Chapter 36.

Friday was a busy day. I left the apartment at 9 am to go see Mr Moretti to explain my situation to him and give him my resignation. He was of course disappointed, but understanding too. After that I went to the dialysis center called KidneySPA, it was eleven minutes of drive away from West Brickell which was awesome.

There I was given a brochure showing the kind of lifestyle that my father had to adopt, and they told me that my dad had to come to do some check up so that they can schedule his sessions. I had talked about it with my dad and he preferred the night sessions,which was convenient for me too, because I could drop him off before I go to work. I also spoke with the specialist, who explained to me that it was important for my father to keep his dependence on himself for a while, he made me understand that beyond his illness, people on dialysis tended to feel useless and as a burden to their relatives, which could also lead to depression.

After leaving the center, I went shopping and returned home around noon. I found my father in the living room with Gina playing chess. It was nice to see how the two got along so well. I also noticed that they had redecorated the living room to find a place for all my father's discs. I left them to their stuff and went to prepare lunch.

I was in the kitchen for a while when Gina came to join me.

"You need help?" she asked me as she entered.

"Yes please." I told her to help me peel the potatoes. And she settled to work.

"I would like to talk to you about something." she told me. I immediately understood what she wanted to talk to me about.

"I'm listening to you."

"I know Greg told you about the association I want to start."

"Yes he did."

"And he told you that I wanted you to help me on it."

"Yes he told me, what I don't understand is why me? I don't want you to make such a crucial decision, because of what is happening with my father, just to help."

"No, I swear it has nothing to do with that. Well maybe a little, but it's not just that, this project is too close to my heart for the reasons you know, and I don't want to work on it with a total stranger who doesn't know how much it means to me. Meg, you're the only person I've talked to about it, which proves that I trust you more than anyone else." she was playing on my feelings, and it worked, I understood the importance that this association was going to have for her.

"But Gina, I don't know anything about this association stuff."

"Me neither, but it's not that difficult, we'll learn and we'll manage." I took a deep breath thinking.

"Please say yes." Gina continued to beg me, making soft eyes at me.

"Okay, but..." I hadn't finished my sentence when she put down the peeler and came to give me a hug.

"Yes yes yes, Thank you... Thank you Thank you, so, so much." she said that while placing kisses on my cheek. She made me laugh out loud.

"But..." I continued my sentence when she calmed down. "If I screw up, you find yourself someone else. Ok?"

"OK!" she answered and gave me an other hug "Wow, thank you so much!" her delighted face made me smile. And I continued what I was doing, but at that moment a thought came to my mind.

"Your brother doesn't know why you want to do it." her smile disappeared.

"And I prefer it to stay that way." she went back to peeling the potatoes.

"Why ?" I was curious.

"Because I know him, I don't know what he would be capable of doing. It's not pretty to see when he gets really angry. And also he would be sorry not to have known it before. Not to mention that it would cause trouble between him and our mother."

"I understand your point of view, but it's normal that he gets angry, you're his sister and that bastard took advantage of you. And he might get angry with you if he ever comes to know."

"I hope he doesn't find out, and you have to promise me to never tell him for any reason."

"No, don't worry. I won't tell him, if I telling you this, it's for you. I thought it might help you to share what happened to you with your brother, and maybe he'd understand the reason for the coolness between you and your mother."

"Honestly, now I think the work I've been doing on myself has worked and I've come to terms with what happened to me and made peace with it. Well I hope. What I need to do right now is to give my all to this association to bring help to those who are going through the same thing."

"That's very generous of you." I told her with a comforting smile and she returned it.

"Thanks to you for accepting to help me."

Me, Gina and my dad took our lunch at 2.p.m. With my father who made two or three jokes as usual, and Gina who was laughing at all his jokes, I could say that there was really a good mood. Me, on the other hand, I was a little preoccupied, and I pretended to be with them in the jokes but I didn't laugh that much, and that had nothing to do with the fact that I had heard the jokes at least once. Seeing my father laughing made me rethink a lot about what the specialist had told me about the depression of people on dialysis, I was hoping that it wouldn't happen to my father, of course, but I was worried because, these last days my father had seemed to be a little emotionally down.