Blaze Of Glory
PikaDarkness
Chapter 21
Cancer.
"Mum what are you doing here?" Jeff asked sternly.
Danielle went to hug Jeff but he backed out. "Jeff, please."
"No mum, don't touch me."
Danielle grasped his arm in a firm hold. Jeff couldn't pull it away. "Jeff please listen to me."
"Why? After what you said to me? Why should I?"
Danielle's bottom lip quivered, "I never meant to say that Jeff!"
Emma got up from the lounge. "Daddy what's going on? Who is she?"
Jeff turned to Emma. "Sweetie could you please go upstairs?"
"How come?"
"Emma please, please just go."
Emma obeyed him, Jeff gave her a hug which she returned before she hopped upstairs.
"You raised her well." Danielle nodded.
Jeff looked back at his mother, no love in his expression like there was with Emma.
"Of course I raised her well!" Jeff's voice was a whisper. "I wouldn't raise her with hate, with the last words you gave me? What kind of parent would be if I did? I'd be like you mum! that's my main fear."
"Jeff, look-"
"No! You had seven years to explain to me what you said and you didn't do it!" Jeff couldn'tcontrol his emotions and started to sob. "I don't get over these things quickly ma."
"Jeff I have cancer." Jeff stopped and looked at her. "Could you please help me out?"
Jeff looked at her in disgust. "So I'm like your financial backer now huh? Smart idea, come back the minute you need help, I needed you when Andrea died, you said until I was back on my feet I could stay, then when you and dad got divorced you said all those things then threw me away! Go to hell mum, your not getting any help from me!"
Danielle looked at her crying son with remorse, she couldn't believe her words affected him like this. "Jeff I am sorry."
"No your not! When you get better- if you get better your going to forget me again." Jeff was shaking with grief now. His speech began to get rattled up and broken.
"Jeff did I throw you away when I raised you?" Danielle asked, crossing her arms.
"Everything I did wasn't good enough mum! When I got a trophy it was always 'this could've been first place if you worked hard enough' or a high mark it was 'this could have been the best.' I tried so hard for you, I worked my hardest, not once did you say you were proud of me you never gave me any praise or anything. You were so tough and condescending! Oh that reminds me you did try to throw me away when Andrea was pregnant with Emma! When I told you I was going to be a father!"
"You could have been great-!"
"I was a kid mum! I couldn't be a lawyer or a real estate agent when I was a kid!" Jeff nearly screamed. "I tried my best for you! But it wasn't good enough! Nothing was good enough for you!" Jeff had oceans come out of his eyes and his crying got worse. "I wanted to know that you loved me for trying my best but you didn't care about any of it until I met your standards."
Danielle couldn't believe she had done this to him, she was so angry at herself for doing this, she made a mess of everything.
"Jeff please, I truly am sorry, I never meant to do this to you."
"Don't touch me! I don't even want to know you just get back out of my life where you belong."
SLAP! Danielle's hand swung to Jeff's face, the instant she done it she regretted it. "Jeff I am so sorry I didn't mean it…" Her son had fallen to the ground on the impact, his cheek red raw. He was in total shock, Danielle grabbed his arm. Jeff pulled it out of her grip and got to his feet, shaking with grief, tears, shock and hurt. He could have been mistaken for having a seizure.
"G-get o-out!" Jeff pointed to the door jerkily. His face was completely wet, his red cheek still stinging. "D-don-don't co-come ba-ck"
"Jeff let me explain please!"
"GO!" Danielle nodded and walked out the door, slamming it behind her. Emma came downstairs, Jeff had sank to the lounge, crying loudly. Emma raced towards him.
"Daddy what's wrong?" Emma asked suddenly something red on his face caught her attention, she was horrified to see a large imprint of a hand on his face. Emma pulled Jeff into a hug, he truly needed it. When Jeff's crying and shaking had stopped Emma pulled back to look into his face, rubbing left over tears from his face. "What happened?"
"That was your grandma."
Emma looked confused. "You said she was dead."
"Well you want to hear a story?" Emma nodded. "Happened a week after your mother died."
Jeff came home from work, he was befuddled to see Emma sitting on the porch with all their new stuff they had bought.
"Emz why is everything out here?" Jeff bent down and asked. Emma looked up.
"Grandma said that we have to leave, she didn't say anything other then that."
Jeff placed a hand on her head. "Stay here sweetie." Jeff walked inside to see his mother crying.
"Mum are you ok?" Jeff put a hand on her shoulder to have it whacked away. "Mum… what's wrong?"
Danielle looked up at her son with hate. "You! that's what is wrong?"
Jeff drew back, what did he do?
"Your too much like your damn father! that's why we are divorcing!"
Jeff was shocked. "You and Dad are splitting up?"
Danielle got up and pushed Jeff into the wall. "You're an idiot! A good for nothing loser! You weren't good enough at anything." Jeff started to cry, he was still emotional over losing Andrea just a week ago, to hear all this from his mother- it was to much. "I wish I never had you! You're a mistake, that's all you are!" Jeff started whimpering now where it mingled with his crying, his sensitivity took over his whole body and soul, it was excruciatingly painful to hear this.
