To Die For - Davidson King Page 0,34
knew if I was ever going to make anything of myself, I’d either have to hit the lottery or get a scholarship somewhere. Then hope someone spotted me and wanted to give me a shot.” Sparkles gave a one-shoulder shrug.
“What happened?” I wasn’t sure he’d answer me, but he seemed to be opening up, and I wanted to make that last as long as I could.
“When I was about fifteen, things got strange. My mom started acting odd. Forgetting things, acting almost like a completely different person. I didn’t get it. She had to quit one of her jobs because she thought it was the stress, and I was able to get some side work getting paid under the table to make ends meet. But there was no improvement.”
Sparkles’s gaze moved around the darkened room, and he couldn’t seem to look at me. “I’m going to jump all around on you with this, so I’m sorry but it’s hard to explain if you don’t understand where I’m coming from. My mom and dad had me a little later in life. She was thirty-five when I was born. By the time I was fifteen, she was fifty.”
“Okay, now we know the math of it.” I gave him a small smile, hoping my understanding helped. He nodded once.
“I came home from school one day, and the house looked like someone had broken in. I couldn’t find my mom anywhere, and I called the police. They found her sitting at a bus stop, completely naked and bleeding. She wasn’t making any sense at all.”
“Jesus.” I reached over and took his hand, glad when he didn’t pull away.
“She was rushed to the hospital, and they ran all sorts of tests on her. They thought she was schizophrenic for a while. They gave her meds. It was a roller coaster. I stayed with this friend of hers from work and was okay there, but the longer she was away, the more worried I got. No one tells a kid much.” He shrugged again. “She was finally released and had this strict regime of pills and such. She couldn’t work and went on disability, but it paid so little in comparison to what she’d been getting with the three jobs.”
I understood that. “Yeah, when my dad died it hit everyone hard, we all had to band together. But you didn’t have anyone else.”
Sparkles frowned, and I sensed he was going to tie this story up with a bow that wasn’t completely the truth.
“Yeah, it was hard. I worked where I could. I was…I got this scholarship and learned to dance. My mom got some home care, but it wasn’t the best. When I finally graduated, I was able to teach dance, and I got her into a facility that helps her.”
There was so much of his story I knew he wasn’t saying, and if I wanted to know, I had a feeling I’d have to tread lightly. “Can I ask what the final diagnosis for your mom was?”
“They said it was severe dementia in the first place she was at. Then Parkinson’s. Where she’s at now is a much better place, and they feel she actually has Lewy Body Dementia, which is a more severe type of dementia, but there’s no way to truly diagnose that.”
“Why not?” I had no idea about any of this stuff.
“Because the only way to know is to autopsy a brain, and while my mom’s isn’t working at one hundred percent, she still needs it to live.”
For fuck’s sake. “So, to truly know, she has to die?”
He stared at me and in that silent dark gaze, I felt the power of his next words. “They’ll know for sure in probably three years.”
His mom was going to die. When my father died suddenly, it was like a jolt to everything. We weren’t prepared. I wondered…if I knew he was going to die, would it have been easier or harder?
“I’m sorry.” It was all I could say. What could I offer him? “Can I do anything?”
Sparkles smiled, and the darkness that was there a second ago dissipated.
“I dunno, Max. I’m starting to think you’re already doing something.”
Chapter Twenty
Lane
In the darkness of Max’s bedroom, with his mother and probably sisters somewhere below us, I did something I never thought I’d do. I inched closer to Max and tenderly pressed my lips to his. He stiffened for a moment, but then I felt his hand gently touching the back of my head. When he returned