Returning Home

Prompt from: Stories from the Jukebox

Prompt by: Rick West

Prompt #30: Here Comes the Sun: by The Beatles

“Are you okay there?” inquired her father as she did up her seat belt.

Rachel looked out through the open door. “Dad. Relax. I am fine.”

He closed the door with a gentle push, ran around the car before settling into his seat. “Would you like to sit up here Rachel? The seats are heated seats.”

Rachel laughed. “Dad, you are going to give yourself a heart attack if you keep going this way. I am fine.”

“I am just worried about you,” he said as he put his hands in front of the heater vents. “Let me know if it is too cold back there.”

“I will.”

He clicked on the windshield wipers. “I hope this snow lightens up soon,” he said as he shifted the car into drive. “It gets slippery when it snows too much.”

“I am sure you will get us home safely,” said Rachel absently as she looked out the side window at the falling snow. “It looks so pretty when it falls like this. I wish these moments could last forever.”

“Such big flakes gently falling. It is like a post card." They drove quietly for a bit. “Is there anywhere you would like to stop? Anything you would like to do.”

Rachel continued to look out the window. “I just want to go home. It has been such a long time.” She lapsed into her thoughts.

The silence in the car was deafening as they drove through the city. Rachel’s reflections of the past six months played through her mind once more. The brief snippets of her stay in the hospital were larger than life. And then there was all that her poor father had been through. 

Her father turned the radio up a bit to cover both of their thoughts as he drove.  

“First mom’s passing and now my issues,” thought Rachel. “He’s been through so much.”

“Dad, have you ever,” Rachel started but her dad turned the volume up even louder.

Here comes the rain again

Raining in my head like a tragedy

Tearing me apart like a new emotion 

She raised her voice uncomfortably loud. “”Dad! Please turn the radio down.”

“I’m sorry,” he said as he turned the radio down. “I like this song.”

“Dad,” started Rachel again. “We can’t keep avoiding the issue.”

Her dad assumed a quiet position as he stared out the windshield. “I can’t talk about this now. I have to keep you safe on our trip home.”

Rachel looked at the back of his head, then at his eyes in the mirror.  

“Dad,” she began softly. “You are not responsible for what happened to me in the hospital.” She paused as his shoulders lifted and fell in rapid succession. “You have always looked out for me but this time, it was all on me.” Rachel looked at the mirror for some recognition but she could only see the head rest.

“Dad,” she said as her father gulped.

“When they told me that you had died but they were able to bring you back to life I almost died myself. I couldn’t lose you. I just couldn't. And then the coma.”

“A healing coma.”

“Yes, a healing coma. You were just lying there. Looking helpless. It just broke my heart over and over again.”

“But I lived. I survived. I am going home.”

He brightened up, “Yes. All safe and healthy again.”

“There are going to be challenges.”

“There are always challenges. Challenges are good.”

“I’m glad you see it that way,” Rachel said as he drove the car in the driveway. She looked at their house. The snow was still falling but the sun peeked through the clouds and felt good on Rachel's skin.

Rachel smiled as her dad opened the car door for her and set the wheelchair close by. 

“And here is the first challenge now that I am home,” she observed as she braced herself to perform the movement she had been taught. There were things they were both going to have to get used to. 

Here comes the sun, doo, dun, doo, doo

Here comes the sun

And I say, "It's all right"

Songs mentioned:

Here Comes The Rain Again by The Eurythmics

Here Comes The Sun by The Beatles