chapter 35.

I felt awkward about driving uninvited to Hadley's apartment, not really sure of how to talk to her. Hadley's car was parked in the front lot, signalling that she was hopefully home. I hated to think that Atheson could possibly be inside with her, hoping that he was actually at work where he was supposed to be so that I wouldn't have to deal with the awkwardness of seeing him again. Luckily it was just Hadley at home, looking confused as she opened the door to me but invited me inside anyhow. She was in the process of making what looked like butter tarts and squares, apparently preparing for a bake sale where they were raising money for the May 24th weekend party that was held every year in the fairgrounds. She offered me a glass of wine, which she already had one prepared for herself, but I politely declined.

"I'm surprised to see you, but I'm glad you decided to come over," Hadley said, smiling from ear to ear despite the fact that I could tell she was slightly nervous, she could barely keep eye contact with me before looking somewhere opposite of me. "Everything A-okay with Johnny?"

"Better than ever," I replied, watching as she rolled out some dough on the counter that was already covered in flour. "I actually came here to talk to you about your mom, Marie. I don't know if you were aware of Dorothy Bernadine, her best friend, and how her cancer has progressed to its final stages. Well, she hasn't got much time left and her dying wish is to see your mom again. I don't suppose you have any way of getting in contact with her?"

Hadley was quiet for a moment, awkwardly pushing the dough around with the rolling pin before her forced smile returned and she shook her head. "No, I'm sorry, I haven't talked to my mom in awhile now."

I sighed, nodding. I could tell that she was lying, probably trying to protect her mother's whereabouts from Fletcher, despite the fact that I would never tell Fletcher where Marie was. "Really? That's too bad, this would mean a lot to Dorothy to be reunited with her. She never got to say goodbye the first time and it would break her heart not to be able to say her final goodbyes. I'm sure your mom would feel the same way if she knew how dire Dorothy's situation is."

Hadley paused, looking directly at me as sympathy rolled over her face. "Is it really that serious? She's actually on her way out? I know she's been sick for a long time, but it always seemed not too serious, like she was going to get better."

"There might have been a time when that was true, but it isn't anymore. She's got a matter of weeks, if she's lucky," I responded, folding my hands over each other as I watched Hadley continue to press out the dough from corner to corner until she had enough to start cutting up into smaller pieces. I waited for Hadley to come to a stop, dusting her hands off on her thighs. "Are you sure there isn't some way you can get a hold of her?"

It took a few seconds, but Hadley finally nodded, reaching over to the opposite counter to grab her cell phone. She looked at it for a moment, touching the screen a few times until she pulled something up, handing the phone to me. "You have to promise that no one else can get this number. As soon as you call it, get rid of any trace of you having made the call," Hadley instructed. "She doesn't want to be bothered, but I think she'll make an exception for Dorothy."

I memorized the number in my head, going over it a few more times so that I wouldn't forget. I handed the phone back to Hadley, smiling at her. "Thank you, Hadley, I can't tell you how much this will mean to Dorothy."

"Just please make sure no one else gets that number, okay?" Hadley stressed, her eyebrows pinching together as she swiped away a droplet of sweat on her forehead.

"No one else will hear anything of it," I replied, pushing myself away from the counter as I gathered myself to leave.

"Wait, before you go," Hadley interjected, causing me to turn back to look at her once more, "I'm sorry that Atheson did what he did to you. He has a lot going on lately and he's not thinking straight. I'm not trying to make excuses for him, but I just wanted to let you know that he is also sorry."

I was surprised that she was seemingly okay with Atheson having tried to rekindle our relationship while still being with her, but I didn't know the full story. I nodded once, accepting Hadley's apology, but not Atheson's. It wasn't her fault and she shouldn't have felt the need to apologize on his behalf, but it didn't surprise me because Atheson could never own up to his faults. If he ever did, I knew then and there that he was changing, but I doubted it would ever come to that point.

