Chapter 4

The Biggest Decision You'll Have to Make

Kandice woke up in the morning and feeling sick. She and Mary had been crying all night and the memory of her fathers' death kept shooting into her brain like sharp, scorching pains. Tears started welling up in her eyes again. She looked behind her in her princess bed to find Mary still sleeping innocently. The sight of Mary made her feel a little safer. She got up slowly and easily trying not to wake Mary and crept out of her room, shutting the door behind her. She walked through the long hallway toward the bathroom like it was unfamiliar to her, looking at every doorway and hall. Now that her father was gone, she had no purpose. This house would never belong to her again and she felt insecure thinking about that. "How could this have happened? Was it my fault that my father died?" She hated thinking those thoughts, but they always came up in her mind.

She opened the door to the bathroom and looked in the mirror. She looked tired, drained and depressed and that was exactly how she felt. She put her hand to her face, wiping away the dried tears that had fallen last night making a sudden wave of sickness come over her. She went to the toilet and threw up making everything kept inside of her, everything she had just dealt with go down the drain. She flushed the toilet and washed her face. Sighing deeply, she walked slowly back down into her room to wake Mary from her deep sleep.

To her surprise when she opened the door, she found, not only that Mary was awake, but another stranger standing beside her. Mary was crying again and she looked back at Kandice when she opened the door. Her sad eyes looked over at her as if they were trying to remember every little thing about her.

"What's going on?" Kandice demanded. "Who are you?"

She looked at a tall and lanky woman standing in front of Mary with her hands behind her back. She had her hair pinned up in a very professional bun and had a nice suit on. The woman had blonde hair and brown eyes. She looked over at Kandice as she came in and walked over to her, gently taking her hand.

"Kandice? I'm so sorry about your loss" she said in a very quiet, soothing voice. "I know you don't want to deal with all of this right now, but we need to get this over with as soon as possible. We need to know where you're going to be staying from now on." Kandice looked over at Mary and then back at the woman. "This is a very important matter, so I'm going to need you to focus with me. Mary doesn't have to be in the room with you while we are discus-"

"I want her here!" Kandice interrupted, looking at Mary. Kandice was scared enough as it was, she needed Mary to be there with her for this decision. The biggest decision she'd have to make.

"Alright, that's fine," she smiled at Kandice. "Now, let's get down to business. This may be hard for you, but we have two places that you can go. We have your Aunt Harriet down the street, she would be very glad to take you, or we have.." She paused and looked back at Mary for some kind of signal. Mary nodded and smiled slightly. "Or we have your mother." She said with much regret.

She knew that her mother wasn't very well off because of her working situation and she didn't know if she could take care the two of them. All she knew was that she was not about to live with her annoyingly stubborn Aunt Harriet down the street. Every time she spent the day over there, she would make Kandice clean the whole house. She did not want to live like that all the time.

"Well, I think I'll give my mother a try. In New York." The woman looked at Kandice with wide eyes and then looked back at Mary who was smiling. Mary had never looked so happy in her life. Kandice smiled back at Mary and felt satisfied with her answer.

"Well, then, you better pack your bags because I found a train leaving tonight at 7 p.m. Please be ready. William and I will be waiting outside to take your bags at that time." The woman got up with a serious look on her face, looked at Mary one last time, and left.

"Mary, I don't want to leave you. You're like a second mother to me." Kandice went over to Mary and gave her the biggest hug she could.

"I know darlin. It's gonna be hard to leave each other, but we can do it, right? We've stuck through a lot together. We can handle this can't we?" Mary started combing Kandice's hair with her fingers. "Look at you, still in your dress." She chuckled making light of the situation.

Kandice looked down at herself still in her dress from her mother. What would she be like? She probably had good sense of fashion, that's for sure. "You're right Mary. This will be fun and I'll get to see my mother, so I guess this won't be so bad after all. What was she like, my mother?"

