After the dinner Valerie walked back home with her father and sister. Going down hill was much easier than traveling up. Valerie thought about how nothing had changed and at first it made her angry and feel stupid for wasting her better years on something that wasn’t going to change anything. But she couldn’t hold on to anger anymore. In her own way she had already gone through the stages of grief when she first got her diagnosis, and this led to her achieving a calm disposition, that was very much the opposite of who she was when she left. Nothing could quite get her riled up anymore.

            Back in the King house, Valerie’s father turned to her and gave her a huge hug.

            “Oh, Valerie! You’ve returned, how are you are you doing okay?”

            “Yes, father,” Valerie lied.

            “How about you? Are you doing, okay?”

            “I’m as healthy as a horse. Retirement is treating me well,” her father boasted.

            “Good, good.” She smiled. 

            “Well, it’s late. I know we didn’t get to hear about your travels at dinner, so we’ll have to pick that up tomorrow,”

            “Alright. Good night, Dad.”

            “Goodnight, sweetheart.”

            Reina heard her sister and father say their goodnights and she said some too, also deciding to head in and give her younger sister a rest. Valerie headed into her bedroom and popped into bed with her clothes on. She was beyond tired and needed a good night’s rest, but as per usual she was kept awake by her roaming thoughts and then when sleep came, she was startled awake by her nightmares. The next morning was rough. An alarm woke Valerie up early that wasn’t for waking up, it was for administering the first of two doses of her medicine. She got up and grabbed the medicine and injected herself with it, then tried to go back to sleep. Surprisingly, she was able to get a few more hours of uninterrupted sleep before Reina woke her up for breakfast.

            Valerie sluggishly left her bed. She was surprised to see her father at the breakfast table, casually reading something while sipping coffee. ‘Oh, right. He’s retired.”

            “Good morning,” Valerie called out.

            “Good morning, Valerie,” her father said.

            “Are you up sleepy head?” Reina teased.

            “I am now. But seriously thanks for waking me up the movers are arriving later today.”

            “Are you already leaving us, you just got home.”

            “I know Dad, but there’s too much to prepare for the new school year and I have to meet the other faculty and not to mention setting up my lab.”

            “You’re busier than I was when I first started doing research,” Valerie’s Dad began to complain.

            “Oh, Dad. I always thought you were too busy when I was a kid,” Valerie retorted.

            “Ah. It wasn’t the work, rather the competition between David and I that caused me to neglect my family. I ended that years ago, after you left for Singapore and then began to indicate that you just weren’t going to come back.”

            “Dad-.”

            “I get it I was obsessed with beating David and we made that stupid bet and that put a lot of pressure on you girls that I didn’t realize at the time. I mean it made you move to a different country and that’s not what I wanted for my family. I want you girls to be happy,” he said trying desperately to control his emotion.

            “All right Dad, it’s okay. I forgive you. I don’t plan on staying away too much. I just need to get settled in and then I’ll have plenty of time to catch up. We have 9 years of things to cover,” Valerie promised. She honestly hoped that she could bridge that gap before she passed away but there was no knowing, but she was going to try anyways.

            “What do you want for breakfast?” Reina asked Valerie.

            “Oatmeal, plain.”

            “Wow, you already eat like an old person.”

            “Thanks. It’s good for you, you know.”

            Reina laughed and boiled some water for the oatmeal. When the water was done, she mixed quick cooking oats with the water in a bowl added a spoon and set it before Valerie. Valerie stirred at it and then began meekly eating it. It was quite obvious she didn’t really want the oatmeal rather something sweet or even saltier for breakfast, but Reina nor their father said anything.

            “Are you going to invite John over to your new house today?”

            “I don’t know, I feel like I should settle in first and then let him pick whatever room that’s left over. Am I supposed to be more considerate and choose together?”

            “It’s your house, you do what you want, honey,” her dad exclaimed.

            “In that case, I’ll set it up how I want.”

            “If you need help you can ask him and his friends for help.”

            “We’ll see, when I get there. I might have to do just that.” Valerie said, while trying to imagine moving even a 40-pound box. It would be impossible, even more upsetting it could worsen her health.

            “Here’s his number. Put it in your phone. And Dad, don’t go blabbing about this to David. He’s going to force John to move in ASAP or whatever.” Reina chastised her father.

            “Alright, alright. Lucky for you we aren’t meeting up today.”

            Valerie stood up from the breakfast table and dropped off the dirty bowl and spoon in the dish washer. She told her sister and father that she was going to get ready for the day and headed back into her room. A shower, an administered dose of her medicine, and change of clothes and two just in case doses of her medicine and Valerie was ready to head to her new house. She took a cab as she was unable to drive, despite being licensed in Japan. A US drivers license was on her long list of things to do.

            Driving up to the home she could see it had been vacant for a long time. There were dead leaves littered everywhere and it was isolated from the other houses in the subdivision. But it was also across a bit of land from the medical school. Valerie walked up to the house and was able to get to a key from a lock box the realtor had set up for her. She unlocked the house and it was dusty. There was furniture there from what looked like the early 90s, looking around it was a big house too big for one person. When Valerie was looking for a house to buy, she noticed this one immediately because it offered a locked basement which was perfect for her at home lab set up and was the main reason, she purchased this house. Everything else she decided she would have fixed or replaced; nothing could stop her from trying to live life.

            As the house was too much for her to clean, she decided to text John and ask if he was free to come over. He replied saying he was busy. She replied with a simple all lowercase ok. That wasn’t a problem for Valerie as she had previously asked her realtor for a list of cleaning companies. Finding the list in an email on her phone, she dialed the first one and they had someone free that could come by at the moment. That was perfect because they could clean in the few hours before the movers arrived.