I left Hadley's apartment and headed back to Jannie's house to call Marie, noticing that no one else was home at the moment. I took the house phone to the guest room where I was staying and dialled in the number from memory, listening as the phone rang until finally someone answered. It was Marie, and I asked her how she was, explaining who I was and why I was trying to contact her. I went on to tell her about Dorothy and how she was terminally ill, that the doctor didn't give her very long and she wasn't doing well as it was. Marie listened intently, not saying much at first as I told her about Dorothy's condition.

"I don't think she has much longer left, she's barely hanging on. I saw her earlier today and she was very weak, she could hardly hold her own head up long enough to take a drink. They gave her six months, but I think they were being generous," I said, listening to the slight crackle on the other side of the phone before continuing. "I know you want to be left alone, but this is all she wants before she passes. You have to see her before that, you can't leave your business unfinished."

Marie made a humming noise on the other end of the phone, finally letting out a sigh. "You're right, I wouldn't want to do that. I was planning on visiting Harrow Hall in about three weeks anyhow, so I'll make sure to stop in to see her before I leave," Marie said.

"I don't think she has that long, Marie, she'll be lucky to see the end of next week," I said, and I wasn't lying either. She had very little time left. "Your best bet is to catch the next plane or bus, whatever is fastest, and get here as soon as you can. Please, for her sake and for your own – you can't leave this hanging, you need to make it right," I tried not to plead with her, but I was running out of options, Dorothy's time was nearing.

Marie agreed to get on the next flight to Denver airport, apparently far enough away from Harrow Hall that taking a plane was the fastest way. I didn't care where she was coming from, so long as she made it in time to see Dorothy. I asked her if it was okay to contact her again on this number, and she said it was fine to keep her updated if anything happened before she arrived. In the meantime I was going to head over to see Dorothy to spend a bit more time with her and also to let her know that she was going to have a visitor, hoping to keep Marie a secret until she arrived.

As I gathered my things to leave Jannie's house, I noticed that the front door was opened. I didn't leave it open because I didn't want to let the family cat outside if no one was home to let it back in, so who had come into the house? I called out to see if anyone would answer, but there was no response. I listened intently for any footsteps upstairs, but again the house was silent. Until suddenly I heard the faucet running in the kitchen, slowly approaching it to see who was in the house. At first I thought my eyes had deceived me, that I was too caught up in my own mind to make sense of what I was seeing – but I was seeing perfectly fine, and instead Mahala stood with her back turned to me as she sipped at a glass of water.

"You're intruding on private property," I announced, grabbing the nearest blunt object in case Mahala felt like attacking me again.

"So are you," She replied, not bothering to turn around as she took another sip from her water. "Putting your head where it doesn't belong, opening your mouth when it should be closed, but most of all," She paused, barely looking over her shoulder, "changing what the outcome will be."

"I'm not doing anything to change Dorothy's death," I replied.

Mahala finally turned around, swishing the water from side to side in her glass as she leaned up against the counter. "She's supposed to wait forever and we both know how it ends," Mahala said, pulling her lips in a bit as she placed the glass down on the counter, dipping a finger in slowly as she puckered her lips and gently washed them with the water from her finger.

"She's still going to die in a week, so why should it matter? Marie coming to see her shouldn't change anything."

"But shouldn't it? Her love returns after time apart, saving her from the pits of her disease, resurrecting her spirit for one final hoorah. Sounds to me like a different ending," Mahala said, staring at her own reflection in the water now. "A different choice, a different ending."

"Her cancer is terminal, there's no saving Dorothy and we both know that," I snapped. "So what if Marie comes to visit her? It's not like Marie can come up with a cure for cancer in less than a week."

"You don't see with all the weaving paths, do you? You see only laterally, one way no matter what. There's more than one view point, more than two, if you find yourself blessed," Mahala said, mumbling something to herself as she once again dipped her fingers into the water. "Like waves in water – each one causes a ripple, moving on and on until suddenly it reaches a shore. But those waves accumulate, they grow power before they reach their final destination – they evolve. What was once a ripple is now a tsunami, taking out whatever is in it's way."

"I don't see how getting Marie to come visit Dorothy before she dies makes any difference. Like I said, there's no way Marie can cure Dorothy's terminal cancer," I stressed the word again as if Mahala didn't know the meaning of it.

