The next morning Ashleigh awakened to the sound of pots and pans clanking down stairs. She groaned to herself as she rolled over and pulled the covers tightly over her head. She laid there for a couple more minutes before peaking out from the covers to glance at the clock. It was 8:45 am. She knew that if she wanted to get some breakfast and take a shower before they left she needed to get up soon. “Damn,” she said as she pulled herself from the warm shelter of the covers. She stood up and quickly sat back down on the bed. Her head felt like it weighed an extra ten pounds. She tried to take a deep breath but quickly found that her nose was completely stopped up. “This is going to be a great day,” she mumbled to herself as she stood again to make her way down stairs.
She walked into the kitchen to find Monica standing at the stove serving up some eggs and sausage and Lance sitting at the table reading the Sunday paper. He looked up when he heard her enter.
“Good morning,” he said brightly as he smiled at her. “Would you like a cup of coffee?” He asked as he raised his mug.
“Um sure,” she mumbled as she walked into the kitchen to grab a cup from the cabinet.
“Not a morning person,” Lance said with a twinkle in his eye. “If I remember correctly you never were.”
“Leave me alone,” she replied as she took a seat next to him at the table.
Lance looked over at his friend truly for the first time that morning. She looked awful. She had dark circles under her eyes and they were puffy as well. Her nose was bright red from being blown and rubbed with a tissue. Her hair was a tangled mess. “Are you feeling alright?” He asked her with concern.
“I’m fine, it’s just this stupid cold. You know how they are, it’s always worse when everything in your nose has had a chance to coagulate,” she said as she tried her hardest to suck air in through her nose. A loud gurgling noise sounded through the kitchen.
Monica looked over at the girl and wrinkled her nose. “That’s a pleasant way to describe it!”
“I try my best,” Ashleigh replied with a weak smile.
“So, what would you like to eat? We have toast, sausage, eggs and cereal.”
“Just some toast thank you,” she replied. A moment later Monica walked over and placed a plate in front of the brunette.
“I’m sorry you aren’t feeling better, I’ll get you some cold medicine before we leave.”
“It’s ok, I’ll live,” Ashleigh said between bites of toast.
“Well,” Lance said as he gathered up the paper, “I’m going to go take a shower. Ashleigh, we are going to leave for church at about 10:50 so be sure you’re ready.” Before she had a chance to reply he had turned and left the room. Monica soon joined Ashleigh at the table and the two women ate in silence. Ashleigh soon finished her toast and excused herself from the table. Monica sighed before getting up to clear the table.
‘This is going to be a long day,’ she thought to herself. Then she too went upstairs to start getting ready for church.
Monica noticed Lance kept checking his watch. She knew he hated being late anywhere and he was getting antsy.
“Maybe she doesn’t realize what time it is Lance,” she suggested. Lance nodded and walked over to the foot of the stairs.
“Ash! Time to go!” Lance yelled.
“Well I guess she knows what time it is now,” Monica laughed. “Heck, the neighbors know what time it is now!”
“Hush up woman and go start the car,” Lance told her, grinning, before he tossed the keys to her.
“Time to get this over with,” Ashleigh said to herself as she smoothed out her skirt one last time. Then she made her way down the stairs. Lance was standing at the door, Bible in hand, prepared to leave.
“Ready?” Lance asked cheerfully. He and Monica were both hopeful that maybe going to church would help open Ashleigh’s eyes. Ashleigh simply nodded.
‘As ready as I’ll ever be,’ she thought to herself, following Lance out to the car. Lance opened the car door for Ashleigh before walking around to get in the passenger’s side. Soon they were on the road. Lance glanced over his shoulder to look at Ashleigh. She looked a little better than she had early that morning. He couldn’t help but notice the look on her face. He could tell that she wanted to be anywhere but there. Monica saw the look of disappointment on her husband face. She reached over and took his hand in hers. He turned and looked at her, and she gave him a reassuring smile. A small smile formed on his face and then he lifted her hand and kissed it.
“We’re here,” Monica announced a few minutes later. She parked the 4Runner near Justin’s Benz before the trio exited the car. They saw Justin and Keeley standing near the entrance among a group of people, chatting. Keeley saw the three walking towards them and waved.