"Why-why are you-you saying all this?" Jeff sobbed. "W-what did I do?"
Danielle slapped Jeff. "You lived that's what you did! You never were good, you lacked the proper morals, that's why you knocked up that bitch-!"
"Andrea wasn't a bitch!" Jeff shouted, Danielle slapped him twice across both cheeks.
"She was a bloody bitch! Good riddance to her!" Jeff had enough, he pushed past Danielle who threw a lamp at him, hitting his back, Jeff roared in agony. But he kept going, he needed to get out of there.
Getting outside he picked Emma up and put her in the car. Then he collected the stuff from the patio receiving another slap from Danielle before he got the last of his stuff and put it in the boot.
Jeff was still crying as he drove, getting as far away from the house as he could.
Emma was gaping at the story, Jeff went through losing someone, to being told he shouldn't have been alive! Emma pulled her father in for another hug. When they broke apart, Emma's shirt was drenched.
"I cant believe that woman did this too you." Emma commented. "Hey, don't cry about it, she doesn't deserve tears." Emma wiped more tears from his sticky cheeks.
"I just didn't know what I did, I could've been there for her to, instead I get all that from her and we both get thrown out. This is all messed up, what did I do wrong?" Jeff's voice was a bit high as he fought the urge to cry again.
The good thing with Jeff and Emma was that they could fall back on each other.
"Nothing dad, you didn't do a thing. She's the one with a million bad things on her back, not you." Emma rubbed Jeff's back supportively. "How did you find this house?"
"We lived on the streets for another week, the car keeping us safe from the world until I remembered the password to get all my money from my account at the bank and that bought the house and furniture to fill it. I was entitled to money when I married, I forgot the password and couldn't access it."
Emma was now so shot her face was blanched. She hugged Jeff again, she soon found herself being pulled onto Jeff's lap. They fell asleep not long later, Jeff was the first one to pass out Emma followed, they looked cute Jeff sitting on the lounge with Emma sitting on him with her head on his chest.
They woke up not long later to hear knocking on the door. Emma slid off Jeff's lap to let him up. Answering the door, his mother was back again.
"Look just go away!" Emma sat up. "Haven't you caused enough trouble?"
"Please…"
It was time to return the favour, Emma slapped Danielle across the face. "Not so good is it when your being slapped around?"
"Why you insolent little…"
Jeff cut her off. "She isn't anything like you mum."
Danielle looked up. "What…?"
"You called Emma insolent, Emma isn't anything like you!" Jeff couldn't block her hand as it swung to him for he could be charged for putting his hands on a woman, but no-one said Emma couldn't.
"You let go of me!" Danielle ordered Emma fiercely.
"Don't touch my father!" Emma shouted back. "You touch him you go through me!" Jeff allowed the two females to fight, he wanted his mother to see what kind of a person he had on his side.
Danielle brought her other hand up and hit her granddaughter. Jeff pulled Danielle's grip on Emma off and pushed her out the door.
"Get off my property or I am calling the police!" Jeff warned, Danielle was surprised he'd hand over his own mother
"Just hear me out please. I just want to make things right!"
Emma felt this woman's pain, Jeff should hear her out. "Daddy I think you should listen to her." Jeff looked down at Emma shocked. "Look we can kick her out if she hits us again."
Jeff conceded defeat, he opened the door and let Danielle in. Danielle was amazed at how well kept the house was.
Jeff sat down on the lounge, Emma right beside him, Danielle sat on the other side.
"Look Jeff, I know how bad things have gotten-"
Jeff shook his head. "No you don't."
Danielle sighed, "I heard you were thrown into prison two months ago." Jeff's head shot up.
"How do you know that?"
"Josephine is my best friend we've known each other 20 years, she told me about the supermarket mix up, she told me how you reacted when she screamed at you and I knew you were the same as always." Danielle shook her head.
"What do you mean 'The same as always.'?"
Danielle sighed and tickled Jeff a little. "Sensitive."
Jeff nodded, he made a pitiful attempt to not giggle when Danielle tickled him but it was futile.
"Now I know bad things happen, seven years ago it did- to you. You lost you wife and almost lost your child too. Then I kicked you out a week later when you needed me the most." Danielle started her speech. "I said stuff to you that I shouldn't have, I never forgot the look on your face when I said it all to you.
"I threw a lamp I smacked you across the face, I called Andrea a bitch which I wholeheartedly regret." She even looked it. Danielle rubbed Jeff's back, Jeff didn't refuse her hand.
"if I could do it all over Jeff, I would." Danielle finished.
Jeff looked at her. "Just promise never to hurt us again, and that you wont throw us away again."
"I promise."
Jeff did something he always wanted to do, he hugged his mother who hugged back. Emma was happy Jeff allowed everything to be set straight with Danielle, Jeff broke the hug and beckoned Emma to join in which she did.
"So you have cancer?" Jeff asked once the hug was over.
Danielle nodded, "I have a brain tumour, I guess time catches up to the bad."
