A car door slammed outside, announcing Leo was home from school. With the cost of the cancer treatments, they hadn’t been able to afford another car or the insurance premiums, and Mom usually took him to and from school since it was on her route to work. He got a ride from a friend today.
“Is it them?” Ami called from the living room, nose in her phone.
“No, it’s Leo.”
Elissa pounced as soon as Leo walked in, pulling him in for a hug.
“Ugh.” He stiffened in her arms. “Sister hugs.”
“Don’t worry, dumbass.” Ami slid her phone into her pocket. “I won’t hug your stinky teenage self.”
“Thanks, Ami. You’re the best.”
Elissa released him, and her younger siblings did their stupid handshake, a confusing dance of fists and fingers that ended in a butt-bump.
“You two are weird,” she said with an eye roll as she walked to the kitchen.
She poured water for them both, sliding the glasses over the kitchen island. Leo dumped his backpack onto a bar stool and chugged the water. Ami toyed with hers absently.
Elissa was nearly a carbon copy of their mom, sharing the same short and curvy build and blue eyes. So much so, her dad still joked she was an immaculate conception clone. Ami and Leo were both blond, built more like their dad, slender and several inches taller than Elissa. Ami’s eyes were hazel, as were Dad’s, but Leo had blue eyes like Elissa, though his were a couple shades lighter. And he had Dad’s dimpled chin.
Elissa broke the heavy silence. “It’s going to be okay.”
“You don’t know that,” Ami snapped at her.
“Ames…” Leo slung an arm around her shoulders.
The creak of the old garage door, which had needed to be replaced for at least two years, drew all three sets of eyes to the entry off the kitchen. The air grew still with anticipation.
Peter Wright opened the door with a smile on his face she hadn’t seen since the love of his life had been diagnosed.
Relief flooded through her, and Elissa took a breath that seemed deeper and more cleansing than any before this moment. Her mom was going to be okay. Everything was going to be okay. Oh please, let everything be okay.
Dana walked in carrying a bag from their favorite Chinese restaurant and a bottle of bubbly. Because, after all, sparkling wine goes with everything.
As soon as their mom dropped the food on the dining room table, the three kids wrapped her in a group hug, all their bickering forgotten in the pure, unadulterated joy of this moment.
Her father’s arms wrapped around her, around all of them, completing the moment. They stood like a big Wright ball of love, for who knew how long.
“Is that moo shu?” Leo muttered finally.
Trust the teenage boy to crack first.
“Of course,” Mom said, half laugh and half sob.
“Good, I’m hungry.”
Dad ruffled his hair and the hug broke. Mom took a step to the kitchen, but Elissa put a hand on her arm.
“We’ve got it, Mom. Leo, plates and forks.”
“I’ll take chopsticks,” Ami called.
“And chopsticks. Ami, you pop the wine and I’ll get the glasses.”
“Oh, don’t fuss, Lissa.” Her mom waved a dismissal.
“You know she wouldn’t have it any other way, Mom.” Ami pulled the foil off the bottle.