“I’m so glad to see you here,” Justin told Ashleigh and pulled her into a hug. She faked a smile when he let her go.
“Well come on everyone, it’s almost time for the service,” Keeley informed the group. Ashleigh reluctantly followed the group inside and took a seat next to Lance on the pew. A few minutes later Lance remembered that the preacher wanted to meet Ashleigh.
“Come on, Ash. I want to introduce you to our preacher,” Lance told her and the lead her out of the room to the preacher’s office. He had talked to the preacher about the situation soon after he found out about Ashleigh’s atheism. The preacher had encouraged Lance to try and bring Ashleigh to church with him when she came for her visit. When they arrived at his office the door was open. Lance quietly knocked and the preacher invited them in. “Preacher Alex, this is my best friend, Ashleigh.” The preacher set his notes down on the desk and then offered his hand to Ashleigh.
“Hello! I am Alex Stone. I’m glad to have you here!” He told her cheerfully. She gave him a forced smile in return.
“Thank you, it’s a pleasure to be here,” she lied. Lance flinched in shock as he stood and listened to her lie to the preacher.
‘Dear God, I better get out of the way before You decide to strike her down for lying in a church!’ he silently spoke to God.
“Well I hope my service will speak to you. Go on back out and have a seat. We are going to begin soon,” he told them. The two rejoined the rest of the congregation in the sanctuary. The service soon started. They stood and sang several songs before the preacher began his message. He told the group about how Jesus had a special love for all his children.
“We have a lot of young adults that go to this church. Most of them have either just gotten married, are getting married or have marriage on the brain.” The preacher as well as the congregation chuckled. “To enter into marriage you should love each other, but that love might not always last. The kind of love that Jesus has for everyone is unconditional.”
The preacher continued and told the group how Jesus always had our best interests in mind and that He had a plan for everyone.
‘Bullshit!’ Ashleigh thought to herself. She shifted uncomfortably wanting to be anywhere else. She wanted to scream out to the preacher and tell him how stupid he was. ‘All these fools in here are so DUMB! Don’t they know all of this ISN’T real? If Jesus really existed I wouldn’t have cancer. I wouldn’t be questioning if I was going to wake up the next morning every night when I go to bed.’ She reached up and rubbed both of her temples. Her head was throbbing. ‘I’ve got to get out of here!’ she thought to herself.
“Are you ok?” Lance leaned over and asked when he saw the look of pain on Ashleigh’s face. Ashleigh looked at him like he was out of his mind. She wanted so badly to just let him have it just for subjecting her to this torture. She quickly pushed those thoughts back down and slightly nodded.
“Where’s the bathroom?” she asked in a hushed voice.
“Um…out that door and then down the hall on the right,” he told her pointing towards the door. “Do you want Monica to go with you?”
“No!” she told him without hesitation. He pulled back and looked at her in question. “Um…I mean I can find it by myself. I don’t want her to miss anything,” she smiled sweetly at him before getting up and quickly walking out of the sanctuary.
After the service Lance quickly left the sanctuary in search of Ashleigh. She’d never returned after abrupt disappearance. As he stepped through the large double doors, out into the sunlight he spotted her sitting half way down the steps with her back to him. He walked down the stairs and eased down to sit next to her. He looked over at his friend who was staring at the ground with her elbows resting on her knees and her hands cupping her chin. When she didn’t return his gaze he finally spoke up.
“I thought maybe you’d gotten flushed down the toilet,” he said to see if he could get a smile out of her. When her expression didn’t change he went on. “What happened in there? One second you were fine, and the next you were rushing out.”
“I…I just didn’t feel well,” Ashleigh replied quietly.
“Oh,” Lance said. He too rested his chin in his hands. “Are you feeling better now?”
“A little,” she said as she turned to her friend to give him a small smile.
After a moment of silence Lance started again cautiously, “So, what did you think of the service, I mean the part you actually saw.”
He noticed her eyes cloud over before she responded. “Well the preacher was nice enough I guess.”
