Shadow II Page 11

  Chapter 11

  It’s mid-day and Archan wakes up slowly, ripping the grass that had grown over his body.

  “Welcome back,” says Cana.

  Archan looks over at the comforting sight of his guardian, an eight foot long Griffin.

  “Wow, I’m more tired than usual. Must have been something wicked that thing did to me.”

  “It’s not what the creature did. It’s what Shadow did,” says Cana.

  “Then what am I doing here?”

  “That’s what the council wants to know also. You have a meeting with them.”

  “After 15 years of service, the head guys only want to see me because I didn’t die as they expected. Talk about gratitude.”

  “This is serious, Archan.”

  “I’m serious, apparently dead serious.”

  Sitting in the chair adjacent to the bed, Shadow in full gear with her hood off, holds her mother’s hand. Her mother seems frozen in time. Betty’s tears flow like a melting river in the spring.

  In the waiting room, Dailen, Betty’s little brother, awakens and lifts up his sleeping dad’s arm. They’ve been there all night. Her condition had worsened. It’s early morning, at sunrise. Dailen gets up and heads down the hall.

  Shadow is holding her mother's hand looking down, when her mother opens her eyes. Speaking lightly she says, “I knew you would come.” Betty looks up at her now awake mother.

  “Momma, momma! It’s me Betty!” she says as a child's first time talking to a parent on the phone.

  “I know dear. I knew you would come. I never gave up hope.”

  Betty can’t turn off the faucets flowing down her cheeks. She says, “I love you momma”

  “I know. I love you too,” she manages a smile.

  Betty stares at her mother, enjoying this moment, hoping it would never end. Her mother says, “He told me you were here. He promised to let me see you and your brother together.”

  Confused Shadow asks, “Who?”

  The door knob turns and by reflex Shadow starts to move to hide but her mother’s grip tells her not to. Dailen walks in, shutting the door behind him, and stands on the other side of the bed, not shocked or intimidated by finding someone there. Their mother grabs his hand also, and says, “Both my babies, He told me it would happen, I never doubted Him. Dailen, meet your sister, Betty.” They look at each other.

  Their mother says, “Please take care of each other and know I will always be with you.” She shuts her eyes. Betty starts crying stronger, “No momma! Don’t leave me, I need you!”

  Dailen reaches over and hold’s Betty’s hand, “It’s okay, mommy’s with God now.”

  Oddly to Shadow, this comforts her.

  The door knob turns again. The boy’s father walks in, “Dailen, you shouldn’t just go walking off like that.” Shadow is nowhere to be found. The father notices the machine just went flat line. He exits the room frantically and returns seconds later with paramedics.

  As they work on her in the bed, Dailen grabs his father’s hand, “It’s okay daddy, she’s with God now, and He let her tell me and Betty goodbye.” They have tried to keep her name from him over the years. Stunned, the father asks, “What did you just say?”

  “Betty was here. See.” Dailen points at the chair that Shadow was seated in. There sits his wife’s Bible, the one she always carried with her, and a rose with a ribbon that reads,

  “For my loving mother.”

  Betty walks into Mike’s office wearing the dress she bought to see her mother in. “Here,” she says to Mike, who’s sitting behind his office desk.

  Reaching out, he asks, “What is it?”

  “A cake, a cake celebrating our friendship,” she says. He smiles, then she adds, “And then we need to discuss my wages.”

  Confused, he asks, “What wages?”

  “I’m your new part-time housekeeper,” she smiles.