Mother, Please Don't Die by Lurlene McDaniel

Author:Lurlene McDaniel
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780761373919
Publisher: Lerner Publishing Group

Nine

The newest crop of X-rays showed that the tumor had shrunk. The McCaffery family was ecstatic! They celebrated by ordering pizza and putting candles on it like a birthday cake. By February, Mrs. McCaffery seemed like her old self, even though her energy level was still low. Megan didn’t care, just as long as her mother was getting well.

Plans for the wedding were in full swing. The dining room table was heaped with invitations, envelopes, stamps, and address lists from the McCaffery’s and Brent’s families. Megan avoided direct discussions about the event and quickly left the room whenever Audrey started talking about it.

Thad asked her one night when they were alone watching television, “Why don’t you want to be in Audrey’s wedding? It doesn’t seem right, you not being in it and all.”

She didn’t know how to explain it to him. She wasn’t even sure she knew why except that it was one small area she seemed to have control over. “I just don’t want to,” Megan finally told him.

Thad accepted her remark with a shrug, and he watched the show for a long while before he broke into her concentration again. “If Mom gets sick again and Audrey’s married, do you ever think about who’ll take care of us?”

Megan turned her eyes from the screen to Thad’s face. He looked so small and vulnerable, his expression full of worry. “Mom’s not going to get sick again,” Megan said gently.

“But just in case.”

“Dad’ll be here.”

“Dad works. Can you cook?”

“Is that what’s been worrying you, Thad McCaffery? Are you afraid you’ll starve to death?” She tried to make it sound funny. “I can make grilled cheese and heat a can of soup, you know.”

He wrinkled his nose. “Is that all?”

“Well, I can always get some recipes from Audrey.”

Thad fell dramatically off the couch onto the floor and clutched his stomach. “You mean, the queen of food poisoning?”

Megan burst out laughing and fell to the floor next to him, moaning in agony as if she’d been poisoned.“Yeah,Audrey’s idea of home cooking is burning the house down.”

“What’s the best thing Audrey makes for dinner?” Thad asked, rolling on the floor giggling.

“Reservations at a restaurant,” Megan answered.

Megan’s sides ached from laughing. The two of them rolled around in a helpless tangle, until Audrey walked in and demanded, “What’s so funny?”

Megan and Thad exchanged glances, and then burst into fresh waves of hysterical giggles. “Funny TV show,” Megan gasped.

Audrey peered at the screen and finally shrugged. “What’s so funny about an aspirin commercial?”

Thad and Megan dissolved again. “You would have to have been here from the beginning,” she said, wiping tears from her cheeks.

“Yeah,” Thad agreed. “It wouldn’t be funny at all if we tried to explain it.”

Audrey flipped her hair off her shoulders and left the room. Megan and Thad returned to watching TV, but every time they so much as glanced at each other, they began to giggle.

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