Cinder Girl by Holly Thompson Rehder

Author:Holly Thompson Rehder [Rehder, Holly Thompson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781637581216
Publisher: Post Hill Press
Published: 2022-05-12T12:51:50+00:00

Uncle Ben made it to the hospital within an hour of my call. He may have been a lot of bad things, but he was dependable. I’ll give him that.

Mama recovered quickly, miraculously actually, and within days they had her ready to come home. She would need constant care for a bit while she got used to the metal halo sitting on her shoulders with the screws going into her head, and she still had short-term amnesia—she knew me, she knew Lisa, she could talk to us, laugh with us, and all the normal things—but she didn’t remember from one day to the next.

I had decided my best option was to just lay it out to Uncle Ben. I couldn’t imagine him wanting to take care of Mama in this condition; she obviously couldn’t do anything for him in return. I gave him my plan for taking care of Mama. I just needed him to get us home. I explained to him that we couldn’t live with Aunt Jan because of Lisa’s asthma and the cigarette smoke, not to mention the extra care Mama now needed. They said she needed quiet and rest; I knew it would be impossible to make her comfortable at my Aunt Jan’s. I told Uncle Ben that I was prepared to take care of her and Lisa, and that I had already checked with the school. I could do my schoolwork from home, and we could take it a couple weeks at a time. Which wasn’t true, but I knew with Mama in that head thing and all her new medications, we needed to be in our own home alone.

Uncle Ben agreed, and then broke the news to Aunt Jan. She wasn’t happy, but she understood. By the time he got us home, I had a plan. Johnny would move back in with us and take care of Mama during the day while I was at school. He didn’t have a job and we were about to get married, so this would be perfect. All he had to do was give her medication and I had it all broken down meticulously on a schedule for him. We got married as soon as the preacher could do it, and I had Papa walk me down the aisle, or stairs, because I wasn’t speaking to Daddy. All was done. I was officially an adult. All future decisions could be made by me without having to work carefully around others. Life would be on my own terms now.

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