"Ohh, she was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. She had golden blonde hair and the most beautiful hazel eyes, just like yours. She was tall and very slender, she was. Your father would always call her his sunset. She was like a sunset in a way people would come out just to see her sing. She loved to sing more than anything before you were born. She would always sing to you when you were in her belly. She would sing a beautiful lullaby." She looked down at Kandice, breaking away from her fantasy making her come back to reality. "You'll love her Kandice. Don't worry."

"I already do, Mary." She smiled up at Mary and then slowly rose up into a sitting position.

"Well, we better get you packed huh?" Mary and Kandice got up, looked around her room one last time and took a deep sigh.

The two of them packed for most of the day, stopping every now and then to look at memorabilia in her room. They would laugh and share things that happened, hugging every once in a while. It would be hard to leave, but they would have to get through it. Mary told Kandice that she would visit her in New York when she got the chance and they would go on a vacation. They always used to fantasize about going to places like Bahamas and Mexico together.

Some time went by and they were finished packing. Kandice's train was leaving in 2 hours and she had just enough time to tell her friends and leave. She didn't want to make it too long because it would be even harder for her to leave them. She didn't know how she was going to tell Mark after what he'd said last night before she left. She didn't know if she really loved him back. She couldn't, she had to leave today and nothing could happen between them. She especially didn't know how Liz would take it. They had lived next to each other for years, how was she going to take the big move? All she knew, was they she had to do it soon because she had to catch her train. William came upstairs and took her bags full of things. She had so many suit cases, he had to make 10 rounds up and down the stairs. Kandice sat on her princess bed that looked more like a servents bed now. It had no pink quilt, no pink and white fluffy pillow, nothing. It was just a mattress and a post. She sighed heavily and looked around her room letting her hand gracefully skim everything in the room one last time. Going over memories she had with Elizabeth in little parts of the room. The night before the party replayed in her mind over and over every time she looked at her bed. Her eyes started to water as she started to walk out the door. She took one last breath of fresh air before she opened her door, looked back into her room, turned off her light, and closed the door. She walked out into the hallway and looked down all the halls, looking in every door. She took extra time in her fathers room going over everything like she had her own room. Going down the stairs slowly she started to cry again, with her hand gliding smoothly over the railing. She looked up at the chandelier and smiled. She saw Mary standing with Elizabeth and Mark at the bottom of the stairs.

"Hey, Kandice. What's going on?" They said, smiling with confusion.

Kandice's tears were coming a little quicker now. She knew she had to tell them, she just didn't know how. Liz saw her tears falling and started to frown, almost understanding her right away.

Liz shook her head and started crying too. "No! No! you can't!" she exclaimed running up to her and giving her a big hug. At that moment Mark understood too and everyone left the three of them alone to talk. Liz hugged Kandice for a while and they cried together. Mark came over to the two of them and made sure they were ok. They sat down on the steps and were crying and laughing about fun times they used to have when they were kids.

"I can't believe this all happened so fast. What am I going to do without you?" Liz asked, playing with Kandices' hair. She placed her head on Kandices' for a couple minutes and then got up. "I'm going to run to the bathroom to wash up, my face is probably a mess." She ran to the bathroom in her fast, cute Elizabeth way, saying "hi" to Mary quickly before disappearing behind the kitchen door.

Mark stood up and grabbed Kandices' hand behind him, pulling her up with him. "So, about what I said yesterday, you don't have to answer or anything, I just wanted to let you know, you know that I care about you. And now your leaving" He let his eyes wonder down to the ground holding her against him. He loved feeling her body next to his. It made him feel like she would never be anyone's but his, but now he wasn't so sure about that.

"No, it was so sweet of you Mark. I was speechless because I've never had anyone feel that strongly about me and it made me feel really good. So, thank you." She smiled up at him, letting her tears start falling again. Mark took his thumb and gently wiped away the tear that was falling down her right cheek and then leaned in slowly to give her the sweetest, most innocent kiss she had ever felt.

