June 15, 1996

We buried my father today. I can't believe I'm even writing that sentence. How does something like this happen? Mom says it was a stroke, but it doesn't make sense to me. I'm completely lost without him. We had plans. We had a new home and a new town. I was days from getting away from all this. Now I'm not only stuck here. I'm all alone. I have to figure this out. It can't end like this. I won't let it.

The trio moved toward the sliding glass doors at the front of the building with Melanie in the lead. There was a faint whoosh noise when the door slid back.

As they entered the cool interior of the air-conditioned building they were surrounded by the faint smell of antiseptic and bleach. The natural sunlight streaming in through the large windows gave the lobby a cheerful feel. The floor was made up of multi-colored slate tiles in gray and green. Against the walls on either side of the room were plush gray couches and rustic-looking light brown wood coffee tables. Just inside the door, two nurses in teal scrubs stood talking quietly. When they spotted Melanie they smiled and waved greeting her by name and asking about her family. After exchanging a few pleasantries Melanie continued toward the front desk.

A rather plump woman with a headful of bushy red hair that had been pulled up into a slicked back ponytail sat hunched over the desk. As they approached they could see that she was furiously scribbling in a thin spiral notebook. So absorbed was she in what she was doing that she didn't hear their approach. Only when Melanie spoke did she finally look up. "Hi, Stacy. How is Gloria today? Is she up for a few visitors?"

Stacy who looked to be in her thirties pushed her wire-rimmed glasses higher up on her thin beaklike nose and took in all three of her new visitors with a critical eye. She pursed her heavily coated red lips and when she spoke a small smear of red was visible on her front tooth. "She's been pretty stable today. I think she'd be ok with it. Who are your friends?" Andra froze saying nothing. She wasn't sure how they should answer.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Where are my manners? This is my niece and nephew Andra and Cameron. They're visiting from out of town. We were out sightseeing today while their mother was running errands and since we were in the neighborhood I thought I'd stop by. She doesn't get many visitors. I thought maybe seeing the kids would do her some good."

"Well, you're not wrong about that," Stacy answered in a dry tone. "But you know we don't usually allow anyone who isn't family."

"I know but I thought maybe you could make an exception just this once. Besides, you and I both know I'm the closest thing she has to family. No one's been here in years. Technically that would make the kids her family by extension." Andra and Cameron stood silently listening to Melanie give this little speech. Andra was impressed. She hadn't even broken a sweat while rattling off that story.

Stacy rolled her eyes and gave a small sigh of exasperation. "Ok. But just this once and only because no one else ever comes to see her."

"Thank you, Stacy." Melanie was already moving past the desk and motioning for Andra and Cameron to follow. "You're an absolute sweetheart."

"Melanie if she starts to become agitated at all -"

"I know," Melanie said over her shoulder. "If she starts to look stressed we'll take off. I promise."

They turned the corner into a long hallway with white tile floors and light green walls. It was obvious they had entered into a part of the facility that was reserved for the patients. The warm welcoming atmosphere that encompassed the lobby didn't exist here. The guest's wing had the cold clinical feel of a hospital sick bay. As soon as they were out of earshot Cameron spoke up. "I have to admit it. The way you came up with that story on the fly...I'm impressed."

"Why thank you. You don't sell as many houses as I have without being able to spin a tall tale now and again. Oh, wait this is it." She said stopping outside a thick wooden door. "Are you ready?' she asked glancing over her shoulder at the two teens standing awkwardly behind her.

They nodded together. Melanie pushed the door open and slipped quietly inside. Andra turned to Cameron and gave him a nervous half-hearted smile before following Melanie. She felt Cameron's hand light on the center of her back as he followed behind her.

They found themselves standing in a dimly lit room. The only visible light filtered in through the closed blinds of the windows on the far wall. A flat-screen TV was mounted on the wall just inside the door. A random soap opera played on the screen with the volume muted. A rocking chair sat in the far corner of the room in front of the window. Beside the chair was one of a matching set of nightstands that were placed on either side of a large hospital bed. It was the small unmoving figure in the center of the bed that held their attention.

