Mother looked like Snow White. Her face was so smooth and cold and white and her lips were all red. Uncle Ashley had gotten to her first, his eyes big and face grey as he stared down at Mother but he wouldn't touch her. Aunty India didn't like Mother much but she was there too, with her hands over her mouth and her eyes as wide as Uncle Ashley's as she also looked down at her. When Uncle Rhett pushed them aside, Aunty India's eyes started going back and forth between Uncle Ashley and him. Uncle Rhett looked scared, like the last time Mummy had fallen. He knelt down, turned Mother over, cupped her red cheek, and started calling her name but she didn't move and I was so scared that she had gone with Bonnie and big brother that I started crying harder. Grandma was kneeling too and touched her face and forehead and opened her eyes. Uncle Rhett was still calling her name. Grandma turned to him and her voice was quiet, "Rhett, look at her eyes. She can't hear a word either of us is saying." Mother had moaned then. She frowned as her body gave a big twitch. Red bubbles were coming out of her mouth and it looked like a strawberry ice pop was melting on her face. The frowning moustache doctor had come up then but he wasn't frowning anymore. He took one look at Mother and had put his hand on Uncle Rhett's shoulder. "You'd better bring her into the house." Mother was all stiff now but when Uncle Rhett picked her up, she went all floppy like a fish.
Everyone started leaving me behind and I didn't know what to do, but Grandma turned to me, smiling in that way adults do when everything has gone wrong, and picked me up, "Your mother is going to be alright." I didn't know if I should believe her because adults were always lying, but I didn't want Mother to go so I did.
On the first day, no one went into Mother's room but Doggy and sometimes moustache man. Doggy was lying next to Mother's bed all curled up like he used to do with big brother whenever he was sick. I tried to go in but they wouldn't let me and when I started crying again, Grandma had scooped me up and set me on her lap, rocking me like Mother used to do to me and big brother. She took my finger from my mouth, telling me that I was too big for that now and that I should try to be brave for Mother.
Uncle Rhett didn't come into Mother's room at first. He would criss cross in the hallway outside her room. He lit a cigar but he put it out immediately when he heard me coughing. He also didn't touch that big crystal thing Mother always drank from and that big brother had tried to sneak into his room before Mother caught him and yelled.
Grandma was watching him too and did not look happy. She went into Mother's room and felt her forehead and came out with her face frowny and mouth all tight. She went over to Uncle Rhett, grabbed onto his sleeve, and whispered to him in that voice adults used when they thought we couldn't hear as she pointed towards Mother's room.
He still wouldn't go in, but when Mother had started shivering and mumbling things, he did go in then. He pulled up a chair besides her and started stroking her hair and holding her hand until she stopped.
But Mother was so much nicer when she was asleep. She was always cross and scolding me and big brother when she was awake. But she was so rosy and warm now and when I put my arms around her neck or kissed her, she didn't push me away and when no one was in the room, I hid in the blankets next to her. But when I started poking her cheek, Uncle Rhett had come in and picked me up and gave me to Grandma. Uncle Ashley wouldn't come into the room. He would stand at the doorway, sometimes with Beau and often with Aunty India and the fat lady, but would never go past the line. When he saw me staring, he smiled but his eyes were sad.
On the third day, Mother had gone completely quiet and the house had too. The moustache doctor was frowning again and closed the door and Uncle Ashley's eyes were glued to it as they had with Aunt Melanie's. Ella was scared again because Aunty had not come out of the room. But then the door opened, and I saw Mother sitting up, looking at Uncle Rhett.
Mother was awake and Ella was so happy, but I was still scared. When Mother had been ill, I always had Aunt Melly or big brother, but I was all alone now. Uncle Rhett found me wandering around outside big brother's room after Mother had woken up; Mother wouldn't go near it since big brother had left, but I liked to go inside because it sometimes felt like he was still there. I tried talking to him once and Mother had heard me and I thought she was going to yell at me again, but she started crying instead and knelt down and hugged me tight. I stopped trying to talk to him after that. Uncle Rhett scooped me up like he used to do with Bonnie and he touched my hair and held the back of my head. I asked him why he had been gone for so long and he paused before saying that he had needed time to think things over. I wanted to ask him what that meant but he looked like how Mother would look when me and big brother had brought up Bonnie, so I didn't ask.
I had never seen Mother sleep so much and even when she was awake, her eyes were all fuzzy and when no one was in the room, she would always stare out the window into the street where the horses and big brother had been. Mother saw Uncle Ashley in the doorway once and she smiled at him too but it looked like it hurt her face to do so. She also smiled whenever she saw Uncle Rhett, but she somehow looked tireder too and when he would leave the room, she would stare after him with eyes that looked sadder than Uncle Ashley's and start picking at her blanket and twisting her hands. I came into Mother's room when Uncle Rhett had gone and asked whether he was staying. She didn't answer but reached out a hand and touched my hair and face and then she cupped my cheeks with both hands and traced my freckles with her thumbs. I thought she didn't hear my question and so I asked her again.
Her eyes got all fuzzy. She stopped holding me and looked out the window.
"Mother?"
She was still looking out the window.
"Mummy?"
She turned, and her face was gone.
"Don't worry, Ella darling...everything is going to be alright."
Out of the stories I've written so far, this one is my favorite because I think you can read individual chapters from my other stories and understand the whole plot, but I think you have to read this one in its entirety to see the whole picture...