Between Now and Goodbye (2 page)

'Charles, Charles, Charles. Wake up.' A little voice chants this over and over again, still bouncing. It's Georgia's voice, high and eager. I keep my eyes closed a fraction longer. A headache already starting.

'Georgia, would you shut up. It's summer, which means we get to sleep in, so go back to bed before I lock you in the closet.' Lewis threatens. My eyes pop open as Georgia shrieks loudly. This wouldn't be the first time Lewis has locked Georgia in a closet, and she hates it, which isn't surprising.

'Lewis, don't scare her like that.' I groan, sitting up in bed so I can scoop a still screaming Georgia into my lap. 'Georgia he's not going to put you in the closet.' I say, keeping one arm protectively around her, while I use my spare hand to search my bedside cabinet for some pain killers.

'But he might.' Georgia burrows herself against me, as I pop two little white pills into my mouth, swallowing them down with some water from the glass I always bring to bed with me, and hardly ever touch. Force of habit I guess.

'I won't let him.' I assure her. 'Now, what did you want me for?'

'It's not for me,' Georgia says, folding her little arms over her chest, 'I was doing something good and he was mean.' Her hand shoots out and points to Lewis.

'Well, he isn't now, so what were you coming up here for?'

'I came up because of mom.' She says.

'Ok,' I get to my feet, swinging her onto my hip as I do, 'what does mom need?'

'She's doing that thing again. The thing you told us to tell you she was doing if we saw her, the see...the see...' She frowns in frustration. She loves learning and hates not knowing the right word for something. I put her into my bed, quickly putting the covers over her.

'Seizure.' I say, giving her the word, 'Go back to sleep, ok?' I'm already at the door.

'But I'm not...'

'Please Georgia.' I call back. I head out of my room and take the steps two at a time. I find my mom on the floor outside the bathroom. No longer having a seizure, but from one glance I can tell that she's lost function in her right side. I kneel down at her left side and she takes my hand. Smiling through her tears.

'Sorry Charles. I told Georgia not to wake you, the seizure had passed before she went to get you.' She smiles weakly.

'It's fine, they should always come get me.' I say checking her over. Checking for injuries that may have been caused by the uncontrollable shaking. She seems ok, 'Do you need me to call you an ambulance?'

'No, no, it's fine. You know how these silly seizures work. I haven't injured myself, and past records prove that I'll regain movement in my right side in a little while.' She ruffles my hair with her left hand, the way she always did when I was a kid. 'I'm just so tired.'

'I'll help you get back to bed so you can sleep it off.' I kiss the top of her head, then get to my feet. I carefully bend and hold her under her arms, pulling her as gently as I can into a standing position. She's weak, and she sags against me unable to stand, too weak to walk. She's so thin now that it doesn't matter, I don't even wobble when she lands against me. She's so light that I'm easily able to lift her up, almost as easily as I can pick Georgia up. Her head lolls against my shoulder, and I can see her struggling not to cry. I hold her a little tighter, a silent sign that it's ok, and then I take her into her room.

It's dark in here, heavy drapes are pulled across the window to keep out the light that often hurts her head. It's getting a little musty though, so I make a mental note to air the room out later.

Carefully, I lay my mom down in her unmade bed, tuck the covers in around her and then slip out of the room as she falls into what I hope is a comfortable sleep.

I click the door into place once I'm outside, slide down the wall and bury my head in my hands.

Three – Julie

It's only eight in the morning so I know that can't be my phone ringing. In no universe that I would ever reside in, would my phone be ringing at eight in the morning, on a day when I don't have to get up for school. Everyone I know knows not to call me before at least nine during the summer, and so of course I know for a certainty that it can't be my phone.

I roll back over in my brand new four poster bed that my parents had specially made for me, and shipped in from France. My silk pillows slip a little under my head and so I have to readjust, but in a few seconds I'm comfortable again. Eyes closing and breath evening out and then I feel myself slipping back into sleep, when yet again the loud ringing starts. Please tell me this is a joke.

I pull myself upright, push my eye mask up and reach for my phone. Charles name and picture flash up on screen. It's one of my favorite photos of the two of us, taken this past spring down on the beach. His dark blonde hair is slightly wavy from being in the water. His skin is lightly tanned and he's kissing my cheek. The best part of the photo, though, is that in this particular photo, I have my hair braided into a tonne of tiny little braids, which Libby had spent over an hour doing for me, and I'm wearing this adorable blue bathing suit and I'm tanned and happy.

I slide my finger across the screen to answer his call. A smile on my lips.

'Morning.' I smile happily. It's always nice when he can't wait to hear my voice in the mornings. It's nice that he's calling me again this morning, because he's been a little distant recently.

'Morning, sorry for calling so early.'

'It's ok, what's up?' I can't help the butterflies that start creeping into my stomach. Maybe he wants to take me out somewhere today, drive somewhere far away so we have to make an early start. Maybe he's reconsidered and he wants to take me shopping today like I'd asked him to. Maybe he wants to go out on my boat and swim in the deep water. I can already picture a long list of things we could do to get our summer off to a great start.

'I wanted to see if you'd be able to watch the kids later today.' He says. I must have heard that wrong. The kids? As in his siblings? My stomach drops and the butterflies disappear. He doesn't want to take me out on a date, he wants me to babysit his sticky fingered siblings.

'Uh...' Excuse, I need an excuse and it has to be good, because the last few times he's asked me to watch them, I've said no.