Gloria lay with her back to them barely stirring when they entered the room. Her long gray hair lay unbrushed and fanned out on the pillow behind her.

Melanie moved around to the side of the bed placing a hand on the older woman's shoulder. "Hi, Gloria. It's Melanie. How are you? I brought some friends for you to meet." Gloria turned her head slowly in Melanie's direction but said nothing. Slowly she began to pull herself up into a sitting position. As she turned Andra and Cameron got their first real look at Savannah's mother.

Her hair hung long and loose over her shoulders and the thin white nightgown she wore clung to her gaunt frame. Her arms and hands were wrinkled and skeletal looking. The beauty she had once been was still visible in the deep lines of her face but time and stress had taken their toll. She easily looked fifteen years older than her sixty-six years. When she finally focused on the new arrivals Andra was dismayed to see Savannah's blue eyes staring back at her from the wrinkled face. Apparently, the crystal blue color had been an inherited trait.

Gloria shifted her gaze taking in her surroundings as if seeing the room for the very first time. Her eyes landed on Cameron and then froze there. Her withered mouth fell open in shock and then snapped shut again. She put a wrinkled hand out toward him her eyes shining with unshed tears and began to speak in a soft bell-like voice that didn't suit the elderly face.

"Colonel? Is that you? I knew you'd come. I've been waiting for so long."

Andra looked at Cameron who was frozen in place beside her with a stunned look on his face. A glance at Melanie confirmed that she was just as confused as they were. She caught Andra watching her and shrugged.

"I've missed you. I've missed you so much." Gloria said quietly almost to herself.

"Gloria who is the Colonel?" Melanie ran a hand gently over the older woman's hair as she questioned her. Gloria was paying her no mind. Wringing her hands and muttering distractedly to herself she seemed to have forgotten they were there.

"Gloria," Melanie tried again. "It's me, Melanie." Gloria looked up at her and smiled. "Oh, Melanie it's so sweet of you to look in on me. Nobody ever comes except you and the Colonel. Not since she died."

She stopped looking down at her hands for a moment and Andra watched as a tiny tear cut a shiny track across the valleys and plains of her wrinkled cheek. She looked up at Melanie with a little grimace. "She's still here you know," she whispered conspiratorially. Andra slipped her hand into Cameron's and shivered as a chill ran through her.

Melanie sat down on the edge of Gloria's bed her back facing them. It almost felt as if they were eavesdropping on a private conversation. "Who's still here Gloria?" Melanie asked quietly. "Well Savannah of course," she said matter-of-factly. "Gloria, Savannah passed away. You know that."

"I know. She came back. She comes upstairs into my room at night while I'm sleeping. I saw her." Gloria finished the last few words of her sentence in a childish sing-song voice that sent a knife point of fear through Andra's heart.

"Did she say anything to you when you saw her?" Melanie asked.

"No. She never speaks just comes and watches. She's always watching. She's angry and so so sad."

"How can you tell?"

"A mother just knows these things," she said fluffing her hair a little and mumbling to herself again. "Oh, where is that darn lipstick? I know I had it here somewhere."

"I haven't seen a lipstick are you going somewhere, Gloria?"

"The Colonel and I have a date tonight. He doesn't like it when I'm late."

"Who is the Colonel?"

Gloria giggled like a little girl. "He's the most charming man I've ever met. He hasn't been here in a while. I think Savannah scared him away." She whispered.

"Is Donald the Colonel?"

Gloria looked at Melanie like her brain had taken leave of her body. "Donald doesn't know the Colonel. He would be so angry." Andra's mouth fell open. Looking around the room she saw the shock she felt mirrored on both Cameron and Melanie's faces.

"Does the Colonel have a name?"

"Well of course he does," Gloria said still looking at Melanie as if she had gone crazy. "Who in their right mind would name their child Colonel."

"What's his name, Gloria?"

"I can't tell you that." She answered in the same sing-song voice. "The Colonel told me not to talk about him but you're a good girl. I know you won't tell."

"No. I won't tell anyone. Why aren't you supposed to talk about him?"

"He says if I do someone might find out about the pills."

"What pills?"

"The pill's he gave Donald. The pills that killed him of course."