"Eight."
"I'll drive."
"Dad, you have work."
"And you have cancer. I win."
We'll figure it out.
***
Fourteen months of chemotherapy nearly destroyed me.
"I can't even keep food down," I whispered to Dad one night.
"Then I'll make soup."
"My business is falling apart."
"We'll save what we can, kiddo."
Dad was there every day.
Once, I called Mom crying.
"Your father visited yesterday, didn't he?"
"Yes, but…"
"Then try getting some sleep, sweetheart."
Eventually, I stopped calling her.
Destroyed me.
One afternoon, Dad arrived carrying a tiny wooden bird.
"What's this?"
"A very expensive piece of art."
I smiled. "It looks like a sparrow."
"Then my artistic career is ruined."
I stopped calling her.
He placed it beside my bed.
"When you're better, we'll build something bigger."
"The workshop?"
"That's the plan."