'I wouldn't ask, only Katie's got plans with her friends and Libby's gone and I have to take my mom to a hospital appointment. It would only be for a couple of hours.'

'Babe,' I sound a little whiny and so I readjust my tone, forcing a lightness into it which I am not feeling right now, 'I totally would, but the thing is I sort of promised my parents I'd go out with them today.' I lie, 'They're going to this garden party thing,' which is the truth, 'I kind of have to be there.' I didn't want to go, I'd actually answered with a resounding no when they'd asked me to go with them, but it's better than lying in bed all day, annoyed that my boyfriend can't be bothered to take me out, and my best friend has flitted off to New York. It's also infinitely better than watching his siblings for a couple of hours.

'Right, yeah, no don't worry about it.' I can picture him running his hand through his hair, only half paying attention to anything else I'll say, because he'll be trying to fix this problem.

'I'm sorry babe.' I say softly.

'It's fine, I know you're busy. I'll figure something out.' He replies, 'I'm sorry for waking you.'

'Not a problem.' I say easily, 'So how about tonight? You busy?'

'Uh, just the usual stuff. Making dinner, watching the kids, getting them to bed.'

'Well, yeah but, your mom will be in right? She can watch them.' I reason.

'She'll be in but...'

'Great, so you can take me to dinner.' I hop out of bed with a fresh bubble of excitement. I pace over to my walk in closet. I wonder what I could wear tonight? I have a new pink silk blouse which would go well with my knee length white ruffled skirt. I glance around my closet. It's filled with clothes to match my newest fashion craze. Libby calls it a modern Marie Antoinette style, and I guess she's not that far off. There are a lot of extravagant pieces, silks, ruffles, jewels and pieces of lace. Pastel colors, with the occasional bright item throw in for a contrast.

There are any one of  over a hundred outfits that I could wear. It depends on where we go. There's a little French place that just opened up and I've been dying to try it, or there's a Thai place on the pier, or...I stop planning out outfits as I hear Charles repeating my name. I must have zoned out.

'Sorry babe, what did you say?' I ask, running my fingers over a knee length pale yellow dress with a ruffled skirt, and a beaded top. The dress I'll wear tonight. I'll make sure he picks somewhere that'll work perfectly with this dress.

'I said I have to stay in tonight because if my mom has another seizure, I need to be here. You're welcome to come over though, have some dinner with me and we'll watch a movie.'

'Oh.' My hand drops away from the dress, it's not exactly the kind of thing that I'd wear to watch a movie over at Charles' house. I mean his house is small and cluttered and there are usually kids climbing all over me. 'Yeah, I uh...I guess.'

'So you'll come over tonight?' He sounds hopeful, sweet, eager.

'Sure.' I sigh. What else will I have to do? I could hang out with my school friends, I'm sure there's some party or something I could go to, but I'd already told them that I was spending the first night of summer hanging out with my boyfriend. They all think he's like this super mysterious guy, a sort of bad boy from the wrong side of the tracks. Public school boy and all that. It makes me laugh because Charles is about as far from a bad boy as you can get, my parents adore him. Still, I don't correct them.

'Great, so just drop by any time. I'll be back from the hospital at around two, so whenever you're done at your garden party and want to come over, that's fine. I'll cook you something for dinner, Libby's been teaching me a few things, so it'll actually be edible.'

'Good to know.' I'm glad he can't see me, because then he's seen that I'm not exactly thrilled by the idea of going over to his house. 'I'll probably get there like seven, ok?'

'Yeah, that's fine. Listen, I'd better go now. I have to track down a babysitter before I get my mom up.'

'Yeah, ok.'

'I love you.'

'Yeah, you too.' I ring off, walk back into my room from my walk in closet and drop back into bed.

It's like, I get that he's got a lot going on at the moment, but does he have to stay in every single night? I hardly saw him while school was still open, whenever we hung out it was always at his house, or just a quick bite to eat before he had to hurry home again. He's trying to make time for me, I know he is. Only, well, I mean is it so bad that I want him to take me out to a proper dinner, and then a movie. Is it so bad that I'd rather not have to share my time with him with his mom and siblings? I don't think that's all that bad. He's my boyfriend after all, I'm supposed to be his number one priority.

Now, instead of a wonderful day with my boyfriend, I'm going to have to go to this stupid garden party with my parents. Boring.

I just want a little excitement in my life, and right now there isn't anything. This is so not the way I want my summer to go. Still at least I know a bunch of my school friends will be at the garden party today, and maybe there's some excitement to be found there.

Four – Libby

It takes us a little over ten hours to get to New York from our little town of Carver Beach in North Carolina. We arrive and struggle through traffic for over an hour until we finally manage to park up outside the college, which will be where the camp is held this summer.

We don't go in right away though, first mom and Matt decided to take me out to dinner. We went to a fancy restaurant which I'm sure we couldn't really afford, but they'd told me not to worry about it when I protested.

Now we're standing in what will be my dorm for the summer. To me, as I look around, it seems strange being in a dorm before I've even started my senior year in high school, let alone started college. At the same time the strangeness is teamed with an oddly nice feeling at my new independence.

'It's a shame about the view.' My mom clicks her tongue as she turns from the window. I wander over to look out. Even though my dorm is on the tenth floor, the view is of the building next door, and then down to the ground to a small alleyway. It's not the greatest view, but I'm in New York at one of the best culinary summer camps in the country, so I'm not complaining.

'Doesn't matter,' I shrug, 'I can go out and explore.'