The Ultimate Gift by Rene Gutteridge

Author:Rene Gutteridge
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 2010-09-10T04:00:00+00:00

chapter 11

emily watched Jason from her hospital room, where she and her mom peered down below. He’d been walking around and around and around that stupid fountain for what seemed like forever.

“He’s been out there for hours,” Emily said with a long sigh. “Yep. He’s got some big decisions to make,” her mother replied.

Emily knew her mom stayed neutral for her sake. She’d learned a long time ago about staying neutral. That’s what all of her doctors did. They wouldn’t say yes and they wouldn’t say no. They would just stay right in the middle. She hated that. She would rather they just tell her it was over and be done with it. Or tell her all this stupid chemotherapy was going to do something other than make her hair fall out. She wished they would tell it like it was. Just once.

“Do you think he’ll come in or go home?” Emily asked.

Her mother tried a smile. “He doesn’t have a home.”

Well, that was one way to get out of answering the question. Emily turned and grabbed her coat and umbrella.

“Hey, what are you doing?”

Emily walked out of her room. She could hear her mother hurrying behind her.

“Emily! Stop! Wait! What are you doing?”

Emily arrived at the elevator and pushed the down arrow. To her delight, it dinged and the doors opened. She stepped in while her mother scrambled to catch up.

“Emily, listen to me.” Her mother tried her calm voice, the one she used when she was getting upset but didn’t want to show it because Emily was sick and mothers of sick children don’t yell at them, no matter what they’ve done. That was one perk in this whole thing: she could get away with just about anything.

Downstairs, the doors swished open, and Emily walked out, but this time her mother grabbed her arm. “Emily, you stop it right now!”

Okay . . . so there was a line. Interesting. Emily turned to her mother and put her hands on her hips. “I need to talk to him.” “No, you don’t.”

“Yes, I do.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

Her mother sighed and stood upright, shaking her head. “Look, Emily, I know there seems like there should be an easy solution to this, but there’s not, okay?”

“It all depends on how you look at it.”

“Whatever the case, you’re not going out there.”

Emily tried a different angle. “Mom . . .” she said, her voice going tender. “There are just some things I need to say.”

That worked. Her mother’s expression softened. “What things?”

Emily lowered her eyes. “He might not ever be back. I want to tell him some things.”

Her mother knelt and grabbed her hands. “You just want to say good-bye?”

Emily nodded and pulled her lips down into a sad smile. “Yeah. That.”

Her mother rose and looked to be contemplating this. “Okay, well, I’m going with you.”

“No. I need to do this on my own. You can stay here by the front doors. You can see me.”

“But I—”

“You don’t even have your coat. And the rule is that you have to have your coat to go outside.

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