Medical Redemption

----------------------------- March 17th, 2037: New York City, New York -------------------------------
It had been 16 years. Michael’s eyes were tired, his back was hunched slightly, allowing
the rest of his upper body to drape with exhaustion over the table. Had it not been for the same,
seemingly everlasting baseball cap he’d had since elementary school, Alice never would’ve
recognized him. Holding Lila’s hand, she walked over to him, a symphony of emotions
encompassing her mind. Anger, fear, sadness, abandonment. 16 years.
“Alice, I- it’s so good to see you. How are you?” Michael tried to stand up, but his legs
seemed to give out under him, causing him to sink back into a seated greeting. “Please, sit,” he
gestured to the chair across from him, his face scrunched into a happy, but fatigued smile. Alice
grabbed a seat from an empty table a few feet away and put it next to the empty chair, so Lila
could have a seat too. The mother and daughter sat down, side-by-side, nervous about such close
proximity to a man they no longer knew. “So... what have you been up to? Lila, you must be in
8
th grade now, huh? That’s exciting, last year of middle school; high school’s just around the
corner!” Michael somehow had managed to fill the awkward moment with even more awkward
conversation.
“10th
. I’m in 10th grade,” Lila retorted, a bit of sass escaping in her tone. Under the table,
Alice nudged her daughter in the leg with her knee, telling her to stop the smart-aleck attitude. It
was her father after all. Or, at the very least, half of her DNA. For Lila, he was nothing more
than that.
“Right, 10th grade... my bad. Do you do any sports? You got a boyfriend? Haha!”
Michael, though only two feet away, seemed even farther than ever in the eyes and mind of his
daughter.
“I do color guard for my school’s marching band, with my girlfriend, Izzy. So, no. I don’t
have a boyfriend,” Lila could no longer keep the fake smile painted on her face, despite her
mother’s wishes, “But you wouldn’t know that. You wouldn’t know anything about me. 16
years, and what? You expect me to call you ‘Dad?’ Yeah, right.”
The tension grew within the confines of their small wooden table in the café, and Alice
interjected before either could start talking again, “Lila. Please. Your father reached out because
he wanted to see you, to meet you. Let’s just get to know each other a little bit first before
breaking out into World War III.”
“Thank you, Alice, but... she’s right. Look Lila, I know I screwed up – well, I haven’t
even been able to screw up because I was never there ‘til now but I just wanted a chance to meet
you. I’m so glad the two of you came out here to meet with me. I guess, when you’re diagnosed
with a terminal illness, it makes you realize all the things you haven’t and should do in your life,
and for me, that was meeting with my wonderful daughter and reuniting with her mother, my
high school love,” as Michael glanced towards Alice with a bright, reminiscing smile, his chest
sent him into a raucous coughing fit, causing Alice to stand from her seat to assist him. Lila
didn’t move.

