Chapter 78
“I want you to make ten copies each of this report,” Becky told the office assistant and handed a folder to her. “And just two copies of this.” She gave her a pamphlet.
“Okay, I’ll get to it right away,” the young lady said and left to carry out the assignment.
Becky reached for her phone and dialed her friend, Lily’s phone number.
Lily and her daughter had returned to New York over three months ago. That was after a two year battle to change her marriage. Becky leaned on the back of her seat when Lily’s phone started ringing.
“Hellooo,” Lily’s cherry voice said from the other side of the phone.
“Hi, Lily darling, how are you doing?” “I’m good. About to finish up my shift.”
“Oh that’s great,” Becky chuckled. “And Alesha too, how is she?”
“She’s fine, it’s only that she has continued to ask about her Dad. You know how close they used to be.” She sighed dejectedly. “I know she’s missing him.”
“Oh poor girl,” Becky stood up and walked to the window. “I thought you said Ludolf promised to come over to visit her as often as he can.”
“So he told me, but he’d been giving different excuses since we got here. I have stopped asking him, though.”
“No, you have to make him understand that his daughter needs him.”
“Well, I will try again,” Lily said exasperatedly. “Did Owen call you?” She asked, not wanting to talk about her ex-husband anymore.
“Yes, he did this afternoon.”
“I’m just so glad he wants to make efforts to get back with Tracy.”
“Yeah, I’m excited about it too,” Becky corroborated her friend. “Tracy is the best woman for him, I sincerely hope she hasn’t moved on, though.”
“Staff, have you got your signature on the petition already?”
Becky heard someone say to Lily from the other end.
“No, Matron. A minute, please.” She said to the staff member. “Becky dearie, I have to go, now my attention is needed for something.”
“Alright, then,” Becky returned to her desk. “Talk to you later, bye.”
“Yeah, bye.”
They disconnected the lines.
Lily collected the pen Matron was holding out to her and appended her signature on the paper.
“Good,” Judy said, as she collected the clipboard and pen from Lily. Lily stood up and went to the nurses’ room to retrieve her handbag. She pulled into her parking space about forty-five minutes later. Alesha rushed out to welcome her immediately when she heard the sound of the car outside.
“Welcome mummy,” she greeted when she opened the car door and stepped out.
“Hello dear,” she kissed the top of her head. “How was school today?” “It was fine,” Alesha replied.
Her second cousin, Melissa, who had been around for a few days was the one that went to pick her up from school.
They both walked into the living room, with Alesha helping her to carry her handbag.
“Welcome Aunty,” Melissa came out of the kitchen. “How was work?” “Good afternoon my dear, work was fine.” Lily greeted her. “How was your day?” She smiled at her cousin, “did you get the groceries I asked you to?”
Yes Aunty,” Melissa replied.
“Thanks, you are a lifesaver.”
Lily walked to the kitchen and stood in the doorway. “Have you both had something to eat, already?”
“Yes, yes,” Alesha jumped up happily beside her mom. “Aunty Melissa made a sandwich for me, it was delicious.” She smiled at her cousin. “And milk.”
“I have some left,” Melissa pointed to the kitchen cabinet. “Would you like to have some? It’s a stir-fry beef sandwich.”
“Sure.” Lily smiled. “Let me get out of this scrub first, so I can have a taste of the delicious sandwich too.”Text © by N0ve/lDrama.Org.
She left for her bedroom. She was just dropping her scrub into the laundry basket when Alesha burst into her bedroom, “Mummy did you call daddy today?”
Lily sighed and held to the closest frame. She didn’t even know what to tell her again. She suddenly remembered she had promised her in the morning that she would bake one of her favorite snacks, Peanut Butter Brownies before the week runs out.
Lily looked brightly into her daughter’s eyes and said, “Let’s make your brownies now and we’ll talk about your daddy later.”
“We can make brownies now?” She asked innocently.
“Yes we can,” Lily quickly grabbed a casual gown from the closet and wore it. Grateful that her trick had worked. “Let’s go,” she took her hand and they both went to the kitchen.
Alesha opened the cabinet, “what should I bring out?” She was always excited to bake with her mother. Lily had purposely put almost all her baking ingredients in the lower part of the cabinet, so she could easily bring them out one after the other whenever they wanted to bake. “What do you do first?” She smiled at her.
“Put on my apron,” she went to the back of the door and removed her small apron. She put it on and turned her back to her mom to tie the rope. Lily exhaled in relief as she helped her to tie it. She prayed she wouldn’t remember anything about her dad again at least for the rest of the week.
“Open the cabinet and bring out the flour.” She told her daughter.
Alesha brought out the ingredients one after the other until they had all they needed on the cabinet top. Lily added four eggs to the dry ingredients after she had measured the right quantities of the ingredients into a stainless steel bowl and they started mixing.
Melissa soon joined them and they had two baked pans of their brownies in less than an hour.
They started making dinner immediately and they all settled down to eat a few minutes after seven pm. She allowed Alesha to watch her favorite cartoon for an hour before she had her bath.
“Mommy,” her daughter whispered as they both sat on his bed after her bath to read bedtime stories. “Let’s read Mr. Kennedy and his daughter’s adventure.”