LIFE Interrupted

by Lee Wardlow

  “I’ll bet more than a few,” her brother teased her from down at his end of the table.

  “You’re no saint, Ross Ward.”

  He laughed at her. “I’m not but I sure try to be and when I’m not I go to confession.”

  “I know, that’s what Paddy said.”

  Ross shook his head at her. “So, spill it. What’s the plan?”

  “Start eating,” she declared. “I’ll talk.”

  She watched everyone fill their plates with pizza bought at a local pizzeria by Roman and Kai. Her young nephews were taking theirs to the garage, so they could watch television. They kissed her cheek before making their exit. She hadn’t seen them since Labor Day and she realized how much she had missed them.

  They needed to make more of an effort to be a family, of that she was sure if nothing else in this craziness she called her life. Sophie wanted to surround herself with her family. This one life she was given was too critical to ignore the little, things that might seem insignificant but were most important and were most precious to her.

  “I have Stage II ER/PR positive.” She could see like Kai no one knew that meant. “My cancer is reactive to estrogen and progesterone. That is good.”

  “Why is that good?” Heath asked.

  “They know what’s causing it. How to treat it. It’s not aggressive. It’s spread to my lymph node because I’ve had it for a while.”

  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.

  “I’m afraid I’ll lose my daughter,” her mother sniffed back her tears. “I gave birth to you. I held you in my arms when you couldn’t sleep because you were running a temperature. I feel so helpless because this is something I can’t fix for you or do for you.”

  Sophie leaned into her mother and wrapped her arm around her. They were cheek to cheek. “I’m not going anywhere Mom. It’s treatable.”

  “It’s scary, Sophie. My daughter has cancer.”

  “I know, Mom.” She comforted her mother.

  “If you need us, we just want you to let us know,” Maria informed her. “This isn’t going to be easy. I think the worst thing we can do is hover over you.”

  Sophie glanced across the table at her mother-in-law. “I appreciate that.”

  She felt the tears welling in her eyes. She had been through so many stages since she was first diagnosed. Tears and disbelief. She was starting to get angry and was ready to fight this bastard. She would need their help though.

  Hannah and Heath returned to the dining room. Sophie knew that her son had shed a few tears although his eyes were dry now. Hannah went to her seat, but Heath walked around the table. He squatted by her chair and laid his head against her shoulder. Sophie turned away from her mother and kissed the top of his head.

  “I love you, baby,” she told him.

  “Love you too, Mom. I just wanted you to know that.”

  “I do,” she whispered to him, holding him close.

  “If you and Dad need help getting you to chemo we’re here to help too.” She glanced across the table and Hannah nodded.

  “Thank you. We appreciate it.” He rose and kissed her cheek again then he wiped his face on his sleeve unashamed that he was crying once again.

  “I think we need some happy news,” Sophie glanced around her mother at Kai. “What’s this baby?” She asked her friend.

  Kai glanced at Roman. “Well,” she said. Then Roman put his arm around her and squeezed her shoulder. “First of all, there are two surprises. Identical twins. Both girls.”

  “Holy sh…Moses. You’re kidding?” Sophie thought she might st
art crying again.

  “Nope, I’m not. I thought Doctor Ben and I were going to have to pick Roman up off the floor.”

  He laughed but he gazed at her friend with so much love. Sophie’s eyes welled with tears she was so happy for her. “I can’t wait. Two little girls to torment Roman Garin for the next eighteen years.”

  He laughed at Sophie.

  She squeezed Josh’s hand. He understood. She wanted to be here to see it happen.

  Chapter 9

  Sophie

  Inserting the port was a breeze. She came home afterwards and spent the afternoon lying around. She wanted to avoid the office to let Ally take control and be responsible. She would just get in the way. Josh went to the office to see how things were going on Jagger and Ally’s first day. It was the hardest thing Sophie had ever done was stay at home.

  Letting go of control was a difficult, thing for Sophie to do. She watched television which she never did. She binged on a Netflix Original Series and decided it wasn’t so bad. She might be able to get used to this inactive life.

