Andy's Plan

Chapter 8

I was a woman in pink...so I was pink but then we would all be pink since people in this average-sized hall decorated with ribbons and flowers in different shades of pink, were all wearing outfits with pink hues.

It was now in the middle of October, and I was wearing a baby-pink-coloured illusion-styled sweetheart dress with its tulle-lined skirt reaching an-inch just above my knees exposing my long legs while I paired it with my eggshell heels which further accentuated my five-four height. October was one of the very important months with me as during this month we celebrated the Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

It was two weeks after my vacation escapade with my family in our own sanctuary in Staten Island and I was greeted with loads of work when I got back but the two days I spent with my parents were so worth it.

***

I was woken up very early the next day and I was at first irritated because I was having a nice dream of cuddling in the beach with that bluish-purple eyed guy and the next thing I knew it was shaking like there was an earthquake. I blinked my eyes and saw my mother instead shaking me like there was really a terrible earthquake; she could shake the whole bed if she wanted to.

Way to ruin my dream.

“Andy sweetie, wake up.”

“Mom, it’s Sunday,” I whined sleepily. “Let me sleep in. What time is it anyway?”

“Five-thirty in the morning,” she chirped.

What the...?

“Mom!” I clutched the duvet tightly and pulled it over my head blocking out my mom’s insistence for me to get up. “Are you crazy? It’s too early,” I mumbled under the cover.

“Get up sweetie! Your dad is taking you sailing this morning,” as she pulled the duvet from me baring me with only my pyjamas and I shivered with the coldness of the morning.

That woke me up.

“Really? Like really kind of really?” I sat upright suddenly energized by the idea and all thoughts of sleep went out the window as I remembered how it was sailing early in the morning. It was another bonding between me and my dad.

My dad, Lt. John Henry Quinn was a part of US Navy SEAL and he retired after that operation in Afghanistan against al-Qaeda last 2002 and went home injured with two gunshots wounds on his right shoulder and left leg. Fortunately, nothing serious happened to him but that was the first time that I cried so much seeing as it happened before I discovered that I had a lump on my right breast. Having a navy dad was cool especially when I was younger but when I grew old and realized why my father was sometimes sent to other parts of the world, I pestered him to take an early retirement. I could not bear whenever dad was sent to warring countries and every passing day was like a year with trepidation for me. I really admired my mother’s strength for being strong for the both of us whenever dad was on mission. I asked her once how she coped having a husband with dangerous job but she just smiled at me and told me that when she married my father, he was already doing his job and she accepted that it was a part of him that, she needed to understand no matter what...because she love my father and the least she could do was support him and pray for his safety.

I could not be any happier when he decided to retire after that mission he had last 2002. My mother and I were ecstatic as we could sleep peacefully after without the fear of dad going to deadly mission and never come back. From then on he was just as happy as he landed a job as coast guard and spent some of his retirement savings in buying a small sailboat.

“Yeah, the weather is good and he wants you to see the sunrise,” mom grinned as she saw me beaming. “I’ll have your hot cocoa downstairs, so hurry up,” and with that she left me to myself as I readied and put on a royal-blue swimsuit under my white sundress and smoothed over some sun block on my exposed skin as I was planning on taking a dip in the sea and test my swimming skills later.