Chapter One
August, 1979
The weak morning sunshine filtered through the window blinds of room 149, illuminating the small, white-walled room. Outside birds began to chirp, and a few cars raced by along the highway. The elderly lady lying in the bed began to stir. Blinking her eyes against the sun light she coughed and weakly rubbed her sad eyes.
There was a knock at the door. A young lady dressed in a crisp, white nurses uniform swept in with a tray balanced on her hip, her high heels clicking softly on the overly sanitized floor.
"Good morning, Mrs. Cooper!" she said in an extremely cheery voice as she helped the frail lady sit up. "How are you today? Here, let me get you some water," she continued without waiting for a response. "Your daughter is coming to visit today! And I hear she's bringing someone very special too!" Mrs. Cooper gave a weak smile. "Look, I brought you some breakfast!" the young nurse picked up the tray she'd brought. "Here you go. Looks like cantaloupe, strawberries and bananas in the fruit bowl, milk, and a few pieces of toast. Yum! I'll leave you to it, if you need anything, remember, just push that little red button!" and she left, her high heels clicking all the way. The old lady sighed. At least her daughter was coming to visit.
"Now Lily," Mrs. Evans was telling her youngest daughter. "Remember, Grandma is very sick, you must speak quietly and be very cheerful, we don't want to upset her."
"Yes Mum," the red-head replied. Gazing out the car window Lily watched as the hospital's sign came into view. She had seen it only twice before. First when they'd just found out that Grandma was in the hospital. Lily had only gotten to come along because they had been on the way to school and her parents didn't have time to drop her and her sister off. The second time was right before a surgery. The doctors had told her grandmother that she might die, so Grandmother had requested that they bring the children.
As she watched the large brick sign draw nearer, Lily found her mind wondering back over all the time she'd spent with her grandma. She had always been very close to her. One of her favorite memories was of the Christmas where the big pond behind her grandmother's house had frozen over and she'd taught Lily how to ice skate! Grandmother had been a marvelous ice skater when she was young, she'd even made the Olympic team! But she never made it to the Olympics; her left foot was smashed in a car accident only weeks after making the team…
"Here we are," said Mrs. Evans, turning off the car and stepping out. Lily hurried out behind her.
"You've got visitors, Mrs. Cooper!" cried the annoyingly happy nurse. She stepped aside and Mrs. Cooper watched as her daughter walked in, followed by a certain little red head.
"Lily!" Mrs. Cooper wheezed, her face breaking out into the first true smile in ages. "My little girl! Come here." Walking over to stand awkwardly beside her grandmothers bed, Lily saw, out of the corner of her eye, the nurse silently beckoning her mother out of the room. Without another glance Mrs. Evans walked out, shutting the door quietly behind her.
"Good. I thought that annoying, happy-happy nurse would pull her out of here. To talk about me no doubt." Lily smiled. "Quick, fetch me that box in the bottom draw over there," she said, pointing to the dresser across from her bed.
Lily did as she was told and handed it to her grandmother. She watched curiously as Mrs. Cooper opened it to reveal a pair of ice skates.
"Their beautiful," Lily breathed. And they were. Even though they were obviously rather used, the leather was worn and the strings were frayed, they had a well polished gleam to them and Lily had the feeling they'd been well loved.
"They were my first pair. I got them when I was your age, and they were the pair I used all the way up to the the crash. I never had better pair. They were mine, and now they're yours. I've been keeping my eye out for someone to give them to. Your mother didn't have the mind set, not at all imaginative or flexible, neither did her siblings, either too unimaginative, not built right, or too lazy. And your sister doesn't have the build. But you, you have the body of an ice skater, you have the mind, the creativity, you're determined and brave. So now, I give them to you. I hope you'll learn to love them as I did."
Lily opened her mouth to say something but they could hear the voices of her Mum and the nurse coming nearer. Snapping the lid shut Grandmother whispered in her wheezy old voice, "Put them in the bottom of that large bag I'm giving to you're mum, I don't want to answer her questions right now. It's our secret." She smiled, and winked.
So silently Lily slipped the ice skates under the pile of stuff that Grandma was giving them. She stood up just in time to see the door open and her mother walk in, the nurse just behind her. Lily's mom handed her the car keys and told her to go take the bag with the stuff of Grandma's to the car. Quickly and silently Lily obeyed, still thinking about the skates.
Mrs. Cooper died that night from lung cancer. Her funeral was held the next week. Many people knew her name from T.V, to them she was the promising figure skater destined to go to the Olympics, who's dreams were dashed one night because of a car crash. But few people would've turned up, so it was a private funeral, just a priest saying some words as she was laid in the ground and the family saying their final good byes.
"Come on Lily," said a tall, dark haired man. "It's time to go."
"Just a minute Dad," the red head muttered, whipping her teary eyes with the back of her sleeve. Her father nodded sadly, knowing she'd been very close to his mother. He continued on to the car, leaving her alone.
Lily turned back to the simple grave. The headstone was one of those new flat ones, less expensive and required by the people who ran the graveyard because they made it so much easier to mow the lawns. Kneeling down next to the grave Lily lay a small bouquet of red roses onto it. "I know you loved your red hair," she murmured. Holding back tears she lay her hand onto the headstone. "I will learn to skate like you. I don't know how, but I will. I will make you proud."
Standing up she turned away, and headed back to the car where her family was waiting.
I am in the process of updating this story with the new changes I've added to the chapter. For quite a while it's been abandoned but I'm picking it up again. If you've already read this, I'm sorry that this chapter is so close to the original one. But, it gets more different soon.
Thank you for reading, please leave a review!
Echo Chambers