“What about the service itself? What about what he said?” Lance pressed on.
“Lance I’m sorry but I just can’t believe what he said. I mean, if God loved me so much how could he let me be sick? You’re one of my best friends and if I had the power to make you better if you were sick I would do it in a heartbeat. That’s what I call love, not this God mumbo jumbo.”
“Ashleigh, God didn’t make you sick,” Lance said quietly. He understood how she could think that, but he had to make her see the reality of the situation. He at least had to try.
Ashleigh glanced down at her watch. “Oh wow, Lance we’ve got to get going, my flight leaves in a couple hours.”
Lance glanced at his watch and nodded his head. “You’re right. Well, thanks for coming to church with us,” he said, and left it at that.
“I’m going to miss you!” Ashleigh said as she reached out to hug Lance tightly. The intercom had just announced its final boarding call for her flight back to Mississippi.
“I’ll miss you too!” He responded. He pulled back and Monica stepped in front of him to give her new friend a hug.
“You have to come back and visit really soon! And we’ll definitely see you for the wedding. It’ll be nice to have a bit of sanity around during that!” The two girls laughed as they parted.
“Well I guess I should get going,” Ashleigh said as she picked up her carry-on bag and put it over her shoulder.
“Call me as soon as you get in,” Lance called as Ashleigh turned and walked to the gateway. He raised his hand and waved goodbye.
“Ok,” she called over her shoulder. A moment later she was gone.
Lance turned to Monica with sadness in his eyes. “Don’t worry Lance, we haven’t given up on her yet,” his wife whispered to him before she leaned up and kissed him.
Later that evening Ashleigh called to say that her flight had arrived without any problems.
“Yeah, it was a little bumpy, but we got there on time,” She told Lance.
“Good. How’s your mom,” he asked.
“Oh, she’s fine. She was waiting for me when I arrived. She practically knocked me down when she hugged me. She was a little worried about me being gone,” she chuckled as she remembered the frantic look on her mother’s face as she had ran towards her.
Lance laughed at the mental picture he had. “I can imagine her doing that!”
“Well, Lance I’m kind of tired,” Ashleigh said a moment later when a yawn escaped her lips.
“Ok, I’ll let you go then. I’ll talk to you in a couple days.”
“Ok, thanks for letting me come visit,” she replied.
“Anytime kiddo, anytime,” he told her before he hung up.
Just as Ashleigh had suspected her mother had her in the doctor’s office bright and early Monday morning. The night before her parents had loaded her up with cold medicine and ignored all her protests. They had wanted to know how she had gotten sick. She told them about being outside pretty late at the party. However, the part about skinny-dipping never came up. Ashleigh knew her parents would lock her up in her room for the rest of her life if they found out about that.
“Breathe deep,” the doctor told her and he pressed the stethoscope against Ashleigh’s back. The doctor had a frown on his face on he walked around the examination table and stood in front of Ashleigh and her mom.
“I don’t like that look, Dr. Clayton,” Katherine informed him. “What’s wrong?”
“Well there is a crackling sound when she breathes. It doesn’t sound like bronchitis, but I can’t rule out pneumonia.”
“Pneumonia?” Ashleigh asked in shock. “I am telling you it is just a bad cold.”
“It could be. I want to run some tests to be sure though. We are going to do some blood tests, a chest x-ray, and a sputum gram stain. We should be able to determine if it is serious or not from them. Ok?” Both women nodded. Soon Dr. Clayton and an army of nurses were drawing blood and collecting mucus to begin the tests. The Ashleigh was taken to the radiology room for her chest x-ray. When the x-ray was completed she was taken back to the exam room to wait. For the next hour or so Ashleigh sat in agony waiting for the rest results. It didn’t take long before he mother started pacing the room.
“I can’t believe this. I let you out of my sight for the weekend and now you might have pneumonia!” Mrs. Reynolds exclaimed. “Were you not thinking?” She asked as she placed her hands on her hips and gave her daughter a skeptical look.
“Mom, I was just trying to have fun. I haven’t gotten to hang out with people my age since I came home from college,” Ashleigh replied. Her voice was shaky.
