The Hitting Zone

Dad spoke with Rhys's parents about borrowing a car to get us back home. Then we would bring it back when we got a flight out of the Bay Area. They agreed immediately. Originally we had planned to stay to visit with them and hangout but with what's going on, we went home right after the big breakfast. We thanked his whole family before going home.

It had felt like forever since we had been home even though it was only a long weekend. We unpacked what we had and sorted the dirty from the clean. Dad then had us repack a bag each filling it with warm clothes. He himself had packed for Mom and Zeke.

Then...we waited.

"I hate this." Noah declared. He was lying flat on the couch staring at the ceiling. "What the heck are we supposed to be doing?"

"Just chill like Dave." Kyle said from the other couch, nodding his head at his twin. Dave was asleep again with his hand propped up on a pillow.

"He's on drugs. I can't be." Noah pointed out.

Kyle sighed. "Just watch tv. You were supposed to be resting anyways so this isn't much different."

"I just want to go too." Noah complained. "It's weird just waiting around. Why aren't flights becoming available yet?"

"Because it's the holidays." Kyle said. "Everyone is flying and had booked their tickets well in advance. Plus, I'm sure there are cancellations in the more weather prone areas. That's probably causing delays and flights to be redirected. Here." He picked up the remote and changed the tv to the weather channel. "We can watch the weather."

Noah groaned.

However, I was interested. The meteorologists were discussing storms, snow accumulations, and canceled flights. Traffic wasn't much better. I hope Mom and Zeke don't run into any problems. We had enough going on.

Eventually, it started to repeat itself so Kyle put on a movie before getting up and stretching. "I'm going to go check on Dad. You guys just chill here." He headed out of the room, but paused in the doorway. He glanced back. "If Dave wakes up, make sure he drinks some more water with his painkillers."

"Sure, sure." Noah waved his hand to shoo him away. "Go see if Dad needs anything."

Kyle left and the movie played on.

Noah and I were drawn into the movie for different reasons; I've never seen it before whereas Noah likes anything to do with sports. It wasn't until Dad walked in that we realized Kyle never came back.

In fact he was the one to ask. "Where's Kyle?"

Noah sat up right. "He went to go check on you awhile ago. Have you heard from Mom? Do we have a flight yet?"

Dad sighed. "Zeke just called to say they were getting close. Just a few hours away now. Should be there just after dinner." He glanced at Dave. "Kyle probably went to his room; you guys give him some space for now. I'm going to call and order some pizza for us to munch on. It'll be linner. Lunch and dinner. Maybe something will show up tonight."

We nodded along, not objecting to anything he said. He sighed once more before leaving us.

"What do you think Kyle's doing?" I whispered to Noah as he put on another movie.

"Probably talking to Marie." He shrugged.

I nodded. Made sense. I glanced at Noah. "Are you going to text Alisha?"

Noah rolled his eyes. "We aren't dating."

Guess that's a no. It'd be a little strange to bring it up anyways. Why bring down anyone else's Christmas with some bad news? Plus, it's not their gramma.

We casually watched the movie, only pausing for when Dave woke up. I got him a water and Noah helped him with his pills. He stayed up, listening to the latest update Dad had just given us. The pizza was delivered soon after that.

As we took our plates full of pizza back to the living room, it was hard to tell that it was actually Christmas Eve. It just felt like a normal weekend of eating junk food and being lazy. Yet...compared to my past Christmas Eves, this wasn't so bad. There was no easy way to tell that to Noah and the twins though. It would just make the atmosphere even more depressing.

Dad and Kyle made an appearance, eating pizza and breadsticks with us in the living room. Noah had moved on to some lighthearted Christmas movie that was supposed to be a comedy.

"What are we going to do about tomorrow?" Dave asked, already yawning again.

All of us seemed to sigh at once.

"I think we should save opening gifts for when we can all be together." Dad proposed. He made eye contact with me. "This isn't what we had hoped to do for your first Christmas, Jake."

"It's okay!" I hurried to comfort him. I hesitated on what to say before coming up with: "I'm happy to just be with you guys."

Dad smiled as did the other boys. "Well, hopefully, we'll be on our way to Grampa and Gramma tomorrow." He got up. "I'm going to try to call some of the airlines again before going to bed. You boys are all packed, right? Just in case?"

We all nodded.

Dad gave a sad smile before leaving us alone in the living room.

"Mom and Zeke should be there by now." Kyle commented, staring at his phone. "Should we try to call them?"

"Send Zeke a text first." Noah told him, leaning closer. "Just ask for an update and see if it's even appropriate to call right now."

"I think you guys should hold off and wait for them to reach out to us first." Dave said, getting comfy on the couch again. "They've had an even longer day than us. Driving all that way, catching up with Grampa, and seeing how Gramma is. There's a lot."

"Ugh." Noah flopped back to his spot on the couch.

The night started to wind down with no news. Just as Dave fell asleep and the three of us started to get worried from not hearing from them, Dad came in with another update.

"Your mom is with your gramma right now." He said softly. "You boys can text Zeke for updates, but try to be considerate. Don't disturb your mom for now."

"Is it...really bad..?" Noah asked. His voice didn't carry the usual energy he had. "I get that she's dying, but are we going to be able to say goodbye?"

The room got silent and it seemed like no one was able to breathe peacefully.

"I'm just not sure, Noah." Dad reached out to rub Noah's head. "What she's like right now, from what I understand, is bed bound and on oxygen. She can't talk. She can be like this for an hour or maybe another week. Maybe a month or two at most. There aren't any clear cut answers. What we can do now is give your mom some peace to spend some last moments with her."

We all nodded.

"Is Grampa okay?" I asked, worried.

"Physically, he's doing alright." Dad reassured us, conveniently leaving out how Grampa is mentally and emotionally.