  Who was she kidding? She needed something. Kai was at work. She called Micki. She had her hands full with the twins. They only talked for fifteen minutes but she promised Sophie she would come over next week. She would be there for her too.

  Laying on the sofa, with her eyes closed she pictured a life without her in it. Josh sleeping in the king-sized bed alone for a while at least. Coming home to an empty house. He would eat out a lot at first, she knew him well. Would Ally just remain on at the landscaping business and take her place? Maybe? For a while at least, to help her dad out.

  The baby. He wouldn’t remember her. She knew that she would be a name, a face in a picture that he would smile politely at when mentioned but he would have no true feelings for her. A tear slipped from beneath her lashes.

  She didn’t know why she was doing this to herself. Doctor Roberts said her cancer was treatable. It had spread though. That was what was scaring her. Her mind would just continue to race with the possibilities until she was told she was cancer free. Sophie didn’t know how to turn it off.

  Since the day that Doctor Ben had sent her to the Imaging Center she was walking through life with her brain turned off and feeling numb. She had to admit with Ally here, doing her job she didn’t have to worry about screwing something up. Before that, Josh had caught more than a few mistakes that she had made. Sophie felt scrambled.

  She rubbed her temples feeling like she was going crazy. Deciding a walk, the exercise would do her some good, Sophie went back to their bedroom where her gym shoes were. She had worn yoga pants this morning and a light weight knit shirt. She no longer needed a jacket; the afternoon air had gotten warmer.

  She slipped into her walking shoes wondering when the last time was that she had worn them. She and Kai had gotten on a kick about fitness at thirty-eight as forty fast approached so they joined a gym. She straightened after tying her shoes and pulled her hair up in a ponytail.

  That had lasted six months. Sophie chuckled to herself.

  Heading outside, she started down the sidewalk at the edge of the yard and headed towards the end of the street. Each street, block after block ended in a cul-de-sac in this neighborhood. She could walk for miles going up and down them and spend hours never getting anywhere.

  Walking aimlessly, she wandered, and the exercise and fresh air was clearing her fog. Sophie even walked down Kai’s street. Kai was at work right now or she could have stopped there and spent time with her friend.

  She was at the edge of the thick woods that ran behind Kai’s house when she heard a noise that stopped her in her tracks. Sophie listened. She walked backwards and listened some more. A faint whimpering noise was coming from the drainage pipe beneath the road.

  She stepped off the sidewalk and walked down the slight incline to the drainage ditch. It emptied into a long, steep trench that ran for yards into the woods. At the opening of the pipe were concrete retaining walls on either side of the trench and a slate stone bed that only ran for a few feet.

  Sophie was just going to look to see if the dog or dogs were injured but the concrete pipe that ran beneath the width of the road she had been walking on was dark. She couldn’t really see anything, but she could hear them better from this vantage point. They were in trouble, scared or they were hurt. She could tell by the whimpering sound that they made.

  Climbing further down the hillside to the edge of the retaining wall, she leaned over and peered inside. A small amount of water lay in the base of the pipe flowing out of the darkness beneath the road across the slated rocks and downstream. She wasn’t supposed to get her port wet until it healed. She couldn’t see in the dark of the massive, thick pipe, but she wanted to see those dogs. She thought there might be more than one.

  “Come here, baby,” she called. She whistled. “Here boy.” She waited. “Or girl.” Nothing happened. She didn’t have her phone with her to shine it inside the pipe to see how far into it they were.

  A truck stopped beside her on the road, Sophie glanced up still balancing herself on the edge of the retaining wall. Roman Garin rolled his window down. His arm rested against the edge of the frame. “What are you doing? Didn’t you have your port inserted today?”

  She frowned at him. “Something is in there.”

  “Besides trouble, Sophie?” She could tell he was teasing her.

  “Funny. A puppy or a small dog, maybe two.” She kept looking in the tunnel then at Roman. “It or they need help.”

  “Sophie, get out of there before you get hurt.”

  “Roman, it needs help,” she insisted.

