Then you came along.

“Just a little bit longer” I begged my sister as she tried to pull me away.

Sonny and I stood at the gravesite hand in hand as they lowered her casket into the ground. The service had been over for hours now; I just couldn’t bring myself to leave that spot. My mom, Julie; she had been battling breast cancer for 5 years. This day was honestly a long time coming but after spending every day with her I couldn’t just leave her like this; I couldn’t just walk away with the rest of the people she knew.

“MJ, we have a meeting with the lawyer in 20 minutes, we need to go babe.” My sister reminded me as she wrapped her arm around my shoulders and led me to the car.

My name is Marley Jay Thomas, everyone calls me MJ though and I am 21 years old and my best friend is my sister Sandra, we call her Sonny though and she is 31 and my other best friend was my Mom. But she’s no longer with us.

“Brad is meeting us there, you know he’s better at all that official stuff than I am.” Sonny said as we drove to meet the lawyer to discuss Mom’s will.Brad is Sonny’s husband and he’s this really great guy who worked on my Mom’s case as one of the Doctors. My sister and him met when Sandra went to an appointment with my Mom one day and they were basically a match made in heaven. That was 5 years ago when they met; they got married 6 months ago and Sonny is now three months pregnant with their first child.

“We’re here.” Sonny says as she awakes me from my thoughts out the window.

We make our way inside where Brad is waiting for us with Starbucks coffee for both of us.He hands me mine as he hugs me and then grabs Sonny’s hand and she grabs mine.

We walk into the office where Mark, my Mom’s lawyer is waiting for us.

“Alright girls, let me make this short and sweet because I know you do not want to be here right now.” Got that right.

“Your Mom has decided that she wants to liquidate all of her assets. Meaning whatever y’all don’t want we will sell and you can keep the money for it. But your Mother made the decision that you both didn’t want any of her belongings so she is giving you both the savings to split.” Mark pulls out a file with the statement from the bank with the amount of money that Sonny and I will be splitting.

$10,000

“So all I need from you girls is for you each to sign the dotted line and it’s yours to do with it as you please.” Sonny and I look at each other and shake our heads. We each sign the paper and are given copies. Brad gets up to shake Marks hand as Sonny and I make our way to the hall out of the room.

“Well that was easier than I thought it was going to be.” My sister said.

“Right though. Glad it’s over. “ I said to her

“You girls want to get some lunch or something?” Brad asked us as he out his arm around Sonny.

“No, thanks though. I’m just not very hungry right now. I think I’m going to head home and work on my book. “ I told them.

At 21 I had seen a lot in my life. I’ve seen people die. I saw my Dad cheat on my Mom when I was 17 . I sat with my mom during endless rounds of chemo and radiation that apparently did nothing for her. I had a lot to say which is why about a year ago I made the decision to write a novel called ‘Caretaker’.

I got home which wasn’t my home it was Brad and Sandra’s home. During my mom’s last days I lived with my sister and Brad because my Mom wasn’t well enough to be at home and we lost the house when I was 20 because we couldn’t afford to pay the bills. I got to the guest room and pulled my laptop out and went to my facebook page to find posts from people who I hadn’t talked to in years.

“So sorry to hear about Jules. Praying for you.”

“Stay strong. Your mom would be so proud of you.”

These posts although all kind, just kind of annoyed me. All these people paying their respects, but not one to call or text to check in during the real battle.

I heard a quiet knock on my door.

“Come in” I say without pulling my eyes away from the screen.

“Can we talk?” Sonny asks as she climbs on the bed with me.

“What?” I ask still continuously typing.

“It’s about the money..” she says slowly as she takes my laptop away and closes it.

“This better be good Son.”

“My half of the cash…I don’t really need it. I mean Brad and I are very well off and we have a massive savings. “ she ranted.

“Ok? So donate it to breast cancer research or something.” I sarcastically said.

“Actually I was thinking about donating it to you…” she said watching my reaction.

“Why would you do that?” I asked her with raised eyebrows.

“Well I only would on one condition…You have to go to London with it.” There’s the catch.

“Sonny we are not doing this.” I told her as I went to grab my laptop.

“MJ, that is all you’ve ever wanted to do. Now excuse me for saying this but now that Mom is gone you can. You know she would want this. Just take the money, take a year go live, go find love. GO WRITE, finish your book. Be young. You owe it to yourself.” She insisted.

I sat there in silence staring at the charm my mom had given me of an airplane signifying travel.

“Just think about it. This could be really good for you.”Sonny said as she got up from the bed and walked out of my room.

Maybe London is what I needed to do next. I spent the last 5 years so focused on my Mom’s health that I had lost sight of what I wanted in life. Ever since I was a kid London was all I wanted, the fashion, the music, the people, the culture. When Princess Diana died I was a mess for like 2 weeks. My Mom had to force feed me because I was so upset from losing someone who I genuinely looked up to. Maybe Sonny was right, this is what I needed to do. This was my chance.

“Never waste an opportunity.” My mom used to always say. I wasn’t going to waste this one.

Notes

I hope you enjoyed this first chapter, i will have the next one up soon! Let me know what you all think!