Page 18 of Against All Odds

Doreen passed away after the accident. There are times my mother can recall it, but it’s almost as though there is a before and an after. Anything before and even during the accident, she remembers, but after is harder for her.

“She’s visiting, yes.”

“Is she going to come say hello?”

“I’m not sure,” I say, even though I know there’s no way I’ll allow that. New people, new things, set her off into a possible bad day.

I work to avoid that.

She pats my cheek. “You should tell her you love her. You always have, and everyone knows it. Do it before she gets away. Trust me, Everett Finnegan, life is short.”

I know that all too well. “I agree.”

“I miss him every day,” Mom says wistfully.

She loved my father more than I ever could grasp. Even though all the cards were stacked against them—she was sixteen, he was in trade school, and they had no help from their parents—they had love. Dad became an electrician and worked hard, and Mom was a librarian. They longed for a family but weren’t able to have children. When someone left me with a note on the steps of the police station, my parents didn’t hesitate.

They took me in, loving me in every way possible.

When I was officially adopted, my mother says it was the single-most-beautiful day of their lives. I like to joke that it waswhen their luck turned around, but the current state of her life would suggest otherwise.

The accident took everything from her. Losing her short-term memory was hard, but losing my father was unbearable. I almost wish it went the other way. That she could forget the accident, my childhood, her life, her family, because then she wouldn’t feel his loss so deeply.

Instead she relives the pain.

“I do too, Mom.”

She shakes her head. “Where’s the remote?”

I close my eyes, doing my best to hide the devastation that washes over me. “It’s right next to you.”

She glances down. “That’s right. I have it here.”

I smile. “Good.”

I kiss her forehead and get up to head into the kitchen and then to the other rooms. I update the calendars that we’ve placed throughout the home so everything is the same, check that all the doors are closed and the locks are in place for the things that are unsafe, and grab the knobs to place them back on the stove.

My phone pings with a message from one of the techs in the office, and I see that she’s added two emergencies to my schedule, so I head back into the living room.

“I need to head to the office now. Justine will be here in a few minutes.”

Justine was a nurse for fifteen years, and when her mother was sick, she quit her job to take care of her. Instead of returning to the hospital after her mother passed, I hired her to care for Mom.

“Will you be home for dinner?” she asks, even though we went over all of that earlier.

“Not tonight, Mom. I’m going to dinner with a friend.”

Her eyes narrow just slightly, and she looks at the calendar. “I know you told me.” She takes my hand in hers. “I’m sorry. My brain is just tired, that’s all.”

I shake my head, giving her my most charming smile. “You have nothing to be sorry for. The calendar is on the wall, and you can always read it to know where I am.”

“Bye, sweetheart.”

“Bye, Mom. Be good and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

She huffs a laugh. “Since you’re a hellion, that doesn’t bode well for me.”

I give her a wink and head into the office, hoping my day is calm so I can mentally prepare for dinner tonight.

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