Allen followed Andrew to the door so that he could decline the young ladies company personally and politely. Andrew opened the door to find both ladies eating the food that Allen's mouth had been watering for.
"What the fuck are you doing?" Andrew asked the girls.
Andrew turns to Allen to apologize, but Allen slammed the door before
Andrew could turn completely around.
"Now that is some funny shit," Allen said as he walked towards his
luggage that still sat in the middle of the floor. Allen decided to take a
tour of the city after all. He thought it would be nice to see what Toronto
had to offer, plus, since Andrew's guest had eaten his dinner, he figured
it would be an opportunity to check out the restaurants the city had.
Allen found a pair of blue jeans to put on and a black ribbed turtleneck
sweater for the cool afternoon air.
He grabbed his three quarter length
leather jacket and began to walk out the door when he realized that he
hadn't returned his father's call yet. Allen laid his jacket down on the
bed as he sat next to it and removed the hotel's cordless phone from its
headrest and dialed his parents' number. Allen listened patiently as the
phone rang. After four rings he decided to hang up and try again before
their answering machine picked up. He quickly pressed redial and again
listened as the phone rang. After the first ring, he heard his mother's
voice saying "hello."
"Hi Mom it's Allen." Allen placed his feet on top of the bed and
relaxed while his mother cleared her other line. When she returned to
the phone, she turned on the speakerphone so that both she and Steven
could talk with him.
"Hi Son," Steven spoke to let Allen know that he was also on the
phone.
"Hey Pop," Allen said surprisingly, "this is a rare occasion. I get to
talk to both of you at the same time. You guys must have some really
good news to tell me."
"Well," Helen started slowly. "We have some news to tell you. We
think that the news is good news and we know that you will feel the
same way when we tell you the news."
"OK, I'm listening." Allen said as he sat up on the edge of the bed.
"Son, as I tell you this, just listen until I finish, then you can ask all
the questions that you want. OK?"
"The suspense is killing me Pop," Allen said anxiously.
"You know that your mother has been having the chemo treatments
for a while now. Well this afternoon we were told that the chemo
treatments were not improving your mother's condition. Now before you
jump to a conclusion, let me tell you the rest of it."
Allen listened to his father tell him that his mother would be going
under the knife to remove her left breast as soon as possible.
He understood that the cancer was beginning to spread and to eliminate the
risk of death these were the measures that needed to be taken.
"Mom," Allen began slowly, "how are you with all of this? I mean, how
are you really? Not as the strong woman that you have been for me
throughout the years, how are you truthfully?"
"Well Son," Helen spoke with the stern voice that she had spoken with
for years.
"I have no choice but to be OK with it. If I'm not OK with it,
the bottom line is that I will die. Dying is not an option."
"Well, as long as you are OK with it, I have no reason to be alarmed.
It's all for the good, right?"