Battle on The Homefront Pt. 3

This time, when I started old Betsy, the Vroom, Vroom held, and away we went. Because Beanie was dying of starvation I took the girls for dinner first. A very fancy dinner, with real plates and glasses and everything!

"Pizza Hut! Wow! Oh, Wow!" Katie screamed in my ear when we pulled into the crowded parking lot.

"Mommy, this is a fancy place. Am I dressed propiat enough?" Beanie wanted to know.

"Yes, just let me smooth your hair a little," I offered, reaching into the back seat to comb out the snarls.

"Noo!" She yelled as I tried to run the comb through her tangles. "That's where Jeff touched my hair!"

"Oh, well, then. You look fine," I said, trying to pop open the passenger side door for them with a good kick.

"That's okay, Mommy, we can get out your side," Katie offered, helping Beanie out of her car seat.

We tumbled into the restaurant and fell in line behind an older couple who insisted we go before them, as they weren't in a hurry. Beanie was whimpering about dying of hunger, so I took them up on their offer.

The waitress ushered us to our seats and took our drink orders, leaving me with a menu and the girls with coloring pages and a whole box of crayons for each of them. We settled on a cheese pizza and the girls doodled while I checked my phone. Mom's phone number was in my missed calls. That caught my attention immediately.

She didn't do texts, so I did an old-fashioned talky call, "Hey, Mom, what's up?"

"Hey, Baby, don't want to give you any more bad news, but Daddy is in the operating room getting a catheter in his heart or something like that."

"Mom, what happened?"

"He was mowing the lawn this afternoon and thought he had heartburn. He came inside, sat down, and took a few Tums. By the time I came out from the kitchen with a glass of water for him, he was turning blue. I called the ambulance and they rushed him to General. He had a massive heart attack."

"Oh, no! Mom, what can I do? Should I drive down?"

"It's getting late, you won't get here until after dark. I don't want you getting into an accident. All I'll do is worry about you driving in the dark in that old car. I'll keep you posted."

"I don't want you to be alone."

"Greta is here with me keeping me company. I will call you as soon as I know anything, sweetie. I have to go, this is expensive."

"Mom. Mom? It's a cell..."

"Shit."

"Mommy! Stop saying bad words," Katie scolded.

"Sorry, that was Gigi, Didi isn't feeling well. We might go down to visit them."

"Poor Didi. Does he have a tummy ache?" Beanie asked.

"Gigi should make him soup. That works for sick people," Katie added as the waitress set our pizza on the table.

I made the girls wait until the steam stopped rising off the food before I let them dig in. They didn't need pizza mouth tonight. Both girls ate like they were famished. All I could do was pick at mine. Maybe I should call in to work tonight and take tomorrow off. Mom didn't need to sit around worrying by herself.

But then, the Godfreys had just offered me an amazing raise. I couldn't disappoint them now. Poor Dad. Just when he had finally retired to spend time doing what he wanted to do, his health began to go. I hoped that was all this was, a health setback that could be dealt with.