Carlos opens another page of the album. Now, he's accompanied by both his sons, John and William on his side.
As soon as he opens the page, he and his sons can see a picture of Annie holding hands with a naked William on a beach.
"John! You have a nude picture? Naughty boy." shouts William and the rest of the family are kind of shocked.
"Bill, that's you." says Carlos while looking at William's eyes.
"Don't you see the hair? Does John have curly hair?"
"Diana, have you seen this? You should see this." John looks at Diana before William cuts the talk,
"Don't. Let's move on." Diana can only laugh at the behavior of her husband and his brother.
And then there's another knock on a door.
"That has to be Junior." says Annie while she's still laying on the bed.
The door opens and William Jr-or called Junior comes in with another present.
"Bro, where's she?" says Jacob.
"NO! Why did you do that?" Junior answers in such a disappointment towards Jacob.
"Wait. What's wrong?" asks Jacob confused. "It was supposed to be a surprise, you dumbass."
"What's happening here, boys? Who's she?" asks their father, William.
"Wait a second, dad." answers Junior while he's walking to the door and grabs his girlfriend from the outside, Nadia.
"Surprise!" Junior looks mad at Jacob and Nadia smiles in front of them.
"Guys, this is Nadia. My girlfriend."
Junior introduces Nadia to his family and she waves to them.
"Bro, she an Arab?" Jacob asks Junior with a suspicious face, of course he's joking.
"No, I'm an Indian-American. I was born in America." Nadia steps in to introduce herself to Jacob.
"Jacob!" Diana hits Jacob in the chest.
"What, mom? I was just asking." answers Jacob in defense.
"Nadia, right?" William offers his hand and Nadia nods and shakes his hand, "Don't worry, he was just joking.
As you can see, we're a mixed race family. Welcome to our family. I'm sorry that we have to meet here. My name is William." William introduces himself.
"But you're a Christian, right?" again, Jacob just shouts like he was investigating her.
"Yes, I am." answers Nadia with a smile, trying to look nice.
"Jacob! Shut it!" Diana hits Jacob again, now on his head. Then she stands and hugs Nadia.
"Hi, Nadia. I'm Junior's mom, Diana."
"Junior?" Nadia looks confused.
"Oh yeah. I'm Bill only if I'm outside the house. They all call me Junior here."
Junior steps in. He then introduces the rest of the family to Nadia.
"The man right there is my uncle, John. And that's his wife with their children, Rose and Annie. Beautiful girls, but none of them have boyfriends yet." says Junior jokingly and Rose replies "Junior, I'm going to throw you through the window."
"And that beautiful, beautiful couple are my grandparents, grandpa Carlos and grandma Annie."
"Junior, did you know that your girl's name is actually your mom's name's anagram." Annie shouts.
"I'm sorry, what?" answers Junior.
"Anagram. A word that's formed by rearranging the letters of another word. You know, right?" explains Annie.
"Annie. Oh dear, Annie." answers Junior.
While they were laughing and joking with each other, Annie let her hand loose from Carlos' hand. She was slowly sleeping and her heart stops beating. The beeping sound from the heart rate monitor changes and everyone is panicking. John runs outside to call a doctor while William and Carlos try to wake Annie up.
"Annie? Sweet Annie? Are you okay?" Carlos looks worried and William too but he tries to calm a little more just to make sure his dad doesn't stress out too much. John runs inside the room with a doctor and a few nurses.
The doctor tells everyone to get out of the room for further check up. "Can I have everyone leave the room, please? While we're treating the patient. Thank you." says the Doctor. Carlos doesn't want to let go his wife's hand but John and William immediately ask him to let it go.
"Dad, come on. Let them treat mom first. You can hold her hands later. Come on." says William in a comforting sound. The family looks worried as they walk out the door, but not with Nadia. She looks confused and scared and holds Junior's hand so tight.
YOU ARE READING
Never Let Me Go
Short StoryA 78-year-old woman named Annaliese has been in and out of a hospital for the last couple of years. Her husband, Carlos is a country music fan who came from Mexico with his family since he was young. For the last 7 weeks, Annie has been in a hospit...