“Speaking of people your age, I can’t believe that Lance didn’t have enough sense not to make you go inside when it was cold like that!” Katherine exclaimed as she began to pace again.
“This isn’t Lance’s fault. In fact he was the one that made me go inside when I did.”
“Well obviously it wasn’t soon enough now was it? Believe me I will have words with him later.”
“Mom…” Ashleigh started, but was cut off when the doctor returned to the room. She took one look at the doctor’s face and knew that it was bad news.
“Well the test results are back,” the doctor informed them. He then rolled his stool over in front of Ashleigh before taking a seat on it. “There were all positive. You’ve got pneumonia.” Ashleigh slightly nodded.
“So what’s next?" her mom asked.
“Well since Ashleigh’s immune system is obviously still pretty weak, I think we are going to have to admit her to the hospital and start some antibiotics. I want to admit her this afternoon.”
“Well I guess I will be back in a little bit with your stuff,” Katherine told Ashleigh. They had left the doctor’s office and had gone straight to the hospital. Mrs. Reynolds had gone straight into “over-protective parent” mode when Dr. Clayton told them Ashleigh had pneumonia. She wanted to get Ashleigh started on medicine as soon as possible. Katherine had tried to call her husband on the way to the hospital and let him know what was going on, but he was in a meeting. Now Ashleigh was sitting in a hospital bed with an IV giving her a steady stream of antibiotics.
“Ok,” Ashleigh replied. As her mom was walking out the door she thought of something else. “Mom?”
“Yeah?” Katherine asked as she turned and faced her daughter.
“Please don’t be mad at me.”
“I’m not mad at you. A little disappointed but not mad,” she told her before silently walking out of the room.
Ashleigh mom had finished packing up some stuff for Ashleigh and had finally gotten in touch with Mr. Reynolds. She was about to leave the house when she decided she was going to call Lance. She set the suitcase beside the door and walked back upstairs to Ashleigh’s room. She looked around until she found Lance’s number lying beside Ashleigh’s bed. She silently walked back downstairs trying to decide what to say to him. When she got back downstairs she sat on the couch and picked up the phone. Looking at the piece of paper she began dialing.
“Lance I’m sorry!” Monica screamed as she ran through the house, Lance on her heels.
“Woman you might as well give up now, you are gonna pay when I catch you!” Lance yelled. They had been in the living room talking, Lance was really down about the reaction Ashleigh had had at church the day before. She told him not to let it get him down, there wasn’t much he could do right now, that Ashleigh had to calm down some before he would be able to reach her. Then she told him that if he didn’t cheer up, he was going to be sorry. He told her that she didn’t scare him. She shrugged her shoulders and sat quietly for a few seconds and continued to listen to him whine. Finally she got fed up and hit him square in the face with a throw pillow on the couch. He stared at her in shock before he had whispered through clinched teeth one simple word, “run.”
On the way through the kitchen they ended up on either side of the bar. Every time Lance went one way to attack her, she dove the other way. Finally he gave up and went to dive over the counter but Monica was quicker. She grabbed the hose from the sink and doused him before taking off running again. She had just run back into the living room when the phone started ringing. She gave serious thought to not answering it considering Lance was about to catch her, but she decided she might should. She paused just long enough to grab the phone, but that pause was all the Lance needed. He dove and attacked her at the same time she put the phone to her ear.
“ACK! Help me!” she screamed as they both hit the floor. He started tickling her immediately.
“Monica?” the voice on the other end asked. Monica was laughing so hard she could barley speak. She was slapping at Lance’s hands trying to get him to stop.
“Yes?” she asked in between fits of laughter. “Lance stop!” she instructed him and slapped his hands one last time. He finally gave up and rolled off of her, then laid in the floor trying to catch his breath. “I’m sorry. Yes, this is Monica.”
“Hi. It’s Katherine. Ashleigh’s mom,” the older woman spoke quietly.
“Oh! Hi Katherine. How are you?”
“I’m ok. Um…can I speak to Lance?”
“Yeah. Hang on just a second.” Monica rolled over and handed the phone to her husband. “Ashleigh’s mom wants to talk to you.”
