The Reason Why

Chapter 17: Live With Lonesome part 2

And here we are again. She promised me she would not end up here again, but yeah that was seven visits before this one. I don't know how she does it, but Karen always ends up in the hospital. Always.
'Do I have to upgrade my will?' She would ask the doctor. She always did that. All the seven times before. We would sigh and roll our eyes and the doctor would say no and laugh shortly. There was only one difference between the seven times before and now: we are not allowed to see her now.
I stare at my boots. My left leg is going up and down, like I'm stomping along with a beat. We all have strange habbits when we are nervous, Rebecca can't stop eating when she is nervous and I know that Karen once talked nonsense for six straight hours on the day she would hear if she passed her finals. And I stomp with my left foot on the ground. Compaired to the others, I'm pretty normal in that kind of stuff. I giggeled. Quickly I looked up. Nobody noticed it, good. 
Everybody was here, like usual, and all wondering how Karen could end up in the hospital now. I looked up to Phillip, who sits next to me, and lays my head on his shoulder. He looks down at me and tried to smile. He failed in it, which I could understand. He sounded really paniced when he called me that Karen ended up in this place again. I don't know how long we waited when a doctor showed up. We all stood up, waiting until he said something. 
I knew something was wrong, really wrong. I could see it in his eyes.
"I'm sorry but sadly Mrs. Fairchild could not-"
Stop it!
I start to scream and let myself fall on my knees. A stranger tries to save me from my fall but she fails. I don't care. How in the world could I live without having my Karen in my life?

"Mommy, where's daddy?"
"I don't know, honey."
"He said he would be back at 6 pm and look at the clock, it's 6.13 pm!" 
"I know that, sweetie. If you don't tell daddy, we can already eat some potatoes." 
Daisy started to giggle. She likes the little secrets her mother always saddles her up with.
Around 7 pm Schlap walked into the kitchen. "Sorry that I'm late." He gave Kimberly a kiss. "Emergency, will tell you later." He looked twice from Daisy back to Kimberly. She knew what he meant. One of the many good things about Kimberly is that she isn't curious. 
"We were really hungry so we already eat some potatoes." Daisy giggeled and gave her a daddy a hug. "Mommy's belly was making funny noises." Typical Daisy, no secrets for her parents even if the one asked for it.
They ate, played a game and watched some TV and around 8.30 pm this time, Daisy went to bed.
"So tell me, what happened?" Kimberly asked as soon as Schlap sat back on the couch again.
"Okay, don't worry but," Schlap started.
"But what?!"
Oh my stars,
Kimberly started to panic.
"I went to the hospital with Karen." Schlap closed his eyes, waiting for Kimberly's reaction.
She started to hyperventilate. 
"Honey calm down! Nothing bad happened, she accidently cut herself with a piece of broken glass."
A tear streamed down Kimberly's face. "Why didn't she called me?"
"Because I was there. I had to return her ring for you, the one you kept save for her. I entered the house because the front door was open. I helped her to clean up and she was in panic because she was scared Jimi would be mad at her."
"And was he?"
"He was in bath."
"Oh Schlappy," Kimberly laid her head down on Schlap's shoulder and started to cry harder. 
He wrapped an arm around her.
"Baby, I know you're worried about Karen a lot lately but everything is totally fine. Why don't you call her? Will that help?"
Kimberly cried for two minutes longer and then wipped off her tears. She took distance of Schlap and nodded. She grabbed to phone of the kitchen table and walked the back porch.
Kimberly started to cry as soon as she heard Karen's voice.
"Kiki, oh my stars, how are you? Schlap told me what happened and I just had to hear your voice."
"What did he tell you?"
"About the broken glass. And that you were scared of Jimi. Why are you asking? Isn't it true?"
Karen sighed. "It is."
"Is it okay if I visit you tomorrow? I just have to see you."
"Of course. But don't expect too much of me, okay?"
"Okay."
"Don't worry about me sweetie, I'm fine."
"I love you Karen." and she hung up the phone.
When she walked back inside she saw that Schlap was praying. Probably something very serious because he was almost crying.