One Kiss for My Last Month novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: The House on Linden Drive

Maddy asks her father for a heart doctor and is laughed at; her grandmother says after the wedding, and the wedding is the day after Maddy's heart is due to stop.

Dad's house on Linden Drive had fourteen stairs, and I knew every one of them.

I stood at the bottom with my school backpack and my yellow raincoat and a trash bag of clothes Mom had packed that morning.

The trash bag was a surprise.

I had forgotten how much she hated sending me anywhere with less than a real suitcase.

"Go on up, sweetheart," Grandma Maureen said behind me. "Your room's the second door."

I put my hand on the rail and took the stairs one at a time.

By the top, my chest felt tight and my fingertips tingled.

It had been that way for months in my first life, and nobody noticed until a Friday afternoon at school.

My room had a new quilt and a lamp shaped like a moon.

Somebody had put a stuffed rabbit on the pillow.

It was missing one ear.

"That's Mr. Ears," said a small voice at my knees. "He's mine, but you can sleep with him."

Eli stood in the doorway in dinosaur sneakers with his thumb in his mouth.

I had expected to hate him.

I looked at his cowlick and could not do it.

"Thank you," I said. "I'll take good care of him."

He climbed onto my bed without asking and fell asleep in about one minute.

Alana came to get him an hour later.

She had changed out of her scrubs into leggings, and she still had her glasses pushed up in her hair.

"I'm sorry about today," she said quietly. "At the courthouse. Craig said everything was settled. I swear I didn't know your mom would be there."

"It's okay," I said.

It was not exactly okay, but she looked like she meant it.

She reached into her pocket and pulled out a granola bar.

"I keep these everywhere," she said. "Chocolate chip. You need anything, you come find me. Anything."

I ate the granola bar and watched her carry Eli down the hall.

I thought, she is not the problem.

At dinner I sat between Eli's booster seat and Grandma Maureen, with Dad at the head of the table.

There was roast chicken and the good plates.

I waited until Dad had finished his first helping.

"Dad, I need to see a heart doctor."

He kept chewing.

"A what?"

"A heart doctor. A cardiologist. I need an echocardiogram."

Dad laughed, a short surprised laugh.

"Where did you hear a word like that?"

"I get out of breath on the stairs," I said. "My lips turn purple when I run. I think there's something wrong with my heart."

"You're nine, Mads. You ran up and down the whole hallway at school pickup last week."

"I didn't."

"Craig," Alana said gently.

"She's upset, Alana. It's been a hard day for everybody." Dad cut his chicken. "Your mother put this in your head, didn't she? Something to get you back with her."

"No, Dad. Mom doesn't know."

"Sure she doesn't."

Grandma Maureen reached over and patted my wrist.

Her hand was soft and warm, and she wore three rings.

"Sweetheart, of course we'll have you checked," she said. "Everything in its time. We'll see about doctors after the wedding, when things are calmer."

"When is the wedding?"

"Saturday the sixth of October," Dad said. "Alana's sister is doing flowers. You'll be our flower girl."

I put my fork down.

The sixth of October was the day after my heart was going to stop.

Nobody at the table knew it.

If I did nothing, the wedding would happen without a flower girl.

"That's too late," I said.

"It's not too late for anything," Grandma Maureen said, and gave me a peppermint from her purse.

After dinner I went looking for my old pediatrician's folder.

Mom had kept a copy of everything in the closet at our old apartment, but that was gone now, and Grandma Maureen had taken the school and doctor folder in the courthouse hallway.

Dad had an office on the first floor with a tall metal filing cabinet.

The second drawer said EICHELBERGER, J.

It was empty.

The first drawer was empty too.

Nothing was left in the whole cabinet but a tin of peppermints.

"Looking for something, honey?"

Grandma Maureen stood in the office door, still in her coat, with her purse over her arm.

"My doctor papers," I said.

"Oh, I've got those." She smiled warmly. "I'm taking care of all that, sweetheart. I've found you a lovely new family doctor, a friend of mine. You don't need to worry about a single paper."

"When do I see him?"

"After the wedding."

She turned off the office light, and I stood alone in the dark with my heart going too fast.

Thirty-two days.

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