“Oh no. This can’t be good,” he whispered running his hand through his wet hair and then sighed before taking the phone. “Hello?” he answered with a hint of fear in his voice.
“Lance, it’s Katherine.”
“Um…hi.”
“Lance, I wanted to talk to you about Ashleigh.”
“Ok…” he voice quivered. He sat up and then looked down at his wife, who was still laying on the floor, and gave her a fearful look.
“The doctor just put Ashleigh in the hospital.”
“What? Look I know she got a cold while she was here, but…” he said almost choking.
“It wasn’t just a cold,” she told him as anger began to fill her voice. “We found out this morning that she has pneumonia.”
“Oh no,” Lance groaned.
“Lance, you knew that Ashleigh was sick. She should have never been out in the cold at that party. She said that you were the one that made her go inside when she did, but she had no business being out there in the first place. Ashleigh just wants to have fun and doesn’t keep her health in mind like she should. I thought that you would be responsible enough to help her with that while she was gone,” she was on the brink of yelling. Lance sat wide-eyed listening to her. Every time he would try to get a word in, she would cut him off.
“I’m really…”
“Lance, I don’t want excuses. I just want my daughter to be well. I let her out of my sight for the weekend and she ends up in the hospital.”
“Mrs. Reynolds, please listen to me!” he begged.
“What,” she snapped. She realized she was being a little harsh on him, but he needed to learn his lesson.
“I am really sorry. I was trying to watch out for her. I am not her parent though and she resented me for trying to be. I was not being irresponsible. I just wanted her to have some fun while she was here. I hardly ever get to see her and everyone else was just as excited as I was that she was here. Believe me, if I had known that her immune system was that weak, I would have carried her back inside kicking and screaming.”
“I hope you really mean that. Well, I need to go. I have to take Ashleigh’s things to her and her father should be at the hospital by now.”
“Thank you for letting me know what was going on,” he replied quietly.
“You’re welcome,” she said and hung up. Lance’s ear was soon greeted with a loud dial tone. He pulled the phone from his ear and clicked it off before laying the phone on the floor. Monica who had sat up and tried to figure out what was going on gave him a questioning look. He began to rub his face but didn’t speak. He didn’t trust his voice yet.
“Well?” Monica asked, she was getting inpatient. He looked at her for a moment, still silent. His eyes said so much. They were full of pain and sorrow. He finally cleared his throat and then began to speak.
“Ashleigh is in the hospital. Her cold turned into pneumonia. Her mother pretty much just blamed it on me.”
“Why?”
“She doesn’t think that I should have let her go to the party. I don’t think that she knows that we went swimming though. I think she would have said something. I think she just thinks that it was cold outside and Ashleigh got sick.” Monica frowned at his statements. She couldn’t believe that Mrs. Reynolds would try to place all the blame on him. Ashleigh, as well as everyone else, was at fault. She probably shouldn’t have been out there, but just as Ashleigh herself had said, they couldn’t lock her up in her room the entire time she was there. She was old enough to make her own decisions.
“I’m sorry sweetie,” she told him as she wrapped her arms around him. He quietly pulled her into his lap and sat and hugged her for several minutes trying to figure out what to do. The same answer kept coming to mind over and over. He knew it was the only right answer.
“I have to go out there,” he said suddenly. He could feel Monica nodding against his shoulder.
“I think you’re right.”
“We’d like to be the first to welcome you to Jackson International Airport. We hope you’ve enjoyed your flight, and we hope that you will include Delta in your future travel plans. Please wait until the fasten-seat belt sign has been turned off to leave your seat,” Lance heard the flight attendant say as the plane pulled into the gate. A moment later he heard a ding and the fasten-seat belt light turned off. He unbuckled himself and stood up to get his bag from the overhead bin. He’d only brought one bag because he knew he could stay only a day or so.
As he walked up to the gate he pulled his baseball cap down more and slipped on his sunglasses. He wanted to get to the hospital to see Ashleigh as soon as possible, he didn’t want to have to deal with fans.
