Chapter 31:
Within a few days, Daphne was ready to go home. She packed up the cards, stuffed toys, flowers, and candy. Freddie carried them out to the Mystery Machine while Daphne filled out some last random paperwork.
Freddie had just come in again to walk her out to the parking lot when he saw she was on the phone, her back to the door. Soon she hung up and turned around.
She was crying.
"Daphne?" Fred questioned, concerned. Who was she talking to?
"Freddie... we can't go out to the van. We have to go see Daddy. He's in the intensive care unit."
Fred followed the patient visiting the patient. He understood his wife's feelings; however, he was questioning the wisdom of her going to see Mr. Blake so soon. Surely there would be some interrogation... why was his daughter in the hospital in the first place? Daphne's doctors and nurses had been given special security clearance to treat anyone coming in from the CCC, but they had yet to concoct a cover story for anyone else as to how she had received her injuries.
Freddie would make one up. He would say that she had been in a car crash, or that she had fallen from somewhere. Something. Right now Daphne was too distressed to make one up for herself.
As it turned out, no cover story was needed. Mr. Blake was not capable of questioning his daughter. He didn't even appear to be conscious when the Joneses entered his room.
Daphne cried even harder after seeing him. Here he was, with tubes and machines hooked up to him, just barely keeping him alive. Never in her life had Daphne seen her father so weak. Sure, her earliest memories of him were of a Mr. Blake in his early fifties, but he had been a healthy fifty-something, not only joining but owning various gyms and health clubs. Yet now no amount of his money could buy a cure for his cancer.
He was going to die. Fizlayer was going to die. It was fitting that it was autumn-- the last bits of color were draining from once-lively people everywhere, all in preparation for the cold that was to come.
Daphne held her stomach and considered the life inside with a last ray of hope. It might be nearly winter everywhere else. But Daphne knew someone for whom spring was just around the corner.