Chapter 2
December 6th 7:23am
As Shannon awoke from her good night’s sleep she began thinking of Drew. No matter how hard she tried to forget his face and his voice it would not escape her mind. As Shannon began to fully awake, not only did Drew come into her mind but her mother’s boyfriend came up as well. Shannon got up and went into her mother’s room to rummaged through her mother’s mail and papers that were left on her dresser. “There has to be something about the man she was with in here somewhere”. “maybe if I find out who the man was then maybe I can find out about Drew”. Shannon said to herself. Shannon was aware that her mother was dating someone, her mother would always be home late and use the excuse “I got stuck at work again”. When she got home, she would be wearing different clothing then what she left the house in. Shannon respected her mother’s privacy when it came to relationships, although Shannon has never been in one, she’d like to think her mother would respect her privacy as well. There was nothing but bills and junk mail on the dresser, so Shannon started to look under the bed. Her mother always kept important documents in a safe under the bed. When Shannon pulled the heavy safe out from under the bed, she felt defeated. She saw the padlock on the safe and began to feel like her life was over. “If there is any information about who this man was, or who drew is it has to be in here” Shannon thought to herself. She decided to take a break from looking to get some breakfast. As Shannon walked down the stairs with her bare feet on the wooden stairs, she looked down and saw tiny wet footprints that appear to be going down as well.
In the kitchen, Shannon found her favorite breakfast laying out on the table already cooked and sitting in her spot. Very hesitantly Shannon sat down and looked around to see if her nana and papa were over and cooked breakfast. Shannon looked down at her eggs, bacon and orange juice, her stomach began to rumble with hunger. Although she was a bit freaked out as to how it had gotten there, she licked her plate clean.
8:48am
As Shannon finished up her breakfast Nana walked through the front door. “Good morning!” yelled nana as she walked down the hallway to the kitchen. “Good morning to you too Nana, thank you for the breakfast” Shannon said with a smile. “What are you talking about I just got here, and I brought donuts” Nana said as her heart started beating fast in fear. “Never mind, sorry to scare you, I’m just tired, I must’ve forgotten I had made it for myself” Shannon said with a worried chuckle. As Nana and Shannon sat at the table nana pulled out pictures and brochures for a few different funeral homes. “I know this will be hard, but I wanted to know if you’d help me plan your mothers service. It’s been a hard few days since she’s been gone and I’d like to have a memorial service” nana explained to Shannon, “Can we do it here? I just feel like it would be good to bring her home, is that okay?” Shannon said as the jelly of her donut surrounds the outside of her mouth. “Yes, you have jelly all over your face” nana laughs as she wipes Shannon’s face, “I would love to bring her home to you, there is something else I would like to discuss with you” nana put down the napkin and looked into Shannon’s eyes. “I know your eighteenth birthday is in a month, I was going to ask you if you would prefer to stay in this house or do you want to move in with papa and I?” Shannon began to tear up, “I can’t leave mom, this was the last place she was before she died, I want to stay here, I’ll get a job to afford this house” Shannon laid her head down on the table and shed a few tears. “Shannon sweetie, the house is paid off, papa and I can afford whatever you need to stay here, I know this is a difficult time, but we want you to be happy and comfortable, but our house is always open if you change your mind, okay?” nana got up and wrapped her arms around Shannon, they spend the rest of the morning planning out her mother’s memorial service.
December 9th 2013 Monday 8:05am
The day of the memorial service.
Shannon sat at her desk in her room looking into the mirror at her navy-blue dress and black flats, she went to her closet to look for something to put over her dress for some warmth. She opened her closet and saw Drew sitting in the corner reading a piece of paper, Shannon grabbed the paper and looked at it, it was her mother’s memorial service card that read, “In loving memory of Jennifer Marie Smith, 1979-2013, a loving mother of 2”, Shannon immediately ran downstairs to find her grandmother rearranging the service cards, “Mother of 2? Nana what is this?” nana grabbed the card from her “where did you get this? I only had these made” nana said as she gave her a pink card that reads “In loving memory of Jennifer Marie Smith, 1973-2013, a loving mother of 1”. Nana looked at the card and told Shannon “it might’ve been a typo on one of the cards, where did you get this one?”, “I found it, I guess it could’ve been a typo, I’m sorry for the worry” Shannon looked around to see all of her close family in the living room in a row of folding chairs facing the fireplace, she ran back upstairs to grab her cardigan and then join the family. As she walked into the living room, she spotted a purple box on top of the fireplace with a picture of her mother beside it. “Good morning mom, I love you” Shannon said as she passed the box, she began to tear up at the sight of her mother not being present, although she was there spiritually and cremated in the box, she wasn’t there to hold Shannon when she needed it most.
