Chapter two
Adrian didn’t bother to put off the stove once he was done cooking the spaghetti and had put the pot ontop of his fridge. He was really exhausted, it had been a long day at the office. At times like these all he wanted to do was lie down and think. He still couldn’t get the letter he had received out of his head. He didn’t know who this Rachel could’ve been. His friend Devin told him about a Namibian girl named Rachel once, but that was quite a while ago.
He’d only been in Namibia for a month, Hardly enough time to get to know anyone well enough.
He thought it was all a big joke that Eudora could have played on him. After all, she was the only Namibian girl he knew. He thought he would play along.
To Rachel, I take it you’d prefer to be called Ricky.
You mentioned that you were going to die in a while.
Not sure what’s going to kill you, I think you forgot to tell me that. I really don’t know how you got my address.
Adrian stopped writing. It all started making sense. He remembered Eudora telling him that she gave his address to a girl she knew, Ricky must be that girl.
Come to think of it, you probably got my address from Eudora. She never told me much about you. So you adopted a baby in Hawaii, sounds interesting to say the least.
I think the most impulsive thing I’ve ever done was go blonde in middle school. I blame it on the hippie craze of the early 90’s. My friends make sure I never live that down.
You could write back, but that’s completely optional
He sealed the letter in order to post it the next day. He got up and walked over to the mirror to fix his hair. Isabella said she’d be there by eight.
Adrian checked his watch to confirm that she was late.
___________
Eudora had come by Rachel’s place. Rachel told her about the letter and she smiled. Eudora had sneaked his address into Rachel’s diary a few weeks ago. She had planned to hook them up since he would be coming to Namibia in a few months.
Rachel knew she had to tell her family about the Cancer, she wouldn’t want them finding out the wrong way. She decided that tonight she was going to do it. Her parents had just come back from France and they were going to have a barbeque. Everyone was going to be there and she knew that she probably wouldn’t get another chance.
They got to the party a bit late and just as she had expected, everyone was there.
"Glad you could make it honey.” Whispered her mom.
She sent Kelly to play with the other kids at the pool. Her friend Umuna was there as well.
Almost everyone was glad to see her as she took a seat next to her brother.
“Rachel, this is Julia. I think you met last year at my birthday party.” Eric said as he introduced his girlfriend.
Rachel smiled at Julia, who gave her the most exaggerated grin imaginable.
This seemed to be the opportune moment to tell them.
“I’m not sure you’ve all heard the joke about the broken engine…” began her father as he told the oldest joke in the family. Everyone had heard that joke about a hundred times before but they all laughed out of politeness it seemed.
The table got quiet again and Rachel cleared her throat as she began what would be the most difficult sentence she ever had to say.
“I presume you all know I got the job at the firm.” She said, trying to put the words together in her mind. Everyone applauded almost instinctively.
“I knew you would get it sis.” Yelled Hayden from the far corner of the table
“That’s not exactly what I wanted to say.” She took another sip from her glass as the table grew quiet again
“I went to see the doctor about those headaches
I’ve been having. Turns out I have brain cancer.”
It was quiet except for the noise coming from the pool.
“Turns out it’s terminal.” She added.
The silence became more deafening. Umuna thought she would say something, but audibly cleared her throat instead.
Eric decided to break the silence.
“When did you get the news, have you started with the chemo yet?”
“Yes I have, Doctor Phillips said the cancer cells were detected too late.” she faintly replied.
She was almost shivering by now.
She felt the cold air on her face as a tear rolled down her cheek. Her mother put her hand over her mouth and Hayden ran to hug her.
It was going to be a long night.