SWNOVELS Chapter The World Unravels
It had been two days since they went to the orchard, Pa was home from the mines, Mama was cleaning clothes, Dari was throwing around a toy and playing fetch with herself, and Aamir and Adilah were playing Dinifri.
While Mama was cleaning the clothes outside, Pa was in charge of them. He was sipping on his coffee when suddenly they heard him coughing, hard. Adilah and Aamir turned around to see Pa bent over on the counter and then the sound of glass breaking echoed as the body of a man toppled over onto the floor, unconscious.
Mama ran into the house clearly hearing the glass, and Dari started nudging the limp body in concern.
Aamir got to the hospital on the phone and they said they would be there straight away then, he called his grandma, and moments later she arrived shortly before the ambulance.
People rushed out of their intimidating truck and loaded Papa on the stretcher. Adilah’s heart was pounding. She was scared and the people looked like they meant harm. Did they? She didn’t know, she was focused on her father’s limp body as he was carried away on a white and yellow stretcher.
She started to run at them screaming and crying, but Mama and Aamir held her back as the truck carried Papa away.
Adilah pleaded to see Papa and she cried over Aamir’s shoulder and allowed him to stroke the tears off her face as he mumbled, “it’s going to be okay.”
A week later they were in the hospital waiting room so they could see papa and get a report on him. Adilah only stared at him and repeated, “I’m sorry”.
Three hours after the catastrophe, the doctors looked him over and called Mama to tell her that Papa has Pneumoconiosis, a group of lung diseases that are caused by breathing in insoluble dust, mostly mineral dust, that the lungs can’t get rid of. This has happened to the patients that work in the mines before and most of the time it is incurable but they’re doing the best they can. Adilah had been listening to this conversation and when Mama told her that everything will be alright Adilah knew she was lying.
Desperate to save her world from falling apart she woke up at 3:30 a.m. and packed a bag of numerous things. Once she was packed she grabbed Dari’s leash and woke her up, somehow knowing she was needed, her last step was to write a note to Mama saying where she was going, and then she would set it on her pillow to make sure she would find it so, she grabbed a pen and paper and wrote:
Dear Mama,
I’m going to fix everything and save our Papa.
I know that it will be hard. I don’t even know what I will do but I will find a way to keep this family together. I promise I will take care of everything!
Love, Adilah.
P.S. Dari is with me (I need backup) :)
Then she was set and waved goodbye to her home and headed to Aamir’s house although she wasn’t sure if this would work she was determined to try.
Adilah climbed through Aamir’s open window, walked over to Aamir’s bed, bent down low, and whispered into his ear, “Aamir wake up,” his eyes automatically stirred, and as he opened his mouth and got ready to scream, Adilah’s hand flung over his mouth and she said, “shhh! You’re going to wake up Grammy. I-I need your help.”
Adilah sat on Aamir’s bed as Dari curled up on her lap. She told him the plan of what she was going to do and then shut her eyes waiting for a response that might try to talk her out of it or say it wouldn’t work but all he said was, “I’m in.”
Though she wanted to argue with him she just simply nodded. She was intrigued by his quick answer like he already knew before she told him.
He packed a bag and then they headed for the orchard with his hand in hers. When they arrived in the ash-filled clearing the key appeared and the swirling substance of an arch towered before them. Before she knew what she was doing her foot went into the arch without fear. Dari and Adilah quickly disappeared into the arch’s mouth. When it engulfed Aamir it appeared to have swallowed them whole.