I'll go check Dad finally replied He was already halfway out of his chair He joined Mom Lily was left alone with her waffles and the rain Weird she said out loud She took a sip of juice and swung her legs back and forth underneath the table Weird weird weird A long time went by Lily thought she could hear her mother making other phone calls Her voice a low urgent hush Another clap of thunder made the house rumble
You are not afraid of thunder Lily told herself She was embarrassed she'd jumped at the sound A famous explorer wouldn't be scared Before she could be proven wrong by another flash of light and rolling boom of noise her parents came back into the kitchen Mom didn't look better In fact she looked worse Dad didn't look very happy either They sat at the table beside Lily but neither of them picked up their forks again
Who was that on the phone Lily asked quietly She didn't want to upset anyone further but she was unable to hide her curiosity for another second That was your aunt Roxanne Dad said We have some bad news about Grandma Mom's face was a funny color like she wasn't feeling very well Suddenly Lily didn't feel like eating waffles anymore She let her fork fall down on the plate not caring that the handle landed in a smear of maple syrup Grandma was one of her favorite people in the whole entire world with her long nails and her red lipstick and her sweater pockets filled with butterscotch candies Lily hadn't seen Grandma in five months because of how far away she lived What about Grandma Lily managed to say and that's when Mom started crying The sight of it shocked Lily so much she had to resist
the urge to flee the room and hide under the covers of her bed Dad I'm scared I'm sorry honey Mom said through her tears She moved to take Lily's hand in hers I don't mean to scare you I'm just very sad is all Grandma had a heart attack and it doesn't look like she's going to get better Her voice cracked at the end of her sentence She cleared her throat as more tears slipped down her cheeks So many thoughts flashed through Lily's mind at once What did all of this even mean Dad continued to explain while Mom sniffled and rubbed Lily's hand Your mom and I will need to travel to California as soon as we can he said Unfortunately we won't be able to take you with us because they won't let kids into that part of the hospital And there's nobody here who can watch you for the amount of time we'll be away