Jeff shook his head. "Your not bad…"
"After I treated you when you were growing up? I have to say I was a bad parent, Jerry was the good parent."
"Yeah, I wish he didn't die…" Jeff trailed, Jerry had died two months after he divorced Danielle. The doctors thought it was because of heartbreak, not bad timing. "He was a good person."
Emma was confused, "Who are you guys talking about?"
"My dad, your grandfather, died two months after he divorced." Emma's mouth formed an o.
"So how much do you need for the surgery to get it out?"
"Its not the surgery I need money for…" Danielle shook her head. "it's the funeral, the tumour is to big to be removed and they located it and found it too late to operate, that's the reason I came to make it all up with you, just so I could leave the world in peace."
Jeff and Emma were shocked.
"You need money for a funeral? Why are you planning it?" Emma asked, fiddling with her fingers.
"Well I have to give you my share and you organise it, I'll be happy with what you choose. But I have to go now, gotta start packing my stuff and save you guys the trouble. I'll see you tomorrow." Jeff and Emma got up the same time Danielle did. "Take care of yourself's"
Then she opened the door and she was gone within minutes.
Jeff ran a hand through his hair. "I didn't expect that. Come on we have to…"
"Calm down maybe?" Emma suggested, Jeff scrutinized her, "hey your going all crazy here!"
Jeff chuckled, "No I wasn't."
"Yes you were."
"No I wasn't"
That started an intense verbal battle which Emma won.
That night they fell asleep with calming little thoughts running through their dreams.
It was six in the morning when there was a pounding on the door. Jeff walked in Emma's room telling her to stay there. Getting to the front door and opening it a solemn officer with his hat on his chest was standing on the porch.
"How can I help you officer?" Jeff said sleepily, resting his head on the door.
The officer bowed his head. "I'm very sorry to tell you this but your mother… passed away… we found her body sitting on a chair out the front with her eyes open… she died two hours before we were called."
Jeff felt tears burn in his eyes, yet he couldn't move to brush them away.
"I'm sorry…" and with that the officer walked away with his head bowed. Jeff moved faintly and shut the door, then leant his weight on it and fell to the ground. Emma walked out of her bedroom, coming downstairs and sat beside Jeff.
"Dad are you ok?"
Jeff looked at Emma, "She's gone…" Emma didn't need to know who she was. She enveloped Jeff in a hug which he returned firmly both of them were crying.
The day passed in stony silence, Jeff and Emma couldn't talk to each other, they blatantly told Delia to go away without explaining anything to her, they didn't answer the phone for anyone it was just stony silence. Jeff was more in shock then upset by it all he was talking to her just hours before she died. It seemed unreal.
"Now we have to figure out funeral costs and everything…" Jeff shook his head as they ate dinner that night. "I just wonder if she knew she was going to die in hours then came and made it up with us just so she could get a decent funeral."
Emma paused in her act of eating the sausage she picked up with her fork. "Dad, she's gone, and she asked us to do one simple thing for her, it shouldn't be a case of did or don't, if we do this one thing for her then we can just move on." Jeff raised his head a little and looked at her.
"Apart of me wishes she never stopped by" Jeff shook his head. "What if we hand the job to Josephine?"
"Emma shook her head. "No, grandma's dead and we said we'd do it, we could've if grandma was alive… but its too late now."
"Wait I never said I would do it, she just assumed I would." Jeff then shook his head. "But what kind of son would I be to her if I didn't do this otherwise?"
"An idiotic one…"
"How would I be idiotic?"
Emma eyed him seriously. "Because you'd be living with regret for the rest of your life just like she did."
Jeff nodded. "True…"
Emma shook her head. "Why didn't she come to us a lot sooner? Or why couldn't she just go to Josephine?"
"Put the last burden on the shoulders of someone she raised up, not someone she befriended." Jeff stabbed moodily at his egg. "That's something like a trademark with her."
"Well this is the last burden she'll leave on you, so you don't have to worry." Emma smiled at Jeff.
"Thank goodness the after world doesn't have special communication devices.."
"How do you know?" Emma asked suspiciously. "Maybe their off limits to crooks."
"Maybe…" Jeff grinned. "But then we'd be receiving something from Andrea."
"You said she entered your dreams once?" Emma asked inquisitively, Jeff nodded. "Then there you go!"
"What day should we have the funeral?"
"Friday next week?" Emma asked, Jeff looked at her as if she were mad. "Ok what's the one place she liked the most?"
"The Bahamas, and there is no way were getting a casket out there." Jeff shook his head. "Then again she did love the ocean."
"What if instead of throwing ashes into the ocean, we… I dunno… lay her and the casket- held down by weights, to rest in peace in the ocean and leave a note in there with her so police in the future wont classify it as a murder?" Emma asked hesitantly, Jeff nodded.
"That's not a bad idea."
To Be Continued…
I feel kind of bad for doing this to Jeff and Emma but its time to move the mother in and out of the limelight and get on with the story, I mean you know about Jerry why not Danielle? And I'm just going to skip how they planned it to the actual ceremony.
Keep Reading.
PikaDarkness.