“I would like to say something about my mother Shannon rose from her seat and made her way up to the fireplace, “I know it was difficult raising a child on her own, my mother was very good at it, it wasn’t easy, I was a brat” Shannon smiled, “but I know that if she was here right now she would be proud of how far I have come with all of this, I want to make her proud of me, I mind as well tell you all now, I got into college!” Shannon said while looking at her nana. “It’s a community college but I figured it’s a start, I’m not sure what I want to pursue yet, but I have some time before I have to decide.” Shannon walked back to her seat, before she could sit down her grandfather swooped in and hugged her from behind, “I am so proud of you” papa kissed her cheek then went up to the fireplace to say a few words.
4:30pm
As everyone made their way out of the house Shannon went upstairs to her mother’s room, she laid down on her bed and tucked herself in the covers. A few moments later Nana knocked on the door, “Shannon?” nana said quietly, nana poked her head around the door and saw Shannon asleep in her mothers bed. Nana walked around the bed and found the safe that Shannon pulled out, she examined the safe and saw the padlock, not knowing what was inside she pushed the safe back under the bed. Nana then began looking in her daughters closet, looking through all of her clothes, she picked up a bright blue sweater and put it to her face, she inhaled deeply to get the scent of her daughter, and in that moment, she was happy again. Although her daughter is not there physically, she knows that she is always with her. Nana took the sweater and slowly walked towards the door, as she walked through the doorway, she put an envelope on the table next to the door and closed the door so Shannon could get some rest.
December 10th 9:00am
The first thing Shannon did this morning was check her email on her laptop, when she opened her email, she was surprised to see an email from her school principal, Shannon opened the email and began reading
Dear Shannon Smith
I am so sorry to hear what happened to your mother, I am always here if you need anything just contact me. I am emailing you to inform you that I will be giving you two weeks off from school due to the loss of your mother, although you don’t have to come to school, you do still need to do the classwork, I have setup a video chat so you can attend your classes online and your teachers will email you the assignments and homework that need to be done for the week.
I did attend your mothers memorial service, it was beautiful, I am not sure if you saw me there or not, but I was in the back to respect boundaries. I am very glad to hear that you’ve decided to go to college, I know that was a very hard decision for you to make.
I hope this works well for you and I hope to see you back to school very soon.
Have a great day!
-Principal DeeDee
As Shannon finished up reading the email from the principal another email came through, it was from her biology teacher, it entailed her homework for the day and a reading assignment in the textbook. Shannon decided to spend the next few hours working on classwork and house chores to keep her mind distracted.
12:53pm
Ding! An email came through her laptop while Shannon was cleaning up her room, she sat down to check who the email was from, it read,
New mail from: Nancy Williams
“oh no, not the school counselor” Shannon thought to herself, she closed her laptop and set it aside, “I cannot open that right now, she probably wants to talk about my situation and I’m not ready, I need time to myself to cope with this before I can talk to anyone else”. Shannon resumed cleaning her room when she saw a shadow run past her bedroom door, she got up and went into the hallway, Drew stood in front of her mother’s bedroom door. “Drew?” Shannon said as she walked towards him. Drew walked her their mothers room and closed the door, Shannon followed, “knock knock” “can I come in?” Shannon said as she opened the door, she discovered Drew sitting on her mother’s bed holding an envelope. “Where did you get that?” Shannon asked while she walked closer to the bed. Drew pointed to the table that sits by the door. “What’s inside?” Shannon asked while trying to take the envelope from Drew. Drew got up from the bed and sat on the floor, He pointed to under the bed. Shannon remembered the safe was under the bed and pulled it back out. “This?” Shannon asked. “yes, sissy” Drew said as he opened the envelope, when he pulled his hand out and revealed a key Shannon was so happy. She grabbed the key from Drew and tried to open the safe, it didn’t work, it was not the right key. “you said it was for this, what is this?” Shannon yelled to Drew. Drew got up and ran out of the room “I’m sorry” yelled Drew. Shannon sat on the floor staring at the key, she tried again, and again, then Shannon tried to turn the key around, “maybe its backwards?” Shannon thought. It worked, the safe opened.
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