Mahala looked up to me, shaking her head as she turned around to pour the glass of water into the sink, watching it swirl down the drain until it disappeared. She placed the glass softly beside the sink on the counter, not bothering to look back at me as she walked through the house towards the main entry, mumbling something before stopping midway. "A wave breeds a tsunami if the strength is right."

I don't know what it was about Mahala saying that, but it completely unnerved me. I watched her from the front porch as she walked barefoot down the centre of the road, not caring about the cars that zoomed by every now and again, blaring their horns at her. When she finally disappeared in the distance, I made sure to lock the front door to Jannie's house before heading over to see Dorothy again. Mahala always seemed to have cryptic things to say, but I never quite understood what she was trying to tell me as it was all so vague. I wasn't sure why she wanted to interfere with what I was doing, I was trying to do right by people and not for my own beneficial gain. Eventually I would have to figure out what her end goal was, but now wasn't that time.

I arrived at Dorothy's but when I knocked on the door, there wasn't any answer. I had just seen her not too long ago, trying to peek in the window to see if maybe there was some sign of her inside, perhaps she was too weak to answer the door. I knocked again, trying the doorknob as it gave way to open for me. I announced my presence, but again there was no response. The house was empty, her day bed in the living room hadn't been made and it seemed as though everything had been carelessly left behind, as if it was all standing still awaiting her return, or rather acting as though she had never even left. Something had happened, that much I was sure of; the kettle was still boiled on the stove, her television was left on a game show playing quietly in the background, and her cell phone had been left behind with the screen still on. I picked it up and opened the previous calls, noticing that a call had been made to emergency services about twenty minutes ago. I could have sworn that her premonition had her dying at home, so if she was in the hospital it was uncalled for.

As quickly as I could, I made my way to the hospital and asked whether Dorothy had been admitted. The nursing attendant informed me that she had and was currently in the intensive care unit, but if her condition stabilized she would be moved to a palliative room until her family arrived to figure out if they wanted to transfer her to a palliative care home. I hoped there was going to be an option for her to be moved home to be under constant supervision of a nurse, but it all depended on what her son wanted and could afford. I tried to ask what had happened but the nurse couldn't answer that question unless I was family, so I waited until her son, Michael, arrived. Michael and I had a few years between us, he was just starting high school when I was about to graduate but we knew each other from working on in the year book committee together. He allowed me to come see his mother, seemingly calm as he walked into the room to see his mother unconscious on the bed with all sorts of wires and tubes coming out of her.

The charge nurse asked if she could speak to Michael alone, so I waited outside of the room and listened intently to the conversation. The nurse, who introduced herself as Billie, explained that Dorothy had ingested a large amount of some sort of toxic substance, likely bleach or another household product like it. The police had found a half empty bottle of a cleaning product in the sink that had been left open, and from what they could tell it looked like Dorothy had poured it into her tea kettle. She explained that the police did not think any foul play was involved, that Dorothy had willingly drank the concoction herself. Billie went on to explain that suicide was quite common in end of life patients like Dorothy, and that they would like to keep her in hospital to discuss some palliative care measures to help guide her into her passing safely.

I had just spoken to Dorothy not long before this all took place and she did not seem suicidal in the slightest, wondering if the tea I had helped her drink earlier was the same that had bleach in it. But I didn't smell any strong cleaning products at the time. I couldn't help but revert to thinking that Mahala had some strange hand in all of this, seeing as how she always seemed to show up whenever I was involved in helping someone whose premonition I had seen, not to mention she had already gone as far as trying to burn my house down – what was stopping her from trying to kill someone prematurely?

