One Night Stand With My Husband’s Brother

Mrs. Weston moved to sit down on a bench by the hedge of some flowers, while Cameron and Calista looked around. Cameron spotted two people playing a ball a few meters away and he desperately wanted to go watch them, so he looked back at Charlotte’s mom,

“Granny, can I go watch those people?”

She was hesitant, but Cameron gave her puppy eyes and clasped his hands together, “Please, please, granny?”

She let out a sigh, and gave in, “Alright, Cameron. But stay where I can see you, okay? Calista, you can go ahead and look at the flowers too. But don’t go far!”

Cameron was already running in the opposite direction, but Calista waited to respond, “Okay, granny.”

She turned around and slowly walked by the hedges of flowers, looking at each brightly colored petal and flower arrangements in fascination. Sometimes, she bent close to smell the flowers and see which one had the best smell.

She was smiling to herself and having so much fun, that she had no idea she was walking far away from where Charlotte’s mom sat.

After a while, she came across a hedge covered with beautiful pink flowers that seemed to attract a lot of pretty butterflies. She hurried to it, holding her hands out as if to touch the butterflies, but they fluttered away.

She crouched down, and stared at the flowers, realizing that they were pink Camilla flowers. She had seen these flowers so much since she was an infant that she could recognize them anywhere. She touched one of them and smelled it, smiling softly to herself.

That was when slow footsteps approached her from behind, till she felt someone standing over her.

“They smell nice, don’t they?” A man’s voice asked, and Calista turned to look up at the person behind her. It was a old man, in a hospital gown. He had a kind smile on his face.

“Hello, little one.” He said to her.

Calista answered immediately in her small voice, “My mom said I should not talk to strangers.”

He laughed, and motioned at himself. “I don’t have to be a stranger. Do I look like a stranger?”

“No.” Calista answered. “Are you not feeling well? Are you sick?”

He nodded with a small smile. “That’s why I’m in a hospital, dear.”

She gave him a sincere look that showed she hoped he would get better soon. “Sorry about that.”

The old man was surprised at the level of empathy a tiny little child like her had. She had to be pretty smart too. He had deduced that from just this short conversation he had with her. Not just smart, but sensitive too.

He smiled and motioned to the flowers, asking, “Do you know those flowers?”

“Yes.” Calista answered confidently. “My mom gets it all the time. It is a Pink Camilla flower.”

His sparse eyebrows raised in surprise, “Oh? You actually know the name.”

Calista continued, “Yes, it means deep longing. Did you plant the flowers here?”

“Actually, yes.”

She looked surprised, “In the hospital? So can I also plant flowers here?”

“Hm, that would be a little difficult unless you own the hospital.”

She stared at him in awe, “You own this place?”

“Hm-hm.”

“Wow. That’s nice. I think you’re a good person. Because good people own places where people can go to get better when they need help.” She said.

He smiled. “Oh, really? Thank you for the compliment, then.”

He looked at her in fascination, thinking of how familiar the girl seems to him, almost like he had seen her somewhere, but could not place where. Her hair color looked so much that that of his late wife. Her straight golden hair and the way she smiled.

And she had a kind and sweet soul like her.

Something about this little girl made him feel like he could actually talk to her, because he had never had a chat with a child this young, and still feel so comfortable.

It made him feel like he would make a good grandfather, if only his son would give him a grandchild.

He carefully asked her, “Is your mom here?”

“No, my granny is here. Why did you plant these flowers here?”

The old man moved closer to the flowers and gave a bittersweet smile. His eyes were filled with memories which were associated with these flowers. “I used to give them to my wife a lot.”

“That’s very nice. Did she like them?”

His eyes dimmed with sadness, which he tried to hide from Calista by inspecting the flowers a little closer. “I never got to know if she liked them, but giving them to her was my way of expressing my heart to her.”

“So where is she now?”

“She’s in heaven.” The man smiled.

“Ah.” Calista nodded. “That means you can’t see her anymore, right?”

“Yes.” He sighed. “I have not seen her for a very long time.”

“I wonder if my dad is in heaven too.” She muttered, and her words made Richard look at her in question, “Your dad?”

“Yes, I don’t have a dad and I wonder why I don’t have one. My mom has a dad, aunt Charlotte has a dad too, but Cameron and I have never seen our own dad.”

“Who is Cameron?”

“My twin brother.”

A delighted look covered his face at her response. “You are a twin? That’s so lovely. You’re such a lovely girl. Your twin brother is Cameron and what is your name?”

She mulled over it a little and said, “I am not supposed to tell any stranger my name, but okay, my name is Calista.”

“I am not longer a stranger, dear Calista. From now, we are friends, okay?” She nodded and he motioned at the flowers. “Do you want one?”

“Yes, please.” She answered in excitement. Richard nodded and motioned at another hedge of flowers down the path. “I can also get those ones for you as well. Do you like them?”

Calista squinted at the direction he was pointing at, but she did not seem to see the flowers. “What is that?” She asked.

“Those flowers.” He said, waiting for her to spot them. It should be fairly easy, as they were brightly colored, with yellow streaks. But when he looked down at the little girl, he saw she was struggling to see the flowers. He dropped his hand, and asked in a serious tone,

“You can’t see them?”

“I can’t.” She answered innocently, looking back up at him.

“Since when has this been happening, Calista?” His eyebrows moved together in concern for the poor child.

She answered, “I don’t know.”

“Alright.” He said and straightened, pointing at the flag of the US on a sidewalk leading out of the garden a few meters away. “Can you see that?”

She followed the movement of his arm, and squinted up at the flag. “I can see something moving in the air. But I don’t know what it is. Could it be a flag?”

He nodded, as she was smart enough to guess what it was even though she was not really seeing it.

“Yes, it is a flag. But you can’t see it clearly, right?”

“Yes.”

He pointed at a couple more objects around the garden, trying to see how bad her eyesight could have gotten, and after a moment, he realized that she was very shortsighted and can’t see things from a certain distance.

The further away they are, the blurrier she said the objects get. It could be managed, thankfully. After all, not many things couldn’t be managed at Axford Medicals.Property © NôvelDrama.Org.

“It’s fine, Calista.” He gave her a reassuring smile, and picked one of the pink Camilla flowers, handing it over to her. “Can you take me to your granny?”

“Okay. Thank you.” She accepted the flowers and turned around, supposedly walking back in the way she came. However, after several moments, Richard noticed that Calista was looking around the garden, and her footsteps were no longer sure.

“Are you looking for someone?” He asked.

“Yes, Cameron. He was watching some people playing with a ball not too far away. If I can spot him, then granny must be nearby. But I can’t see him anywhere.”

Richard understood that the little girl had lost her way. It was fine, some patients easily get lost in the large gardens of Axford Medicals. It was up to their designated nurses to find them.

But if Calista did not go so far away from her brother and granny, then she must have gotten lost because her sense of direction was not that keen.

He smiled, because it reminded him of his late wife, who had such a bad sense of direction that she could even get lost within the aisles of a grocery store. He had always had to hold her hand everywhere they went. He had found it very adorable.

Those good memories made it worth it to smile these days, especially when he could leave this world at any moment now.