  Roman put the truck in park. He got out glancing in back at his sleeping son in the car seat. He leaned in and grabbed his phone then he slid down the grass beside Sophie. His dress shoes were getting dirty.

  She smiled at him. “Thank you.”

  He rolled his beautiful, brown eyes at her. “I’ve done nothing yet.” He flashed the light on his phone inside the drain pipe. Then he jumped down, landing in inches of water, splashing his good, dress pants halfway up to his knees.

  “Where are you going?” She asked.

  “Getting the puppy, I see. It isn’t that far inside the pipe.” Roman squatted and slipped inside the pipe when he returned he had a reddish-brown, soaked puppy with floppy ears. Roman handed her to Sophie. “There’s another one. The mother didn’t make it,” he informed her.

  “Oh no.” Sophie stroked the shivering, tiny puppy in her arms.

  Roman came out of the drainage pipe with another puppy exactly like the one in Sophie’s hand. “How old are they?” Sophie asked him.

  “I don’t know. Six, seven weeks, maybe. Not very old.”

  “They’re cold and hungry.” She petted the one in her arms while Roman laid the other one next to her. He hoisted himself up to the hillside where she sat.

  “So, what are you going to do with these puppies, Sophie?”

  She glanced between the two dogs then she looked at Roman. “You take one home and I’ll take one home,” she said to him giving Roman her best, smile.

  “Oh no.” He was shaking his head. His dark hair fell, over his forehead

  “But they are so cute,” Sophie declared, batting her eyelashes at him.

  “Stop that, it won’t work.”

  “It works when Kai does it.”

  “She’s my wife and she’ll kill me if I bring home one of these puppies.”

  “I won’t let her kill you,” Sophie promised him.

  He cleared his throat. She knew she had him. “So, you’re taking one home?” He asked. “Without talking to Josh,” he added.

  She gazed at the dog. Never in twenty-three years had she and Josh gotten a dog. The kids were always active in sports. They were running a business together. There never seemed to be a good, time.

  When she was younger she had a dog named Samson. A mutt, her dad brought home. She should talk to Josh, she knew but something about this dog nuzzling her
, looking in her eyes, with her big, hazel ones spoke to her. They needed each other. “I need this Roman,” she whispered to him.

  “Come on, let’s get you home,” he said giving Sophie a hand up.

  She nodded. Once she was on her feet Roman picked up the second puppy and sighed. “I think you and Sophie are about to get me into trouble with Kai.”

  She laughed at him. Roman took Sophie home with the puppy that she had already named Delilah before Roman reached her driveway. Josh’s truck was already there. She slipped out and thanked Roman for the ride.

  “Good luck,” he told her.

  “Thanks, you too.”

  He smiled at her, and Sophie headed towards her front porch. She looked back and waved as Roman drove towards home. Sophie opened the front door and glanced around. She didn’t see Josh right away, but he could be anywhere in the house. “I’m home,” she shouted.

  “Hey, where have you been? I was worried when you weren’t here,” he called back to her. She heard him walking down the hall coming towards her. She went through the living room ready to face him, puppy in her arms, rubbing her soft, floppy ears.

  Her husband’s eyes, widened. He stopped at the entrance to the living room when he saw what she was carrying. “Where did you get that?” He asked.

  She told him about feeling restless all afternoon. She thought the walk would clear her head. Josh was frowning. His eyes kept traveling between Sophie’s face and the wiggling puppy in her arms. “I heard it whimpering in the drainage pipe. There were two of them.”

  He started looking around for the second one, thinking she had brought them both home. Sophie laughed at him. “Roman got them out of the pipe for me. He was on his way home from work when he saw me peeking in the drainage ditch. He took the second one home with him.”

  He rubbed his hand across his face. He was so uncertain right now. She knew what he was thinking. There was a lot going on right now with her treatments starting in a few days. She stepped closer to him. “I know it’s a lot, but I need her.”

  Gazing down at his petite wife, he shook his head. Then, Josh sighed. “I guess I need to head to a pet store to get food and a bed. It doesn’t get in bed with us,” he warned her.