I spent some time with Michael while we waited for Dorothy to be transferred out of intensive care, but it was going to take another hour or so while they made sure she was stable. She had her stomach pumped, which left her very low on fluids so they had to make sure she was getting enough. Michael told me about how he was keeping busy in university, having just finished his first year and how he was coming back to Harrow Hall for the summer to spend it with his mom. I hated to think of how hard it must have been for Michael, especially seeing as how he was about to be without a mother soon and he was so young. But there was a part of Michael that had come to terms with Dorothy's illness, he was reserved about the pain he was experiencing but he also had put it in it's place. From the way that he spoke I could tell that he admired Dorothy very much, and knew that her passing would leave a mark on Michael for the rest of his life. Regardless, he wanted what was best for her and accepted that if it was time for her to go, then she was better off that way.

A few hours had passed while I kept Michael company, Dorothy had finally been transferred to a quiet room while the doctor and nurses discussed a plan to keep Dorothy comfortable. I checked my watch a few times, hoping that Dorothy would hang on long enough for Marie to make it. Finally Michael and I were allowed to see Dorothy again, and this time she was in and out of consciousness. She was awake long enough for Michael to say that he loved her and that if she needed to talk at all, he would be here from now on. I was finally able to have some alone time with Dorothy while Michael headed out to get dinner, catching her while she was slightly lucid.

"I didn't want to ruin the surprise, but I know I should tell you in case anything happens," I said quietly, resting Dorothy's hand in mine as she turned her head to face me. "I was able to get in contact with Marie, she's on her way here right as we speak. I don't know what time she'll be here, but hopefully it'll be soon."

Something in Dorothy's face lit up regardless of the fact that she wasn't able to get the strength to smile. I could tell she was happy, blinking softly as she drifted off into sleep again. She rested softly for quite awhile until suddenly I heard knocking at the door, turning my attention to see none other than Marie herself. She was carrying a bag with her, timid about stepping into the hospital room as she scanned over to Dorothy. I could see the pain scroll across Marie's face as she stepped inside, setting down her suitcase so that she could be beside Dorothy, leaning over the bed to gently press her lips against Dorothy's forehead.

"Dotty," She whispered, bringing her hand up to cup the side of Dorothy's face, tears brimming in her eyes as she choked them back. "I'm here."

It took a little while for Dorothy to rouse from her sleep, her eyes slowly opening to Marie and blinking a few times as if she was still dreaming. Marie smiled, this time tears began to fall as she swiped them away while stroking one side of Dorothy's face.

"I've missed you, my love," Marie said, kneeling down so that Dorothy could see her easily. "I couldn't let you leave me without saying goodbye."

Dorothy's lips pulled apart into the slightest smile, but only for a few seconds until she couldn't seem to get the strength to continue. Marie nodded, turning her head away to cry softly to herself, shaking her head before looking back at Dorothy. "I'm sorry I didn't come sooner, that I didn't come back for you like I had promised. I want you to know that I have always regretted not keeping my end of the promise, and I don't have any more excuses for you – but I want you to know I love you. I loved you then and I love you now, it won't ever change," Marie said, carefully wrapping her hands around Dorothy's. "I wish I could go back in time so that it didn't have to be this way, that I didn't have to make you wait until last minute for me to come back to say all of this to you. But I screwed up, Dotty, I really did. I am so sorry."

Dorothy squeezed Marie's hand in return, parting her lips just enough to let the softest sound escape. "Marie," Dorothy said, trying to catch her breath, "I will always wait for you."

As I heard her say this, I had to turn away to hide the fact that I was feeling myself begin to cry. These were the exact same words that Dorothy had written on the piece of paper that she gave to the nurse before passing away, but now she finally got to say it to Marie. I watched as Marie gently embraced Dorothy, stroking back her matted hair from her face as she whispered how much she loved her. I felt as if I had done right by the both of them, quietly leaving the room so that they could be alone.

Even though Dorothy would go on to die a week later, I felt as though I had made some sort of difference in her life despite not being able to change the fact that she met her end. To me it wasn't always about saving them from death, but instead giving them the chance to make amends and make their peace with life. I know that Marie was thankful, but I didn't need any thanks. I did what I had to do to give people a chance to make everything right again before walking into the light. Dorothy died with Marie by her side, clutching her hand as the last words she whispered was Marie's name. At last they could be together, and Marie would know that Dorothy was waiting for her on the other side when her time came. She would always be waiting for her.