“Are you okay?” Lila said, a very casual, uncaring tone in her voice rather than any type
of concern, as Michael nearly fell to the ground from his respiratory disturbance. Michael gave
her a pained grin and nod, as he sat back up in his chair, with Alice’s very needed help.
“Would you two mind accompanying me to my apartment? It’s just down the street. I
have something for you Lila, and for you, my dear, Alice, my Wonderland queen,” Alice looked
away, bashful from the usage of his old, high school pet name for her, and helped him out of the
chair to the door, gesturing for Lila to follow them.
When the estranged family got inside the apartment, Michael disappeared in his room, as
he told his guests to feel free to look around while he rummaged for his “somethings” that he’d
promised to give them. The apartment was immaculate, everything with pristine order and
cleanliness, especially the corner of the main room, which housed all of his medical necessities.
Lila swallowed hard, a bit of guilt in her stomach for being so harsh to what appeared to be a
dying man, if that corner of illness prefaced anything about her father.
Michael finally emerged after about seven minutes, with a wrapped box, a tag dangling
off the bow, reading, “For: My dear Lila – may your life bring you all that you desire. I would
trade anything to get back the time of your life I’ve missed, and I hope you’ll remain by my side
for the rest of mine. Please wait to open this until I can no longer be with you.” With shaky
hands, he placed the box in hers, a sad, yet gracious expression resting on his face. “And for you,
my Wonderland queen,” Alice smirked, with some annoyance at his insufferable amount of
charm, even at his lowest. He handed her a small box, wrapped in a newspaper article, the byline
reading, “Alice Jacobson.”
“You kept my newspaper article? Jeez, Mikey, this was from 16 years ago, you sap. I
can’t believe it was you that requested the break-up,” Alice laughed softly to herself, her heart
warmed, as she looked into the eyes of her former love, carefully shedding the box of its casing.
She opened the box to find keys to a 2002 Ford Thunderbird, the same car they rode in everyday
in high school. “Is this-?”
“Yep, our old T-Bird. It’s yours now, Alice, if you’ll have it... both of yours,” he said,
pointing back-and-forth between Lila and her mom. “I don’t have much use for it now, haha.”
His smile started to falter, and Lila looked away. Alice took his hand.
“Do they know how long until... you know?” Alice looked at him, tears starting to well
in her eyes.
“A few weeks maybe, a month or two at most. But it’s okay. Seriously,” Michael lifted
her chin up, as her head began to sink into a puddle, filled with her tears. “I don’t have many
regrets in my life but missing out on all these years of both your lives because of my own
selfishness, fear, and naivete as a teenager and running out on what could’ve been a family – our
family, will always be a chapter of my life I wish I could relive.”
“We were kids, Mikey, our classmates were cruel. They were terrible, to both of us, after
finding out that I was pregnant, of course you felt like you had to run. Not to mention your
parents’ reaction-” Alice began to draw excuses in the air but was interrupted before she could
say anything more.

“There’s no excuse for running out on you, Alice, no excuse for abandoning either of
you. I know I can’t make up for the time I lost in my ignoration of you two, but I want to do
whatever I can for and with you guys, before my time’s up. And Lila, I can never put into words
how much I wish I could go back in time and see all your milestones – your first steps, first
words, first love.” Lila suddenly placed the giftbox on the counter next to her, and fell into his
arms, tears streaming down her face. The pair embraced, their emotions of gain and loss filling
the space around them.
------------------------------------------- Three Weeks Later -------------------------------------------------
They stood in the room, staring at the empty bed as the sounds of a nearby EKG machine
echoed from its station. He was gone. They had three weeks together, of talking, laughing,
crying. That was all they had to catch up on 16 years of each person’s life, but the significance of
it all would stay in their memories and spirits for eternity.
As Lila piled both their bags and her into the Thunderbird, Alice thumbed over the paint
scratch, still on the door handle of the passenger’s side, and smiled to herself, a sad feeling of
closure encompassing her. The two headed on the road home, and finally, in honor of Michael’s
wishes, Lila opened her father’s gift to her, and thumbed through the photo album that had been
resting inside, along with a paperback novel. A collection of his memories, of his life, all in this
book, all in her hands. She pulled out a photo of him; he couldn’t have been more than 20. There
he sat, collecting the cooling shade from the tree shadowing him, reading a book, with a red and
white cover. The photo was too grainy for her to make out what the distanced pixels read, but the
coloration of it was clear. She looked at the other item in the box and saw that the colors of the
book matched the one in the photo. Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng lay in her right
hand, the photo in her left. She opened the novel, finding a letter taped to the inside cover.
All her life, Lila had wanted a relationship with her father, to hear his voice telling her
jokes, comforting her, being with her. In this box was everything he never got to say. She pulled
out the letter, and looked at the date, which read, “March 15th, 2021.” The handwriting much
resembled her own, and the tear that fell from her eye dampened the paper as she read what her
father, a then 17-year-old, had wrote to her, before she was even born, about how much he loved
her, despite the fact that she wasn’t yet in his world. The letter listed all he hoped to teach her,
and all that he hoped to watch her grow in to.
Lila hugged the box and its contents to her chest as her mom squeezed her hand gently.
Alice placed Michael’s old baseball cap, which he’d stuffed in her purse at the apartment on her
daughter’s head and smiled at the resemblance in the two loves of her life. The pair drove into
the night, side-by-side, as a family, their family: Mother, daughter, and the memories of the man
who adored them both.

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