At that moment, she knew exactly what to say. "I won't forget you Mark. I'll write to you guys whenever I can. You'll make a girl very happy someday. Watch out for Liz for me ok?" She winked at him and he shook his head at her.

"I don't want to make anyone lucky, but you, Kandice." He pleaded with her. "I'll write to you whenever you write to me. I promise you." He kissed her one last time and then Liz came running back in with her face cleaned up.

"Ok love birds, that's enough for tonight." She smiled and then looked at the clock. It was 6:30 p.m. and Kandice had to go catch her train. Liz looked back at Kandice with sad eyes and her heart was racing. She couldn't say goodbye to her best friend so soon. Kandice saw Liz looking at the clock and noticed the time too. She had to leave her life long home. She looked at Mark and kissed him, handing him a note secretly into his hand. Mark looked at the front of the envelope that said "Don't open this until tonight." He smiled and put it inside his pocket.

She then turned to Liz and ran over to her, giving her the biggest hug she had ever given her. "I love you so much Liz. Please don't give up anything your doing. You're truly amazing and don't let Tim get to you because you can get anyone you want. Write to me and update me on everything that's happening around here. Don't get a new best friend either!" She started to cry. "And take this" just then she gave Liz one of two friendship rings she bought that day just for this occasion. She put it on her finger and put the other one on herself. They were 14 carrot gold rings with a blue ruby on the top. Blue was their favorite color. On the side they said "friends forever" and they had their names on the inside. They both started to cry as they looked at each other one last time.

"Thank you so much Kandice. It's beautiful." She hugged Kandice one last time before Kandice turned away and started to leave. She couldn't stay any longer ,she would miss her train. Just then, Mary came back in with William. They were laughing and talking about little things that have happened because they, too, were leaving each other. Kandice ran up to Mary and hugged her one more time before she would get into the carriage and leave forever. She hugged Mary, who lifted her up and twirled her around. It reminded her of when she was little and Mary would do that to her all the time. She smelt Mary's hair like she would when she was little, remembering every last smell of the soap she used. Mary let her down and the two were crying with each other, making it worse for Kandice to leave. Mary brought Kandice to the carriage. She took her to the door and helped her inside.

"Good luck Kandice. You will have so much fun. Tell your mother "hello" for me and that we all miss her." She gave Kandice a kiss on the cheek and closed the door behind her. Kandice waved to everyone as she was leaving, the carriage pulling further and further away, leaving her whole life behind. She could see Mark and Liz's face one last time before she went out of sight. They were so sad and crying, but she knew their lives would go back to normal before long. She faced forward and wiped away her tears one by one. William could hear her sniffling in the back and looked down smiling a little. He knew she would love being in New York, even if it meant leaving her friends and family behind. He took her downtown to the train station where she would catch her 7:00 train.

Kandice got out of the carriage at 6:45 and a group of workers helped get all of her stuff from the carriage to the train's storage room. She walked to the train and met William there. "I'm sure going to miss you too, William." She gave him a big hug and a kiss on the cheek. He smiled down at her and wiped a small tear from his eye.

"It's been such a pleasure serving you and your family all these years Ms. Maclane." he smiled at her and put his hands on her shoulders.

"William, you can call me Kandice now, if you want." she laughed with him and gave him another big hug before stepping onto the first step of the train. She turned back one last time and blew him a kiss. Slowly the trains wheels started chugging along the tracks and she was once again disappearing into another life. A whole new world that she was not ready for. Kandice's tears fell a little more as she was leaving. She went in and sat down on a seat alone, where no one was seated. She put her head against the window of the train and closed her eyes, falling into a deep sleep.

"'Scuse me? Is anybady sittin hea?" She heard a voice from behind her and turned around to find a very handsome-looking boy looking to sit near her.

OHHH whats gonna happen! My lord what a rush! Who's Kandice going to meet right now? We will find out wont we? In the next episode of...Please Remember. R&R por favor (please in spanish)