If Someday Never Comes

Chapter 30

Sydney's POV

I slowly picked my aching body out of bed and made my way down the stairs. It was a little after 7 am and unfortunately for me, my bladder and desperate need for coffee don't allow me to sleep any later than that. So, here we are. 

The lights are on in the bathroom as I hear my parents going back and forth, "Pam, this is a terrible idea. I have no idea what I'm doing." my dad says with panic.

"Stop being such a baby and get in there!" Mom tells him and then I hear a buzzing noise, a vibrating noise maybe? and I instantly start freaking out, face flushed and hot. What the hell are they doing?! Don't they know I'm in the house?!

"YO! PARENTS!" I yelled to make my presence known in case they had forgotten. 

"Oh, thank God." I hear Dad whisper as the vibrating noise stops. 

"Whatever weird shit you two are up to in there, not it off, there is a CHILD," I enunciate, "in this house." 

"Terry. You are being ridiculous," I hear her yell at him in a whisper. 

"Sydney would do a better job, " I hear him whisper back. 

"I don't want her to deal with this, for better or worse remember your wedding vows!"

"What is going on in here..." I finally work up the courage to open the door and step through when I see my mom sitting in front of her vanity with a towel wrapped around her neck and Dad standing there next to her with clippers in his hand, "Oh..." is all I can think of to say. 

So instead of saying anything I walk up to my dad and take the clippers from his large rough hands, stand behind my mom, and look at her in the mirror. "Are you ready for this?" I ask confidently placing my free hand on her shoulder. 

She looks up at me, places her hand on top of mine, and squeezes, "Yes." 

I fire up the clippers and begin shaving off the remaining hair on her dainty head. I take a few deep breaths as I make my way around, going over some spots twice to make sure everything is even. Her scalp is a little dry, and I think to myself to order some coconut oil so we can do some treatments on it. I take a few more deep breaths, the pressure behind my eyes building. Shaving my mom's head because she has cancer isn't something I thought I would ever be doing, but if this is what she needs, then this is what I will do because taking care of the people you love doesn't come from big grand gestures or fancy gifts, it comes in the moments that you're in the trenches unsure and afraid. It's when you loan them your strength because they don't have enough to get by. 

And as I trim around the edges, I hear a sniffle, it's all I can do to hold my composure. I focus on the task because if I look up at my mom and see her crying I won't be able to keep it together. 

After the job is done, I lay down the clippers, place both my arms around her shoulders, and squeeze tightly. When I finally work up the courage to look at her reflection in the mirror, I don't see any tears on her cheeks as confusion fills my face as well as hers, then, we both turn to the left and see Dad's face flushed red and covered with wetness. "Oh, honey, do I look that bad?" Mom laughed. 

Dad wheezed, "No, I just hate that you are going through this." and he launched his big body around us both squeezing so tightly I could barely breathe. 

We all laughed, Dad shed a few more tears, and I whispered to Mom, as he released us both, "You look beautiful." then kissed her on the cheek and made my way to the kitchen.

***

We made it through Mom's treatment, the room we were in was small, and only one other lady was there, she was older, almost 75 she said, and only wanted to talk to me about the weed she had been smoking to ease her pain. I thought it was great, but Mom did not, especially when I kept trying to offer to buy her some from my new friend Marg.