I disclaim.
Hard Decisions
It was nearly two in the afternoon before Agatha and her grandmother finished cleaning the lobby and a few of the rooms that appeared worse for the wear. As they placed the cleaning supplies back into the closet, Agatha stared at the small office. She'd kept the office very impersonal, having hired a few employees over the last couple of seasons, and she was contemplating a new paint job when she heard her grandfather's voice from the front lobby. Agatha ducked her head around the corner and then followed her grandmother out after shutting the door behind her. Granpa Joe was a tall man, and despite the years that he'd gained since the Vietnam war he still had the build of a military man. He hugged her as she walked by and gave her grandmother the smile that Granma Lou Merle told Agatha had won her heart some fifty years beforehand. Agatha sighed wistfully as she followed the pair out of the lobby and locked the door behind her. As she followed her grandparents across the street to their quaint little house she found herself wishing and hoping that she could find the same kind of forever-love like they had.
Granma Lou Merle had once told Agatha that love just wasn't love if you weren't willing to make the hardest decision you've ever had to make in your life for the person you loved. Agatha wasn't sure what the hardest decision in her life would be, but she knew what the hardest decision had been in her grandparents life. The year 1993 started like most of the years had in the six years of Agatha's life, and she was surrounded by happiness and love. As the only child of her parents Matthew and Christina, she was spoiled just enough for people to know that she was an only child. Her grandparents on both sides loved her and cherished her, and as far as she could tell by her six-year-old standards, there wasn't a single person in the world who had a better life. In June of 93 her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. The cancer ravaged her so quickly that they buried her before three months were over. She couldn't remember crying, but she could remember that her father was devastated and spent the week before they buried her clinging tightly to his daughter. She couldn't always call up a picture of her mother in her memory but she'd seen enough pictures to know that she'd grown up to look just like her.
The day of the funeral had been a sad affair in the first place, but the gloomy covering of clouds didn't help with the gloom. Dressed in her best black dress, little Agatha stood next to her father and listened to the preacher talk about how her mother was a light in the community and a perfect example of motherhood and had lived a life for God. Agatha wasn't sure what all of it meant, but she knew that she'd loved her Mommy and she wasn't entirely sure why Mommy had gone away. They'd buried her mother just before noon and the rest of the afternoon was spent at the church and multiple casseroles were thrust into her fathers' hands. When it came time to leave, Agatha ambled into the car with her granma and granpa Noll and her father climbed into the car with her mothers' parents. The plan was to drop them off at their house and then come pick up Agatha from the Noll house. The only problem with the plan was that the tired truck driver didn't know about it.
"Aggie Lynn, are you coming?" Her grandfather's voice pulled her out of memories that were nearly 18 years old. She realized she'd stopped walking in the middle of the road and despite the fact that it wasn't a busy street in a busy town the idea of becoming a pancake wasn't very appealing. She jogged the rest of the way across the street and followed her grandparents into the house. Her grandfather patted her on the back as she walked into the house and she gave him a hug as she passed him.
"So what's for dinner Granpa Joe?" She asked him after kicking her shoes off and walking into the kitchen. Her grandmother looked up from the sink and the vegetables that she'd started washing and gave her a smile.
"My specialty, pretty girl." He patted her head as he headed out to the back yard where the grill was smoking merrily. Agatha gave her grandfather a belated smile and walked to the sink where her grandmother was washing vegetables she'd grown outback.
"Need any help Granma?" Agatha asked the question out of habit, knowing that her grandmother was going to shoo her away into another part of the house. Her grandmother gave her a smile and shook her head, responding that she didn't need any help and why didn't Aggie Lynn go wash up in the bathroom. She hugged her grandmother before she left the kitchen and trudged up to the room that had been hers for so many years. She supposed, as she walked through the door, that it still was hers for all intents and purposes. As she stared around the room at the knick knacks and pictures that had been collected over the years she thought back to the day of her mother's funeral.
The semi truck had hit her father's car so hard that crew cleaning the sides of the road found pieces of the car months after the accident. Her mothers' parents had died instantly, but her father had managed to survive long enough to be rushed to the hospital and plugged into machines. She had a vague recollection of rushing to the hospital and sitting in her pretty black dress in the sterile white waiting room. She didn't like the smell and was crabby and tired and didn't understand what they meant when they said that her daddy might not survive. Her daddy was the strongest person she'd ever known in all the six years of her life and these people in white coats and green shirts just didn't understand that she needed her daddy to wake up now, thank you, and take her home.
The decision to pull the plug on her father had been one that she'd never understood the reasons her grandparents had made it. She knew all the logical reasons and looking back on it now, she could safely say that she was glad they'd did it and that he hadn't had to suffer, but the six-year-old inside of her just wanted mommy and daddy back. As she left the bedroom and walked into the upstairs bathroom she'd taken over as a child, she caught sight of a collage that her friends had made for her for graduation. She stared at the pictures with a soft smile on her face and shook her head.
"No use chasing after the past, Aggie girl." The words came from her own mouth, but she knew them best in Granpa Joe's voice. She couldn't count how many times he'd told her that when she was growing up and despite how much she'd hated hear it, she'd known then it was the truth. It was a truth that she was better equipped to accept now, and as she washed up for dinner, she reminded herself that it was the start of tourist season and soon she'd be busy enough that she wouldn't have to worry about getting caught in the past. And so, when she was called down to dinner shortly after coming to that realization, she managed to come downstairs with a smile on her face and hope that her troubles would soon be over.
A/N: More of our OC. How are we feeling Aggie Lynn? I happen to like her, but then again, I made her.
