Home. Thank God we
made it baby!” Teri exclaimed as she went to open the front door.
The man Teri was talking to supervised the
unloading of their luggage. He tipped the driver after the bags were left in their
entryway.
Richie grabbed Teri
up in a hug.
“We more than made it baby. Ten days here alone
with you is more than I can ask for.”
“Well, not totally
honey. We are going down to see your family, then we have visiting to do
here too.”
“I know, but let me
dream a bit okay?”
“So, what do you
want to…” The sentence is not finished as the doorbell rang. Teri looked at
Richie.
“And so, it begins.” Richie stated in an
expressionless voice. He was not in any mood to be "on" for company.
Teri went to the
door and opened it. Outside is their neighbor a young girl who had a big crush
on Richie. Teri smiled.
“Hi Cheryl, come on in Hon.” The child entered
the house and her eyes got really big when she saw Richie in the entryway.
“Hi Cheryl.” Richie
said with a smile. THIS kind of a fan he could deal with right now.
“Hi Richie,” She said her eyes shone bright at
the thought that Richie had spoken to her. “I told my mom I was heading here. She
said not to bug you guys as you probably just got home.”
“No bother Cheryl.
And yes, we did just get home,” Teri said as she kicked her sandals off. “You
want something to drink? I was going to make some coffee, but I am sure we have
something here for you to have.”
“Sure.” She said and followed Richie and Teri
into the kitchen.
Teri went to start coffee and Richie opened
the fridge.
“Looks like we have Diet coke, or bottled
water. What do you want?”
“Diet coke please.” Richie smiled at her
politeness and took out a can of the requested drink.
“Are you home for
good now?” Cheryl asked thinking she can ask a few friends to her house and
maybe come over to say hello to Richie.
“No, only a few
days.”
“Oh.” she said a
little dejected as her plan wouldn’t work.
Teri smiled. She
had her back to the child as she got some coffee ready.
“Cher, isn’t
tomorrow a school holiday of some sort?”
Teri knew what the
child was thinking. She also knew her boyfriend couldn’t say no to kids if he
didn’t have to.
“Listen. Later
tonight we are just having a simple dinner and going to relax. Why don’t you
ask your mom if you can come back and eat with us?”
Richie looked up.
Shocked Teri would suggest that. Not that he had a problem with Cheryl. She was
a cute kid. But, she was a kid. He knew his girlfriend well enough to know she
had something planned but figured it would be better to wait until after Cheryl
left before he questioned her motives. Cheryl scooted out of her chair, took
her soda can and started to leave. She looked back at the couple. She hesitated
a bit, but, she then just took a deep breath and asked her question.
“Can my friend
Debbie come over too? She just lives around the corner. She’s my best friend.”
“Of course,
sweetie. And have your Mom call me okay? I just want to talk to her for a
second and make sure dinner won’t be a problem. “
“Okay, thanks. Bye
Richie.”
He waved to the
child as she flew out the door. Then, turned her attention to Teri who had her
head in the freezer looking for what he can only imagine would be dinner.
“Honey. Looks like
we will have to take a run to the grocery store. Nothing much here. We’ve been
away too long. I hoped we could just wait for tomorrow but with Cheryl and
Debbie coming for dinner we need to get some kid friendly stuff as well as
breakfast food for us.”
“Ter, what’s going on?
I know she’s a cute kid, but, it’s our first night back. I kinda wanted a quiet
night.”
Teri turned to
Richie. She had tears running down her face. Richie stood. Teri waved him back
to his seat. She wiped her eyes. He sat back down. Teri went to him and hugged
him hard. He hugged her back and waited for her to talk.
“Rich, Donna,
Cheryl’s Mom called me yesterday afternoon. You were doing the last round of
interviews before the show. There just wasn’t the right time to talk to you
about it. I figured tonight we could have this discussion.”
He waited for her
to continue. Richie ran a bunch of scenarios through his mind that could
possibly fit Teri’s tears and her conversation with Donna.
“They found a lump
in her abdomen. Cheryl has Wilms Cancer. It’s a form of Kidney cancer and
treatable. She will be fine. We hope. Children live normal happy lives with
this. It has not spread which is good news," Teri took a breath. She sat
next to Richie and drank from his bottle of water that he grabbed when he got
Cheryl her drink. “She’s in stage 111 and will have a kidney taken out later
this month. They believe this is all that will need to be done. She will have
follow up Doctor visits but that’s it. In a while Cheryl will be the pain in
the ass kid we all know and love.”
Richie was stunned.
Cancer. Shit. Not Cheryl. She’s such a
great kid. She reminded him of his own Daughter a lot. Hell, they both even
have blonde hair.
“What can I do to
help?”
Teri smiled.
“We’re doing it.
Have normal days, and visits from Cheryl. Dinner here is not unusual. We’ll
pretend all is normal and not let her see our concern. She’s a kid. Her folks
don’t want anyone to do anything different than normal around her. So that’s
what we’re gonna do. Now, about that run to the grocery store…”
“I’m right behind
you Ter. That kid is so brave. My heart hurts for her. Let me call Ava first. I
need to hear her voice right now.”
“Of course, honey, go
call her. I’m sure Donna will be calling any second anyway then we can go.”
Richie got up, and
moved to grab his phone. He needed to talk to Ava and hoped she was home.
Teri ran to the
bathroom, and splashed water on her face to get rid of her tears. No make-up
was needed since it was summer, and, with her tan she looked perfectly fine.
Donna did call, and Teri told her about dinner and maybe a trip for ice cream
after for dessert. No problems.
“Okay, what do you
think about hot dogs, and hamburgers on the grill for dinner?” Richie asked as
he came back from his phone call.
