NINE

                                    

                                          
KANDY
                          
It was around midnight when Dad finally woke up. Neither Mom nor I had fallen asleep. We just waited for what felt like centuries, and when we heard him grunt in pain, and then let out a small sigh, we gasped, because the next thing we saw was magnificent: his brown eyes.
                          
We rushed for him, both of us hugging him at the same time as he chuckled low and deep.
                          
"Oh, my girls," Dad sighed, voice raspy. "My girls."
                          
We didn't sleep at all that night. We called for the doctor, who came in about an hour after he was awake. He was checked thoroughly and the doctor was surprised he wasn't in more pain than he let on. Still, she gave him morphine to ease it, assuring him that the pain would kick in soon, once the previous dose had worn off. 
                          
"I want you to stick around here for three more days," Dr. Ambrose said to my dad. "I just want to make sure you're healing properly and that nothing else has been damaged."
                          
"Okay. Three days I can do," Dad said.
                          
"I'll call Cane. He said he wanted a call as soon as you were awake," Mom chimed, hopping up and going for her handbag. Cane's name made my booming heart go a little unsteady, but I kept up a smile for Dad. For now.
                          
"Was he here?" Dad asked after taking a sip of water.
                          
"Yes. He was around earlier, stayed for about two and half hours. We thought you would have been up before he left. He had a meeting to go to so he couldn't stay for much longer."
                          
"Oh. Yeah, bring the phone here. Let me call him," Dad insisted. Mom handed him her cell and Dad pressed the call button.
                          
"He kept Kandy overnight too, when things got a little hectic," Mom added, and I wanted to wrap my hand around her mouth and tell her to shush. The reminder was nauseating.
                          
"Did he? That was really nice of him."
                          
"Yeah," I murmured, but I avoided his eyes.
                          
Dad put the phone on speaker and rested it on his lap. Then Cane's voice came through the receiver and I froze in my seat, staring at the phone.
                          
"Cane!" Dad boomed lightly. 
                          
"Hey, if it isn't Superman himself!" Cane boomed too with a light chuckle. "How are you feeling, man? You had me really fucking worried!"
                          
Dad glanced at me when Cane cursed, but I just shrugged. I was eighteen now. He couldn't protect me from curse words and violence anymore. I wasn't naïve to it at all. And Cane was a grown man who could say and do whatever the hell he wanted. Like Dad knew that, he continued the conversation.
                          
"I'm great, man. A little sore here and there but I'm alive. That's all that matters."
                          
"I know that's right," Cane agreed.
                          
"Listen, Mindy told me you kept an eye on Kandy..."
                          
Cane hesitated for a brief moment. It wasn't too brief, to the point my parents would wonder why he wasn't responding, but it was enough for me to know that the mere mention of my name was bringing him memories of the night before.
                          
"Yeah, I did," Cane responded.
                          
"I can't thank you enough for that. Watching over my little girl." Dad looked at me and I forced a smile. "She wasn't too much trouble was she?"
                          
Cane laughed, but it was most definitely forced. "Not at all, man. She wanted to be there, was a little upset when I wouldn't take her to the hospital right away, but she understood."
                          
Yeah, I understood all right.
                          
"That's good. You know they're going to have me in here for three more days, right?"