Fiction

A Tale of Two Salaries: Chapter Eight

Image by author,

Stacey B

“Have you heard from or seen Bailey and Jeff yet?” I asked Jemma as the last bit of our conversation started drying up.

“No, I’ve let them settle in and continue their honeymoon stage,” Jemma replied.

“Well, it’ll be exciting to see all of you at the end of November for the Christmas luncheon. Pity none of us could get together for the Rugby World Cup, especially the finals. Jissi, our boys were solid!”

“Ag Stell, we’ve just been keeping to ourselves mostly, you know, times are tough and we’ve been focusing on Silus as much as possible. But yes, what a game! Who did you watch with?”

“Yeah, I bet. Well, I ended up almost having a whole bottle of red on my own, so I watched with me, myself, and my alter ego.” I laughed, trying to lighten the atmosphere over the video call.

I could tell Jemma was struggling. She never gave much away but her face and eyes said it all. She, like me, also only had one child. Married for almost 15 years already, they were now parents to an 11-year-old son with acute myeloid leukemia.

I left the call wondering how a parent could ever prepare for something like that. Everything was absolutely fine with him up until age 10.