Page 10 of Gene

“Little One?” Gene asked. “You aren’t going back to work today.”

“W-what?” she whispered.

“Can you take a couple more sips of your water?”

“No,” she spat out, looking away from Gene and feeling guilty right after. “Sorry, but I don’t want any more water.”

She didn’t want any liquids, not when her bladder was about to burst. But she knew she needed it. When was the last time she’d drunk water? It would have been the night before when she got home from work. That was when she guzzled a whole cup of water, trying to quench her thirst, but she couldn’t.

All day her mind had been on water, trying to get rid of the thirst. But no matter how much she drank, her dry mouth wouldn’t stop. Was this really how she was going to die?

“Where is your water bottle?” Gene asked.

Sammi looked at Gene. “I don’t have one.”

CHAPTER FOUR

SAMMI

Gene stared at her and blinked several times. What was going through his head? Why was he staring at her like she had two heads? She had a perfectly good reason why she didn’t have her water bottle. Did he know that? No, but she did.

“Can you repeat that?” Gene asked.

Warning bells went off inside her head as he asked that. Sammi didn’t think she said it quietly or stuttered.

“Are you losing your hearing?” She searched his face as she asked the question.

“No, why would you think that?”

Sammi shook her head and held in a wince. “Oh, no reason. You know what they say, though, right?”

“What do they say?” he drawled out.

“As you get older, some of your senses weaken. You might want to get your hearing checked out and get on top of it before it’s too late,” Sammi suggested. “My dad didn’t wait, and by the time he did go in, he was practically deaf, and they really couldn’t do anything. He had strained for so long. The last couple of years were hard, but he’s in a better place now. I bet he can hear now.” Her voice cracked toward the end.

“Oh, Little One,” Gene cooed at her. “I’m sorry for your loss. Is there anything I can do?”

She waved her hand in the air. “No, it’s been several years. Sometimes, I do wonder though if he did something to accelerate death since he couldn’t hear, didn’t know sign language, and basically couldn’t do anything.”

It had been hard. She wasn’t going to lie. She had taken care of her dad the whole time and saw how rapidly he declined. Almost like he had no will to live.

Sammi looked at Gene and then Nolan. They were both staring at her with anguished expressions on their faces. Without thinking, she reached across and touched Gene’s hand.

“It’s okay, really. It’s been several years. I try not to think about it too much. He’s in a better place, I just know it. It’s for the better. Now, I can live my life as bad as that sounds. But really. I’m fine,” she tried to reassure them, but she wasn’t doing a very good job of it. “I just wanted you to know so that you should get it checked out if you needed to. Since you asked me to repeat what I said. I just don’t want you to go without it, and then it is too late like it was for my dad.”

Gene looked behind him and at Nolan. “Did she just call me old?”

Her eyes went wide, and she scrambled to get to his level.

“Did I say you could move?” Gene asked.

“No, but I was not trying to imply that you were old. Okay, maybe I was but it’s not in a bad way. Everybody gets old. I just wanted you to be prepared in case you didn’t think about that. Not everybody does. My dad surely didn’t, and I didn’t either until I saw him go through that. I just didn’t want you to do something that you might regret later. I’m pretty sure if my dad was still alive, he would go back in time and get looked at sooner,” she rushed out.

Gene cupped her face with his hands. “Deep breaths. Take one in, hold it, and slowly let it out. Let’s do that again. Deep breath in, hold it and slowly let it out. Good girl.”

A shiver went through her body as he called her good girl. Never before in her life had she been called that, and it felt amazing. She wanted him to call her that all the time.

“Are you okay? Are you feeling hot or cold? Do you need to be seen?” Gene rushed out.

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