CHAPTER 4

LISA`S POV

“Who the fuck does this woman think she is…” I grab Milly trying to prevent her from going after Rachel who is slowly walking, shaking her BBL fake butts. “She threatens us and walks just like that?”

Milly yells at Rachel who is continuing to walk. “Do not make me catch you and make you swallow your smelly veneers, you evil bastard…”

Rachel turns and Milly immediately falls silent. “I don’t talk to high school dropouts and failures.”

Umm.

If you want to get at Milly, insult her based on her education level. Worse have Rachel in the picture. Milly could not finish her high school education because Rachel refused to continue paying her tuition fees and, when she found a scholarship that promised to support her until she finished her undergrad, she got arrested. She spent four years in prison because of beating up Rachel in her front yard. Milly had dressed up in all black and hit Rachel beyond recognition with a baseball bat. As she was dragging her to the pool that was nearby, Rachel`s husband who did not know what was happening arrived and saved poor Rachel from drowning to death.

 Well, Milly was arrested and since she could not afford a good lawyer, she was sentenced to four years in prison. Rachel who had a renowned corrupt lawyer added other false charges and bribed the local magistrate who sentenced her to four years. A sentence that should have normally been nine months since she was under eighteen years old at that time. Well, that is the rigged system we have had to face over the years—low-class people.

The hate that Milly has toward Rachel is palpable. It is so thick that it can be sliced into pieces.

Without saying anything, she turns and walks toward door number 110, where my father is admitted. Laughing I follow her and we open the door and walk inside.

Five fans are on, on the ceiling above his bed. All the windows facing the lake that is near the hospital are wide open. Everything was just like he had always liked after his mother died. The house was always cold and Milly and I would run to the supermarket that was five minutes away from our house.

The sound of his chattering teeth is the only thing you can hear. He is sprawled on the bed, the blankets and pillows strewn on the carpeted floor. His eyes are closed and he is breathing fast.

Milly looks at me and rolls her eyes. “What`s with him and this deadly cold.” She says, walking to the door.

“I wonder why these nurses would allow him to do this,” I say walking towards his bedside where a pack of bottled water sits.

“Lisa, I am not doing this shit today. I am meeting up with Remy for a house party.” She walks off, shutting the door behind her.

“Okay…bye,” I say to myself. She sure would have never come here unless my father was dying.

Well. Well. Well.

I look down at my father. He snows lightly, his heart heaving at a fast rate. His lips are dry and cracked and a frown is plastered in his sleeping face. It has been four years since we last had a real conversation. He never came to my wedding ceremony. He never knew that I got married to the Thatchwood— the people he dearly hated. He does not know that I am carrying a Thatchwood in my stomach.

“Ah. Ah. Ah! Stop it. Yes please stop. Please. Please. Reduce the speed of this plane. I can`t take it anymore at this speed. Ah. Ah! Stop the plane… Land this plane… Please!” Father shouts crying so loudly, his eyes closed. Sweat trips down his forehead and his hospital gown is damp with sweat. “Please stop. I can`t take it anymore. It is a bitter pill to swallow. Ahhhh!”

He is shaking in his bed, the metal creaking and almost crashing.

I walk over to the AC and turn it off before shutting the windows that were letting in breezes of cold windy air into his room.

“I can`t take it anymore. And there is nothing that you can do to convince me to change my mind… Stop this plane, now…” A loud guttural sound comes from his mouth—like someone is choking him.

What should I do? This is beyond…

“I knew we would never have landed let alone smoothly. It`s better to crash and burn in the forest than to roughly land in JFK, too bad for the news, right?” He releases a loud guttural laugh that has my eyes popping out of their sockets. “Thank you, pilot, I knew your long years of experience were for nothing. I knew she was never mine. She has never been mine over the years. She is not mine.”

What? Is he referring to his mother?

“I thought she was my daughter but you lied to me, Sarah. I knew you were a liar but I could not put my hand at it.”

What?

Before I can think of anything, I rush to him and shake him violently. What is he even saying? Is he losing his mind?

“Father. Father. Wake up.” I continue shaking him violently.

Immediately, his eyes widen, and he quickly blinks before looking at me. His breathing is labored and his lips are quivering.

He sits up and sighs, before looking at me, his dark- brown eyes the same color as mine. “Lisa… I am in the hospital”

I smile at him, my heart constricting with joy. “Yes, I can see that father.”

“And you came to see me?” He shakes his head, muttering something to himself that I can`t hear well.

“And I did that too.”

“Why?”

“Because you were brought…”

“Why did you come, Lisa? Tell me the truth…” He says, his breath still labored.

“Because I am your daughter and I came to see you. Calm down and I will ring the nurses to come and check you, okay?” He is looking at me with longing eyes, like he has a million words to say but his tongue is too heavy to lift.

“Okay but why exactly are you here? Why?”

Jeez, I thought he was becoming better but the situation keeps worsening every time I visit him, either when he is at the Care home or in the hospital.

“Calm down, let me call the nurses,” I say, rushing to the door.

“Wait.”

I turn around.

“Okay, you do not want me to call the nurses?”

“No, I want you to tell me why you are here.” He is shaking his head in disbelief. “No, actually I want to know who you are.”

Sighing, I open the door and walk to the nurse station. Mrs. Maria knowingly smiles at me and walks over to where I am standing.

“I know, he`ll be fine. Just a little hope.”

“Fine?” He has always been getting worse and worse each day. Father is far from being fine. “Wait, why did you allow him to have five fans in his ward? Isn`t there supposed to be some regulations when it comes to those types of things?”

“Lisa.” She moves closer, exhaling heavily, and holds my hand to hers. “Patients dealing with mental issues have to sometimes be heard and accommodated even if their requests are ridiculous and absurd.”

“He would have frozen to death, don`t you understand?” This is ridiculously out of this world.

“He has become better, yesterday we had to tie him in chains to his bed because he was overly unruly since we did not grant him the twelve fans he had requested to be placed in his room.”

“Do you think he will become better?”

“He will just have hope…”

The door to my father`s ward opens with a bang and he walks down the hallway, towards us. “Who turned off my dearest fans…? I am asking who did that to me.”

He is walking towards us, clutching my red purse that I left in his room.

“I know it is you. You ugly bastard…”

What the fuck?

He reaches over to me and thinking that he is going to hand my Gucci handbag back, he hits me with it on my head twice, then throws it to me. “Never turn off my cheerleading fans again.”

I open my mouth to say some words but I can`t bring myself to utter anything.

“You are still staring at me?” He tries to come at me but Maria holds him back, preventing him from giving me one of those Mike Tyson`s knockdowns.

“She is your daughter, Lisa, please calm down and I will put your fans in place just like you requested them.”

With pain in my head, and ruffled hair I quickly pick up my handbag and begin walking toward the emergency staircase.

“She is not my fucking daughter,” my father says as Maria walks him back to his ward.

I run down the stairs, taking two at a time, my heart threatening to break from my chest.

She is not my fucking daughter?

He used the F-word. He never says that, well, at least he has never said that even in front of us over the years.