LIFE Interrupted

Her son dropped his eyes to his plate.

“I know Heath because I hate getting mammograms and going for my annual exams, I hurt myself. It could have been worse. We have to move forward not look backward.”

He nodded at her in acknowledgement. Hannah spoke where he did not, “We’re looking at houses in Cooper, so we can be closer to you guys. Each of the grandparents gave us ten thousand dollars to put down on the house for a down payment so we can get moved sooner than we planned.”

“Could I interrupt here?” Brad glanced around the table. “We’ve decided to give Ally the same amount of money for school. Duke talked to us before he and Daisy agreed to get Ally from school. The four of us knew what she wanted and that you wouldn’t agree, Sophie so if you’re going to be mad, I guess you should be mad at us all. Duke and I flipped to see which set of grandparents would go get her and face your wrath.”

She met his eyes. She could see his determination to make her understand that this was the right thing to do. “From what I gather from Ally that will pay for two years of local community college,” Brad said to her.

“It will,” Ally agreed.

“She won’t have as much debt as you think,” Brad informed Sophie.

She glanced down the table at her daughter. “She had a full ride in Columbus.”

“So, soccer wasn’t as important as her mother,” Brad snapped.

She heard the gruffness of his tone and she backed down. “All right.” Her own voice showed her tiredness at the argument because Ally came home. She wasn’t going to win this against all four grandparents. She didn’t bother to tell him that her daughter didn’t need to have any debt. She and Josh could pay for the rest.

“I have my port done on Monday morning bright and early.” She rolled her eyes. “Ally, you’ll meet Jagger Crosby at the office and get him started. Your dad will tell you the schedule for the week.”

She glanced down the table at her daughter’s startled expression. She laughed. “You came home. You said you wanted to help. Jagger is the new manager your father hired tonight.”

“I do. I just didn’t think you were going to trust me this much,” she was shocked.

“Can’t you handle it?” Sophie asked her, knowing ahead of time, what Ally’s response would be because she had challenged her daughter.

“I can,” she watched Ally’s chin tilt in defiance.

“I thought so.”

“Friday, I have my first chemo treatment. Every two weeks after that. There is every possibility they will make me ill. They give you anti-nausea meds plus some other things in your port before they start them.” She glanced around the room. “For some those meds work better than others. We’ll have to see how I respond.”

She waited to see if anyone asked anything. Everyone was quiet. Her mother grasped her hand. “What happens after chemo?”

Turning her head towards her mother, she squeezed her mom’s hand. “Surgery and or radiation. I’ll meet with the surgeon after my chemo is completed.”

“Surgery?” Kai repeated the word.

“Partial or full mastectomy. We don’t know what the risk is, so we don’t know yet what my options will be. Maybe just a lumpectomy but with lumpectomy I have no choice but to do radiation. I don’t know how I feel about that.”

Kai covered her mouth with her hand. Sophie knew her well. She was hiding the tremble of her lip; trying not cry. “I’m more afraid of dying than losing my breast, Kai.” Kai only nodded.

Heath got up and walked away from the table. “Brad you okay with Joshua?” Hannah asked him.

“Just fine,” he replied.

“I’ll go check on Heath.” She got up and followed her husband out of the dining room.

“First, I run Ross away, now my son.”

“He’s having a hard, time with this,” Josh informed her. “He’s trying to be strong for you, so I think because he felt overwhelmed he left the room.”

“Why doesn’t he talk to me? Why don’t you all just talk to me? Tell me how you feel.” She leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms over her chest.

“I’m concerned about what you’re going to be going through. The chemo,” Kai told her. “I know you. You work hard. You have difficulty sitting down. You’re always taking care of everyone else. This is going to be a major adjustment for you to let us take care of you, Sophie.”

She nodded in understanding what Kai was trying to tell her.