Page 33 of Nick

“You need to set the wedding date as soon as possible. You don’t want to lose Opal.”

“As I said, we haven’t discussed that yet.”

“How are you feeling?”

“I feel better, I’m still sore, but I’m sure that will go away soon. I’ll return to my old self in a couple of days.”

* * *

Opal

I couldn’t believe it.Early this morning, we had a phone call from Axel’s grandparents from his father’s side of the family. We were both in shock. I was surprised they even knew about Axel.

“Hello, my name is Pamela Hunter. You have never met me, but my son is Wayne Hunter.

He told us about your son yesterday. Believe me, we would have been in his life if we had known we had a grandson.”

“What can I do for you, Mrs. Hunter?”

“Your son has a sister and two brothers. Angie is his sister she is in serious trouble. She will die if she can’t find someone who matches her bone marrow. What is our grandson’s name?”

“His name is Axel. Where is Angie?”

“We all live in Temecula, California. She is at St Jude’s children’s hospital.”

“We’ll leave in an hour.” I walked up to Axel’s room. I told him about the babies yesterday; now he had three more siblings all of a sudden. He didn’t seem very surprised. “Did you know about them?”

“I checked them out when I was sixteen.”

“Sweetheart, you should have told me. Did you want to meet them?”

“I kind of wanted to. Not him, only the kids.”

Later that day, the taxi pulled into the hospital when I spotted Wayne Hunter standing outside talking to three people. We walked to where they stood. I had a hold of Axel’s hand. I didn’t say anything. The older woman started crying, and before I knew what my son would do, he wrapped his arm around the woman.

“It's okay. I’m sure I’ll match Angie’s bone marrow.” Then the older man wrapped his arms around both of them. Axel was a head taller than both of them. I knew they were Axel’s grandparents. The man raised his head and wiped his eyes.

“I’m your grandfather, and this is your grandma.”

“It’s nice to meet you. My name is Axel, this is my mom, Opal Martin, and this is my grandpa, Samuel.”

I looked at Samuel as he smiled at Axel. Axel had always considered Samuel his grandpa because he raised all of us.

“Thank you for coming. Can we test Axel for his bone marrow?”

“We’ve already done that…” I told them about Angel being in touch with St. Jude’s and how they were preparing for Axel’s arrival. Wayne didn’t say anything, but he watched every move Axel made.

“Hello, my name is Hillary. Angie is my daughter and your sister. Can I hug you?”

Axel was such a giving boy he wrapped his arms around Hillary and hugged her. “Don’t you worry any more about Angie; she will be better in no time. Now… I want to meet her before we start the transplant.” He didn’t even look at his father.

I saw Wayne wipe a tear away. I didn’t know if it was because he had finally come face to face with his son or if he was happy about the bone marrow. Maybe both. I wasn’t going to be angry about anything anymore, especially not now.

I walked to the other side of Hillary and put my arm around her, “Everything is going to be fine. I want you to take a deep breath and relax. I know you must be so scared. I would die if it were Axel.”

“Thank you. I would be so proud to have a son like Axel. He has such good manners. You did a wonderful job of raising him.”

“Thank you. I had lots of help from my family.” We entered a room where this beautiful girl was sitting in bed, “Hello,” I said.

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