“I think it’s
perfect. I would love a good cheeseburger. I told Donna we may take the kids
out for ice cream for dessert.”
“Excellent.” Richie
liked the plan.
The two went to the
butchers for their dinner. Then, they
stopped at a road side stand, for fresh ears of corn to go along with it. A stop at the grocery store was a bit longer,
they ended up with a full cart of stuff, since the house was almost bare of
food due to Teri being on tour with Richie. When they got home, the girls were
down by the water. They saw them pull up to the house and ran over to help lug
all the groceries into the kitchen.
“Wow, how much do
you think we can eat?” Cheryl asked as she brought in another couple of bags
from the car.
“Ha ha ha,” Teri
said. “No one’s been here for a couple of weeks. There’s nothing to eat
smart-ass.” Both girls looked at each other and smiled. Smart-ass…
After all the
groceries were put in their proper place, Teri, Richie, and the girls, took a
couple of the paper bags outside on the deck with the corn, and everyone husked
away. Teri bought extra which she planned on sending home with Cheryl. She wanted
those ears cleaned too. They all had fun. Richie put on some music. It was a
light fun evening with laughter from all of them. The adults kept things light.
The girls followed Richie around like puppies. Everywhere he went they were
almost right behind him on his heels. He would stop short on purpose and they
would bang into him they were THAT close at times. Teri kept close too. But not
THAT close. She made it a point to go outside when Richie was grilling to give
him a break from the girl’s chatter. At one point, she brought them upstairs
with her to help unpack and they had fun trying on and admiring Teri’s clothes
and the treasures she bought along the tour.
After a great dinner,
they all loaded into the car and took off for the local ice cream shop. Sundaes
and a ton of different kinds of ice cream were ordered. They all ate off each
other’s dishes to try the different kinds. More laughter, and light
conversation. Nothing more important than the merits of Vienna Mocha Chunk ice
cream vs. Chocolate chip was discussed and argued about.
“Hey, you passed my
house.” Cheryl said as her home went by her.
Richie smiled and
pulled into the garage.
“With all that ice cream,
I think walking back is in order. And besides, we forgot to take the corn we
husked for your family. Ter, do you want to run and grab it and I’ll start down
the road with the girls?”
“Sure, I’ll be two
seconds behind you. “
She took off for
the kitchen where they left the corn. The kids and Richie slowly started to
walk down the driveway. They heard a loud yell.
“Hey, wait for me!”
Teri ran toward the group.
“Piggy back ride!”
She yelled as she ran. Richie braced himself.
Teri hopped on his
back. The kids laughed out loud. She handed the bag of corn to the girls and
wrapped her arms around Richie’s neck. They walked this way all the way to
Cheryl’s house. Richie kept bouncing Teri on his back making her speech all
jumpy.
By the time they
got to Cheryl’s, the noise they all were making had her mother and father come
from around the side of the house, where they were discussing making a change
to some bushes against the garage. The smiled at the sight in front of them.
Those two were so good for Cheryl. She was infatuated with Richie and he didn’t
put her down for it. They loved Teri and Richie and hoped that the two would
get married someday.
Their time at home
flew. There wasn’t a day they weren’t meeting up with family and friends to
catch up. Twice Teri and Richie went to visit Cheryl. The first time was in the
hospital where Richie sat on a chair next to Cheryl’s hospital bed and they
talked for over 45 minutes nonstop while Cheryl’s Dad and Teri went for coffee
to give him a break.
The second time, was
after she was hope recuperating. Teri had bought a life size full grown
Labrador retriever stuffed animal for her.
She had to open the sunroof in her car to get the beast home it was so
big and bulky it didn’t fit in the trunk so she just popped the sun roof and
strapped the dog in with his seatbelt for the ride. Gloria was with her and sat
in the back seat taking pictures of the woman and her dog. The two laughed all
the whole way home. Teri had a couple of
the pics blown up to give Cheryl with her gift.
When she and Richie
walked in the door of Cheryl’s room first, off all she could see was Richie.
For her no one else mattered. She never saw the dog until Richie spoke and
brought her attention around.
“Hey Cher, how you
feeling sweetie?”
“I’m better Richie.
I can sit up and walk around. Mom says by next week I’ll be able to go and play
with Debbie if I’m careful for a few weeks and don’t horse around too much.
What’s that?”
Teri smiled, and put
an envelope in the girls’ hands.
“He’s for you.
There are adoption papers inside the envelope. I promise Mom,” Teri said
with a wink at Donna who was with them. “He won’t eat much.”
“You got me a
present Richie?”
All the adults
smiled. Even though the gift was given to her by Teri she thanked Richie. She
was so infatuated with him. They all knew it and knew she would grow out of it.
They hoped… Soon…
“Teri and I thought
you would love to have a companion while you are recuperating. As Teri said there are adoption papers in
there so you have to name him. And take good care of him. There are also a
couple of pictures we though you would get a kick out of too.”
Cheryl opened the
envelope and looked at the adoption papers. Then she looked at the pictures and
grinned. They were of Teri and the stuffed animal in the car on the way home
from the store where Teri got the present for Cheryl. They were funny. In one
the girls actually propped the dog up so he could stick his head out the
passenger window like a real dog would.
“Thanks Teri,
Richie. I love it. Mom, can I call Debbie to come over so we can name him?”
“Of course,
sweetie. Call her now. Richie and Teri can’t stay they are leaving in a few
hours to go back on tour. They just wanted to stop by and see how you were
before they left.
Cheryl gave hugs to
both Teri and Richie. His was a bit longer than hers. The adults left and
Cheryl called her friend. The two found the PERFECT name for her new dog.
They call it… Richie.
