I came home early and found Mom’s water cup beside the basement stairs. She carried it everywhere during chemo. Then I heard football from the guest room where she was supposed to be sleeping. When I asked my husband where Mom was, his answer made that lonely cup downstairs suddenly make sense.
I’d been away on a four-day business trip, and Gabriel wasn’t expecting me home until that evening.
She carried it everywhere during chemo.
Before Mom moved into our first-floor guest room, I’d asked him if he was okay with her staying through this stretch of chemo.
He hadn’t been thrilled, but he’d agreed.
***
The first thing I noticed when I opened the front door was Mom’s water cup.
He hadn’t been thrilled, but he’d agreed.
It was sitting on the floor beside the basement stairs.
I stared at it for a second.
Mom carried that insulated cup everywhere during chemotherapy because the medication left her mouth painfully dry.
She slept with it beside her. Took it to appointments.
It was sitting on the floor beside the basement stairs.
Mom once made me turn the car around because she’d forgotten it at home.
So why was it downstairs?
Then I heard shouting from the guest room.
“COME ON! THAT WAS HOLDING!”
It was Gabriel.
Another man laughed.
I walked down the hallway and stopped in the doorway.
I heard shouting from the guest room.
Chips covered the comforter I’d changed before leaving. Four empty beer bottles stood on the nightstand. Gabriel’s brother was stretched across the foot of the bed with a bowl balanced on his stomach.
And Gabriel was sitting in the armchair, remote in hand, staring at the football game playing on the television.
What happened next changed everything… FULL STORY on the next page.
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