Chapter 12

Sunday morning before James woke up, Hannah had already prepared plentiful food and took a cab to a small nursing home almost an hour away. It was breakfast time when she slipped quietly into the sun-kissed, small, soft white room. She noticed the elderly lady still fast asleep on the small twin sized bed on the further end of the room. It brought a warm smile on her face. After setting down her stacked thermal food container, Hannah quietly walked to the side of the woman’s face.

Once again, she repeated, “Nai Nai. Wake up. I’m here to see you.”

The woman budged a little and slowly opened her eyes. She suddenly smiled widely and her wrinkled, shaky hands lifted the corner of the white blanket off of her. Even thought it was Spring and warm, Nai Nai still wore a thick sweater cardigan. “My granddaughter.” She immediately used one hand to embraced Hannah’s face. “What took you so long to come back? Are you very busy recently?”

Hannah began to feel an oppressing feeling of sadness seeing her frail grandmother again all alone. “Sit up and have breakfast first, Nai Nai. We can catch up while you eat. I brought three meals to last you for today.”

While Nai Nai sat on the edge of her bed sipping on the sweet rice porridge, Hannah began to update her. “Nai Nai, I started a job not long ago. I might not be able to come see you often, but I’m going to find a new facility and transfer you to be closer to me. I’m not sure how difficult it’ll be so be patient, Nai Nai. Wait for me. I only have you left. You have to wait for me.”

Nai Nai was elderly but she was still sound of mind and very aware.

“Dear, don’t work too hard. I’m fine here. Just a little lonely sometime, but I have a lot of elderly friends here to keep me accompanied too. Don’t you worry about a thing.” Nai Nai began coughing and choking on the food.

Hannah patted her grandmother’s back and handed her a glass of water. “I’ll go get the doctor!”

When the female doctor came in, she looked at Nai Nai’s medical chart and briefed Hannah. “She’s going to be okay. She’s been taking her routine medicine so the pneumonia should almost be cleared.”

“Pneumonia?!” Hannah asked shockingly. “I wasn’t informed she had pneumonia. “

The doctor responded, “There’s been a recent case of pneumonia going around here between the elderlies. We’ve separated our clients and suspended their group activities until further notice. We also informed all the residences’ families.” She quickly looked at the chart again. “It says that a “Mrs. Martha Chen” was notified by phone.”

***

At Martha’s home, Hannah had just walked briskly in and found her in the living area. “Mom.”

Martha stopped halfway bringing her teacup to her mouth and shot a pair of cold eyes at Hannah at the doorway. “I told you. You are not allowed to call me that.”

Flustered, Hannah asked, “Aunty, were you informed about Nai Nai’s pneumonia?”

Nonchalantly, Martha looked away and responded, “Oh…that. It just slipped my mind. I forgot to tell you.”

Frustration started to push tears to the corners of her eyes. “Aunty, how can something that important slip your mind? What if something happened to Nai Nai? How would I know?”

“I’m a busy person. It slipped my mind this one time. Can I not be imperfect as well?”

Taken back, Hannah softly answered, “Aunty, please…just try to relay any further information to me next time. Maybe one of these days you could go with me and we can change power of attorney to me since I’ve been of age now.”

Still sitting unsympathetically, Martha only said, “I don’t have much free time to do trivial things. Even if I were to hand you power of attorney, I would immediately retract every cent to the account paying for your grandmother’s living expenses. Do you think you’ll have enough to afford for her? ‘Cause I surely won’t trust you with any of the money my husband unfairly left for you and your family.”

With her hands tied, Hannah’s thought surrendered and she muttered, “Please, just try to remember to relay the messages to me next time.”

She went back home feeling powerless.

Upon her way up the stairs in her home, James saw her long face.

“What’s wrong?”

His low voice startled her while she was just in her thoughts now.

“Uh,…No..Nothing.” She quickly went to the room. James followed her curiously.

“Hannah, where did you go all day? You’ve suddenly returned home with a long face. What’s wrong?”

She sat on her edge of the bed staring into the dark night sky through the large window in front of her. Hannah couldn’t decide whether to pester James about the situation. She felt overwhelmed by powerlessness and sadness. Besides, Martha probably wouldn’t let James help her. Wait! Maybe, he could borrow her some money!

With her voice breaking through with tears, she managed to say, “I want to move my Nai Nai closer. She’s not been well recently and it’s not easy for me to visit her.” She could hear James’ slippers making it’s way to her. He put one big hand on her sloped shoulder.

“I’ll look into it.”

Hannah’s eyes lit up towards the tall, handsome figure standing next to her. “Really?!”

He nodded and her lips gently smiled a little. “Thank you.”

The following morning, Martha barged into Hannah’s classroom while the students were out at recess.

“You shameless barbarian woman. You had the nerves to ask James to come take over power of attorney for your poor grandmother? You may have gotten this far, but believe me I still won’t let you touch a cent in the account. My son is back and suddenly you think you can pretend to live up to your spousal duties. Disgusting!” She left as soon as she came in. Hannah was so caught off guard buy was truly happy to hear James got a hold of P.O.A. and it would be so much easier to make decisions for her grandmother in the future. She didn’t realize that Ricky was standing out the door and heard Martha proclaim Hannah’s marital status. He quietly stepped back and walked to his classroom looking disappointed.

When Hannah came home, she rushed to find James. She checked the living area, bedroom, study room, guest rooms and still couldn’t find him but his car was park outside. Finally, in the sunroom when she entered was James exiting as well. She immediately threw her hands around him joyfully. This shocked James, “Oh!” He stood there cluelessly while being hugged tightly by Hannah who was extremely happy.

“Thank you! James, thank you. I owe you one!”

James face was blushing but he kept his cool and awkwardly patted Hannah’s head playfully, “It’s okay. It wasn’t that hard.”

“Even so, I’m so grateful. I owe you one.”

She released her hold on him and he said, “Fine. A favor for a favor.”

Although he was first to walk away from her with a cold face instantly after, James felt warm by Hannah hug and it was his first time seeing her so happy. But the thought of that other mysterious man suddenly entered his thoughts and a coldness overcame him again. Why were his thoughts tugging upon this silly, lowly educated girl?