Hello, Goodbye

Chapter Forty

The next couple weeks went by in a blur. Now that Kiel and Zeke had found each other, there were some important matters to discuss. One of them being bone marrow. Kiel offered immediately to do the transplant, but as Zeke had told her in the hospital, it wasn't that simple. The chances of Kiel, as his father, being a match for Zeke's bone marrow were very slim, it turned out. When they went in to take the test, the doctor said it was about a one percent chance. The odds were definitely not in their favor. But the odds had never been in their favor, and yet they'd still managed to overcome them every single time. So Emersyn was hopeful. She prayed every night for a week, and when they all went back to see the doctor for the results, they were shocked to see he was pale as a ghost.

"In all the years I've been practicing medicine," the fifty-something-year-old man said as his eyes scanned the folder in his hands disbelievingly. "I have never seen anything quite like this." He closed the folder and set it down on the counter as he took a seat on the stool in front of Kiel, Zeke, and Emersyn. Emersyn's sweaty hands were in Zeke's shaking ones as the doctor grinned at the little family before him. "Kiel Daniels, you are, in fact... a match for Zeke Thatcher's bone marrow."

Zeke laughed with relief as Kiel let out a breath of air. Emersyn wasn't all that surprised. Even though the chances hadn't been good, she somehow knew things would work out. They still had a long way to go before Zeke was in the clear. They had to actually perform the transplant. Give him another round of chemotherapy (something Zeke was not looking forward to), and then hope and pray his cancer went into remission. It was a long road, and it was definitely not going to be easy. But Emersyn planned on sticking with him through all of it. She never wanted to leave him again.

Another matter to discuss was Mona. Zeke was furious with her for lying to him his whole life and for not telling his father he had a son. Despite the fact he'd once had a great relationship with his mother, he was so angry and hurt that Emersyn wasn't sure he would ever forgive her for all her lies. But Kiel was adamant that he at least hear her out. He also insisted that Zeke tell her about his illness, because he said she deserved to know the truth about her son. So one day, at the beginning of September, Zeke used his old phone to call his mother and tell her everything.

It hadn't been a pleasant discussion. He was very angry at her for her lies, and she was deeply hurt that he hadn't come to her when he was first diagnosed. It was a conversation that lasted hours, until finally they both agreed it would be best to continue it in person. And seeing as he was supposed to go under for a bone marrow transplant in a couple weeks, Mona agreed to come to the island to see him. And this time she planned on staying with him all through his surgery and chemo. He didn't seem too pleased about this, but at least she wanted to try and work things out.

When Zeke told Kiel about Mona coming to visit, Kiel almost fainted. His fingers gripped the doorframe so hard that his knuckles turned white. And for the days leading up to Mona's arrival, he went around the house and fixed and cleaned anything and everything that needed fixing and cleaning. And when he wasn't working on the house, he was pacing around, anxiously awaiting the arrival of the woman who'd left him over twenty years ago, taking his heart with her. The day she was supposed to arrive, he went out to the barber shop and got a haircut and a shave. He claimed it was because he wanted to look presentable, but Emersyn knew her uncle was still in love with this woman, no matter what he said.

Zeke considered picking her up from the airport, but at the end of the day he decided he just couldn't do it. He was almost as nervous to see his mother as Kiel was and couldn't stand the idea of picking her up from the airport and having the talk they needed to have in a moving vehicle. So Makayla, who was still trying to make amends with Kiel and Emersyn, offered to go and get Mona when she landed and bring her back to the island.