. "Tell me, how many open contracts do we have left?"

"About three. Unless you don't count McNally."

"Can we find a way to end them ahead of schedule? And, let's not call McNally, at all. I can't deal with mind games right now."

"Woah." Felix stared at me. "What are you planning to do, Ken?"

I let out a terse breath. "Sell everything that isn't automated and move back to Susanville."

He gaped at me, resting his hand on the counter, as if to balance himself. His brows furrowed together as he considered my impulsive plan. It was would be a big and rather risky move. But it was the only one for me.

"Look," I began, "you can go back to New York whenever you want. I won't ask you to uproot your life like that – you hate Susanville as much as I do."

"We do hate Susanville," he mumbled.

"We do. But I can't let my mom do this to herself. She loves Amalia too much... She's going to make herself sick if she has to go through this all on her own. And, Amalia needs me right now. I can't leave."

Felix nodded thoughtfully, his eyes on the ground. I let out a sigh, leaning against the counter. "So, you're gonna have to find an apartment, right?"

I rubbed my eyes with my hand. "Yeah, I'll do that tomorrow morning, probably."

"We can go to Brownstown tomorrow; your mother was telling me about some good property there, in case I wanted to invest in Susanville." He gave me a crooked grin. "I laughed at her then, but here we go."

I gave him a look. "You'll come with me?"

"Of course. If I'm gonna live in an apartment, then I want to see it for myself."

My face brightened. "You'll stay?"

"I'm offended that you have to ask," he said, his face dead serious. "You guys are my family, too."

That sobered me. I blinked and punched him on the shoulder. "Thanks, man."

He rolled his eyes. "Please, don't get emotional."

I laughed, throwing an arm around him. Life was going to be difficult for a while. We faced a dark path that was sure to have many sorrowful days. We didn't know if our path would end in redemption or in horror. It was a dismal scene, but the fact that I was going to be here, one hundred percent, for my family and that my best friend would be here to be on my team as we fought this together made me feel like maybe, just maybe, we could get through this, after all