Page 11 of Don't Forget Me
“She so is.” Evelyn looked to him for help.
Owen nodded frantically.
Elizabeth’s father shrugged. “Well, just don’t strain yourself, Lizzy. It’s your birthday, after all.”
With a laugh, she rolled off the kids, pushing herself from the bed. As of this morning, she was thirty. Should she feel different somehow? Was there a way to mark the new season of her life? “All right, kiddos. Up and at ‘em. We’ve got breakfast to make.”
Saturday mornings were for pancakes. It was a tradition they’d had for a few years now, only it used to be her dad making them. The first day Elizabeth was able to flip her kids’ pancakes felt like the start of the rest of her life, and she’d hardly stopped cooking since.
The kids scurried from the room, their bare feet slapping against the dark bamboo flooring.
Out in the kitchen, they pulled themselves onto tall stools at the counter and waited not-so-patiently. Evelyn bounced in her seat. Owen’s eyes didn’t leave Elizabeth as she measured out the pancake mix, his tongue swiping over his lips.
Monsters. They were monsters.
And she loved them more than life itself.
They’d been three when their dad left, deciding he couldn’t raise two kids and have a wife with cancer. It was okay though. They were better off without him, but she couldn’t imagine how he was fine with missing their lives, seeing them grow.
“What are we doing today for your birthday, Mommy?” Evelyn asked as a plate slid in front of her.
Elizabeth had thought of little else the night before. There was somewhere she had to be, someone she had to see. Putting it off wasn’t the right thing to do. “What do you think about going to the hospital?”
Most kids would groan or find the hospital an awful place to visit, but not her little weirdos.
“Really?” Evelyn’s face lit up. “Can we see Booker?”
“Yes, ma’am. He’s on shift today, and he’d be mighty upset if he didn’t get to see his favorite kids.”
Owen chewed a bite of pancake thoughtfully and swallowed. “Can we get cake pops?”
A laugh rolled through Elizabeth. “Sure, sweetie.”
Like her, Evelyn and Owen had once spent a lot of time at the hospital. For so long, its halls were their playground. Miranda used to give them free cake pops when they followed the nurses around. Everyone doted on them.
When the kids finished eating, Elizabeth shooed them away to get dressed, leaving her alone with her dad.
“Is there a reason you’re going to the hospital today when you don’t have to work?”
She sighed, knowing he’d take the news just as hard as her. “Molly is back. This time it’s worse.”
His brown eyes dimmed. “Oh, Liz, I’m so sorry.”
Molly had been her constant companion, becoming a part of her family in the cancer ward. The day she went into remission gave Elizabeth hope that it would happen for her too.
And it had.
Knowing Molly was once again sick was a blow to the fragile safety good health had made them all feel.
After cleaning up, Elizabeth went to her room to get dressed. When she emerged, she found her dad sitting in his leather armchair in the living room, his eyes glued to the news.
“You see this, honey?” He pointed at the screen.
Elizabeth walked closer, trying to read the headline.
Movie Star Crashes Car into Family of Four.
“Oh, wow. How horrible.” She lowered herself to the arm of her dad’s chair, listening to the newscaster.
