Her father managed to live to see the snow melt and the life return to the forests surrounding their quant cabin. Her father’s vigor had recently grown thanks to the care of Natalie, the Doc, and their neighbors. He was now able to sit on the porch with one of the neighbors while she was at work. In April everyone was preparing for easter celebrations when there was a flu outbreak. The clinic was able to vaccinate most of the townsfolk and keep an eye on everyone in town who caught the virus. Her Father was feeling better and was able to go on walks. Her Father liked to walk to the bar not far from the house just before Natalie’s shift ended so they could ride home together.
Her father’s health was stable now, and she was optimistic about her brother being able to come see their father soon. She was fortunate enough to receive the vaccine early enough that she never contracted the virus going around town. However, her father was never vaccinated and contracted the flu collapsing on the way to the bathroom late one night. She was quick to call to the Doc’s personal cell.
The next morning, she was sitting in the kitchen with the Doctor over a cup of coffee talking about the next steps they needed to take in caring for her father. Her father had finally fallen asleep in his bed after the Doc’s care. After the doctor checked on Natalie’s father once again and made sure he was resting peacefully. The doctor then left her with medicine to keep her father comfortable and hydrated. Once she had seen the doctor out and checked in on her father once again, she tried once again to contact her brother. She managed to catch him for just long enough to let him know the situation before he hung up with a promise to return as soon as possible.
Her brother returned to Evergreen a week and a half later to see a frail father smiling at him and a tired sister. They took turns staying at their father’s side caring for him until May rolled around. On the first Friday in May, Natalie and her brother were excited to see her father getting out of bed so he could sit out on the porch to see the forest. Once their father was safely seated he was greeted by the sight of a the new fawn emerging from the forest from his rocker on the porch. Satisfied with their father’s relaxed posture and elated smile, Xander managed to get him settled with a blanket while Natalie not so discreetly checked on her fathers breathing. Before Natalie check all of her father’s vitals once again Her father shooed them off once he had settled to make some homemade biscuits and fresh coffee. Natalie and her brother eventually made the biscuits and coffee only after managing to cover every inch of their faces with flour. Twenty minutes later Natalie finished washing off her face and changed to see her brother refilling their dad’s mug and take the hot biscuits out of the oven.
They had a few laughs over breakfast when her father mentioned the remaining flour decorating much of the kitchen and her brother’s left ear. Her brother shared stories with her dad about the baby-faced new recruits in the military. To their excitement her brother was going to change to a more stable job where he was going to train once he received a promotion.
Natalie shared stories about pets she treated for terrified owners and her particularly rough week. She had sent a majority of her week in the office soothing frantic owners when a certain hooligan in town decided to dye their dogs’ various colors when the owners left them in their yards. Despite Natalie’s best attempts to stress the fact of the time it took to uncover the perpetrator and sooth the owners only to receive laughs to her story regardless. Not to Mention her father and brother, only laughed harder when they heard the to doctor had solved the mystery and incident was resolved within a single afternoon. Natalie had not been happy to find out the resolution involved receiving a new window washer on the weekends from a disgruntled boy with hands dyed a myriad of colors.
After breakfast, her father wanted to go back on the porch while the “troublemakers” cleaned the kitchen. Her father carefully went back onto the porch and made himself comfortable with another cup of coffee as they watched to make sure he did not fall again. They managed to clean the kitchen within the hour, and they went out onto the porch to check on their father only to find him asleep. They decided to just cover him up and leave him to get some peaceful rest for once.
Natalie tried to relax on the couch with a book, but she could not seem to focus long enough to finish the chapter she was on. Natalie eventually gave up on reading and finally set aside her book only to realize it was lunch time when she looked over at the clock on the mantle. Natalie got off the couch deciding it was time for them to get lunch started. Natalie interrupted her brother in the kitchen working on paperwork on his laptop to get him to start lunch while she woke their father.
Her brother picked out a rice casserole from the fridge stocked with dishes that the neighbors had left when they heard of their Father’s health, and pre-heated the oven. Natalie headed to the porch to wake up their father for lunch when we felt a shiver down her spine as she got closer to the front door. One she opened the front door and looked over her father she realized that something was not right. As she stepped out onto the porch, she could see that he was eerily still and as she looked into his face she could see a peaceful look on his face. She could only run to his side and check for this pulse only to find a lack of any response. Natalie was at a loss of what to do for her father as she suddenly dropped to the floor at his side in shock, only to be shaken out her stupor by her brother at her side.
They spent the next week deciding, filing papers, receiving the neighbors only to sit in the quiet cabin every night. As the next Saturday rolled around Natalie woke to the sound of pans in the Kitchen and the smell of bacon. Once she made it to the Kitchen to find a table covered in breakfast food that was only slightly burnt, to her utter astonishment. As they ate, they laughed over childhood stories regaling the tales of Xander’s many burnt cakes and flapjacks that mysteriously were as hard as rocks. They had a pleasant meal enjoying their breakfasts until their plates were empty and an awkward silence descended upon them. After they silently cleared the table, her brother suddenly cleared his throat and broke the news of his departure yet again to only receive her emotionless face in response. He left her to finish the dishes while he packed up his bags. While She was washing the dishes, Natalie looked around the dark house and began to cry silently to herself and as she realized that this was going to be her new normal.
Once She finished the dishes and washed her face with cold water, she left the bathroom only to come face to face with her brother. She looked up seeing her brother step out into the hallway in a pair of comfortable jeans and a worn-out flannel shirt with a crooked collar. Natalie almost laughed but quickly stopped herself with a slight smile. Reaching out to her brother, Natalie quickly made sure to straighten his collar telling him that she “would not let him leave this house without looking presentable”. Her actions were only to be met by her brother patting her head and laughing. Xander then stopped himself from continuing to laugh by explaining that her hair had gained a life of its own due to the crazy number of tangles donning her head. After Natalie won her battle with a hairbrush; He convinced her to go to the bar with him for a final drink before he had to leave in the morning.
At the bar Xander and Natalie, enjoyed a few laughs over the baseball game and her brother’s stories at the bar only for them to return late and fall into their beds. She woke up the next afternoon to a note on the counter and an empty house. Natalie made some coffee and nursed her hangover with the greasiest dish she could find in the fridge. A few hours later she was halfway through a puzzle struggling to distract herself when she received a call about a mother in town in labor seemingly answering her prayers for a break from the monotony.
She spent the next few hours helping the mother though the contractions delivering a healthy boy. After another quarter of an hour the afterbirth quickly came, and she started to clean the room around the starstruck parents. Once the room was cleaned, she woke the mother and baby for a final check before writing a report for the Doctor. Once both mother and baby were clear she left the new parents with her and the doctors’ direct numbers in case of emergency before making her way back home. Natalie only made it through half of her sandwich for lunch only to fall asleep on the couch.
She awoke late that afternoon to the radio in the corner buzzing. She quickly struggled out of her blankets on the ouch to reach the radio and answer the call. The Ranger on duty was quick to inform her that the call was regarding a woman in labor he found pulled over off the highway near the park. Natalie rushed to put her rainboots on and grab her medical bag rushing out the door. Natalie continued to talk to the ranger getting frequent status reports on the woman’s condition as she ran to her ATV stored in the shed adjacent to the family cabin. She managed to make to the woman quickly by driving directly there through the forest trails that Natalie knew “like the back of her hand”, on her ATV which had more replacement parts than original. Natalie quickly reached a road on the edge of the forest where she found the woman’s car flanked by the ranger’s truck with its flashing lights off the side of the highway.
Comments (0)
See all