My life today was supposed to be just another normal day. A day when dad and I would go out for ice cream sundaes with granddaddy to celebrate him getting his ranch back after all these years of fighting over it with grandmom Mildred. My heart broke seeing grand pop in so much pain these last few months, and it got worse when we found out he got sicker earlier this year. We were going to take him to the diner today since this was his first week after being discharged. We thought he was getting better, I thought he was getting better…HE WAS GETTING BETTER!!! As reality would have it, however, he suffered from a massive heart attack last night and was rushed back to the ER. The “funny thing” is that I never knew about this at all. Instead, everyone pretended everything was fine and shipped me off to school as if nothing ever happened. This left me too excited, for my own good, to see him after school let out.

Walking hand in hand with my best friend Katie, I smiled toothily as I viewed my father's truck among the crowd lining up in front of the school. We laughed among ourselves at the latest gossip about Mr. Thompson's lizards running rampant in the hallways because of Bradley. His new girlfriend happened to have spread the rumor after Jessica's big birthday bash gained more attraction than the lame pool party she hosted that same weekend. 

Anyway, back to the real topic at hand. As my dad pulled up, a quite visible frown appeared on his face. Katie asked in a hushed tone, “What’s wrong with Mr. King?” as I made a quick glance at her while shrugging. My father mumbled, “Get in, Rory” causing my smile to fade. Katie wished me good luck as her mom’s minivan cruised past dad’s truck. I soon hopped into the front as my father drove farther and farther away from ‘Edgewood Falls Middle school’ till I could no longer see the reflective gold lettering sketched across the building. It was silent for a while, leaving me to sit quietly with me getting all jittery, fumbling my hands in my lap. I had, earlier, tossed my book bag in the backseat to suffer the fate of dad’s aggressive braking at red lights or him causing the car to jerk more often than he should. He even sighed heavily; I leaned back nervously in response, attempting to bury myself in my seat. 

“Hey uh… dad, is um … is everything okay?” I stuttered. The atmosphere was like a thick mist, it was so hard to breathe, so I conveniently let the window down for fresh air. He stopped at yet another red light and turned to me. Our eyes met, never breaking contact as he spoke, “No Rory, everything's not okay… “ 

“In fact, NOTHING IS!!! It’s just downright terrible… I’ll tell you everything when we get there,” His voice had risen higher than before, and he banged on the steering wheel angrily. His eyebrows furrowed and the veins on his forehead stuck out.

“There?” I thought to myself, ignoring my dad’s odd behavior at the time. Now, however, I understand exactly how he feels…

Excitement then coursed through my veins, almost bursting out of me due to my own naivety. To think, we were still heading to the diner and meeting grand pop was very silly of me. Once the light turned green, we sped away, away past our neighborhood. Away past the shopping centers. Away pass the fast-food restaurants, grocery stores, and even 99-cent stores. When he passed the diner, I knew something was off, but when he started taking the back roads to the hospital, a trail I knew so well, I began to cry.

I finally knew something was going on. I thought the worst, hoping I wasn’t right… I didn’t want to be, but I knew deep down I was. Seeing my tears fall and hearing my sobs, dad pulled over to the side of the road. He turned off the engine, sighing,” I really hate to have to tell you this, but he’s…he’s in the ER again.”

“Honestly, I don’t think Pa’s going to make it, Rory… I don’t think everything is going to be okay this time… I don’t want to lose him too, baby girl, I don’t,” Dad broke down in tears, drenching his shirt and staining the wheel with all his bottled-up emotions inside. Blinking back my tears, they didn’t stop, they couldn’t stop, and they wouldn’t stop no matter how hard I tried. A knot formed in the back of my throat, I felt so overwhelmed and sick to my stomach. He happened to glance at me and saw my meltdown, jumping out of his seat belt in order to exit the truck. He ran around the truck and swung my door open, knowing my nauseous would lead to me throwing up everything I ate that day. Let’s just say it wasn’t a pretty sight to see unfold. I would’ve felt bad for unsuspected drivers if they saw a girl get her hair held back to hurl by a forty-year-old man who used to be a long-distance, truck driver. But, I needed to get that disgusting school lunch out asap (which happened to be pizza, but how the heck do you mess pizza up? It’s supposed to taste like food and enjoyable, danggit). 