Luckily he didn’t have any trouble and a couple minutes later he had stepped outside and hailed a taxi. He sat back watching the Mississippi scenery fly past him. Just about any other time and this would make him happy. He loved being home, but this was not a happy trip. Ashleigh being in the hospital sent reality crashing into Lance and he was starting to realize that she wasn’t as “well” as she tried to let him think. He had several questions running through his mind, and fully knowing that Ashleigh would downplay everything Lance decided most of his questions would be aimed at the doctor.
In what seemed like no time at all the taxi was pulling up to the hospital. Lance smiled at the driver and handed him the fair as well as a generous tip before grabbing his single bag and rushing into the lobby.
He quickly made his way up to the receptionist’s desk and without waiting for the woman to address him he said, “I need you to tell me where Ashleigh Reynolds room is.” The woman gave him a slightly indignant look before shifting her eyes to her computer. As she slowly typed in Ashleigh’s last name Lance started to get impatient. He began to drum his fingers on the counter top. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity she looked up from the screen and said, “Her room is number 432, just take the elevator up to the fourth floor and turn left.”
Lance shouted, “Thanks,” as he practically ran over to the elevator. He pressed the “up” button and watched as the hand above the elevator doors slowly counted down each floor it was on. A moment later he heard them ding and slide open. He stepped in and tapped his foot impatiently as the elevator rose to the fourth floor. When the doors opened he dashed out down the hall.
He came to a stop outside her door. ‘What are you waiting for?’ He thought to himself. ‘You were in such a hurry a second ago.’ He didn’t want to admit it to himself, but he knew why he was afraid to go in. He didn’t know what he’d find on the other side. He couldn’t imagine seeing Ashleigh, his Ashleigh, the girl who was so full of life, lying in a hospital bed.
He swallowed his fear and knocked on the door before pulling it open. He let himself in and quietly closed the door. Lance then proceeded to walk into the room. Finally he saw her. She was sitting up leaning back on a stack of pillows. The tv was on, but she wasn't watching, in fact she probably hadn't even heard him knock. She was staring out of the window. Lance could tell from where he was standing that she was extremely pale. The IV that had been inserted when she first arrived was still attached to her arm. Her usual cheerful face was tainted with sadness. It hurt him to see her so sad. After a few seconds, Lance realized she still didn't know he was there. So he cleared his throat. Ashleigh's head slowly turned towards the sound. She gave the person standing in her room a good look over before speaking.
"Can I help you?" Lance thought for a minute she had lost her mind, when he finally realized that he still had his disguise on. He chuckled before setting his bag on the floor, pulling off his sunglasses and taking off his hat.
"How quick you are to forget your friends," the blonde laughed.
"Lance?" a shocked expression washed over her face. "What are you doing here?"
"I came to check on you," he told her simply. Lance walked across the room and got a chair and placed it next to her bed. He sat in it and leaned forward, placing his elbows on her bed.
"You flew all the way over here to see me?"
"I was worried about you." Ashleigh scoffed and rolled her eyes at his comment.
"How many times do I have to tell you? I...AM...FINE!"
"Bullshit!" he exclaimed and sat up straight.
"Excuse me?" her voice full of attitude.
"That...is...bullshit," he said slowly. "You are not fine. Do you call being in the hospital with an IV dripping medicine in your arm fine?"
"Lance..."
"Don't Lance me," he scolded her. "Do you know that your mom called me and pretty much blamed your getting sick on me?"
"I was afraid she was going to do that. But if you are here because she made you feel like it is your fault, then please...just go home." She felt uncomfortable with everyone making such a fuss over her.
"Do you really think that is why I am here?" he asked in a hurt voice. He crossed his arms over his chest wondering if coming to Mississippi was such a good idea after all. "I hoped you would've known better." Lance could tell by the look in Ashleigh's eyes that she was still questioning his reasons. She remained silent though. He uncrossed his arms and leaned forward again. Reaching out and taking her hand is his, he continued speaking. "What did I tell you when I first found out that you had cancer?" She thought back to their conversion on the couch.
"You told me that you wanted to be there for me," she whispered.
"What makes you think that I changed my mind?" he whispered back.