After I finished cleansing my stomach, he went to my side of the truck and reached to grab the hoard of napkins he has in the glove compartment. Dad then slammed the door shut and rushed towards me to wipe my mouth off, making sure to get in the corners and crevasses as well. He threw the yucky tissue somewhere because, you know, I come from a proud family of litterbugs. We for dang sure aren’t ashamed about it, either. Anywho, he came back and told me to come sit down with him on the curb beside the truck. I sat down next to where he was, and we both watched cars passed by. There was an awkward moment of silence, neither of us said a word in fear of breaking down even more than we already were. I held my head down and had my hands holding onto the curb, moving my eyes from the concrete to my dad. He had his arms placed on his knees and his legs were a few inches away from the curb versus the back of my show touching it. His head happened to be down, but he knew I was looking at him, waiting for him to do or say something…anything at all.

“Hey… Uh… Dad?” I leaned closer to him and shook him lightly. He looked up at me and paused before talking to me again,“ Rory, so sorry… I’m sorry for not telling you this… But he’s been getting worse… These last few months have been hell for him, my dad’s been suffering for so long. I want you to always know and remember him as the man he is and not what’s left of him on that hospital bed. You shouldn't have to go there and see him the way he is now…,” He looked at me with bloodshot eyes, sniffling.

“Daddy, wwwas hhhe sick llllast nnnight, wheeen I tttalked to him? Was he in theee hospital then?” He didn’t answer to my response, his silence spoke volumes. All I heard were more cars speeding per usual, good thing the police weren’t out there since these back roads are kind of “super secret” and usually speed demons use these roads like these to invade speeding tickets. I’m only telling you guys because I trust y’all, *wink* *wink* *nudge* *nudge*.

“He uhh…um…yes, he suffered from a massive heart attack last night. Luckily, Mrs. Johnson called me when she did to tell me the paramedics got there… I didn’t want to tell you honey this morning because I knew you wouldn’t want to go to school and trap yourself in your room or cause yourself to end up in the hospital like now… I’m truly sorry,” He didn’t look at me, but I could tell he was being sincere. I wasn’t angry at him or hate him. No, I was just so grief-stricken just like him, hurting as well.

“It’s okay dad, I forgive you… I’m not angry with you dad, and I can tell you are with yourself… I’m okay…err not okay, but you get what I’m saying…right, dad?” He looked back at me, giving me a small smile,” Yeah, I get it.” 

“Hey Rory, before we,  you know, go… you want to play I spy?”

“Sure dad, what color cars are we looking for?”

“Blue and Red aren’t common out here, so maybe gray and black cars,” I looked at him with a bittersweet smile. Dad kept trying to trick me so that he’d get more points than me. He does this every time we play because he knows when he's going to lose. 

Out of nowhere, I started laughing, bursting out laughing, he did too. We both looked at each other, wheezing. 

“Dad, you are pretty bad at this game!” I wiped the tears out my eyes.

“How? You’re just cheating as usual, Rory,” He huffed, smiling at me.

“Dad, come on now. This is the 10th time you’ve lost trying to trick me!” I watched him get up, grunting. He says he’s alright, but it’s his old age catching up to him. Please don’t tell him I said that, he’ll go on a rant about how he turned 18 years old for the 40th time or how he’s not a day over 25 at the maximum. He walked over to me, reaching out his hand to pull me up. I grabbed his hand as he did, walking back to the truck. We hopped in as he drove off, pulling up to the emergency room parking lot. It wasn’t a silent ride this time, but a noisy one. I talked about my day at school and dad was chuckling instead of weeping. When he found a parking spot, (which required an almost shouting match with an old lady, who wasn’t even handicapped, trying to steal our spot. Don't worry, we won as the great champions us King’s are) we prepared to get out the car. Once we did, we walked together into the hospital, preparing ourselves to see grand pop one last time…

End of Prologue...