This is a short tale about a fairy. There is minimal emphasis on sex, so, if that's what you're seeking you might want to skip this one. Everyone is way over 18. Don't forget to vote and comments. Thanks
A Loving Fairy Tale
Dennis sat in the Oncologist's office waiting. Rather than being in an examination room he had been taken into Dr. Chui's private office to go over the test results. He had only been sitting there for a few minutes when the doctor came in. They shook hands then Dr. Chui sat in the chair facing him.
"So, what's the verdict?" Dennis asked, smiling.
"It is cancer. The biopsy confirmed small-cell carcinoma. It's still only in your lung so we have just the one area to address."
Dennis chuckled. "Address? Interesting choice of term. It's near the hilum, so, it isn't operable. To radiate it, you'd also be frying my esophagus, making eating a thing of the past. Chemo would have me sick all the time. Dr. Chui, in a few months I'll be eighty. I have just two questions. How long do you think I have?"
"Months. Six months, at best."
"Second question, can I be kept comfortable?"
"I can give you information on hospice care. They'll keep you comfortable. I'm sorry I don't have anything better to offer."
"Like I said, I'm almost eighty. I've lived an amazing life and will leave with no regrets. Now, if you'll give me the hospice info, I'll let you get back to saving lives."
Dr. Chui grabbed a packet from his desk and handed it to Dennis. They stood and shook hands then Dennis turned toward the door.
"Mr. Oakes," the doctor said. Dennis turned to him. "If you change your mind, sooner is better than later."
"Noted. Thank you for your time."
Dennis left the office. When he got to his truck, he called his attorney and scheduled a visit for that afternoon. He went to Denny's, had a small lunch, then drove home to his trailer.
After retiring, ten years earlier, he had bought the small travel trailer and parked it near the pond on his son, Jeff's, property. His retirement had been quiet, and he had spent most of his time alone. He saw his son a few days a week, mostly in passing. His daughter-in-law, Sarah, visited with him daily. She and Jeff had married just two years earlier and they had gotten close. He called Sarah on his cell phone and invited himself to dinner. He rarely actually visited their house, preferring the solitude of the back forty, as he called it.
After gathering up his important papers, he left for the attorney's office. He updated his will and made sure there would be little left for Sarah and Jeff to oversee when the time came. He left everything to his son. There were no debts to pay. His cremation had already been prepaid.
After dinner, he sat on the back porch with them and told them of his diagnosis and about the visits with the doctor and lawyer. They discussed options and agreed to his decision.
"Why don't you move into the house? I'd rather you not stay in your RV," Sarah asked.
"I need to finish my book and I need to be alone for that. When that's done, I plan to move to a nursing facility for hospice."
"Dad, those places suck. Stay with us," Jeff suggested.
"Thank you both, but no. I want you two to continue with your lives. You can come and visit me at the home. I'll be in the room with the line of old broads outside."
Jeff chuckled. "Probably so."
"You?" Sarah asked, incredulously.
"Don't let him fool you. Dad used to bring home a different woman every night. Well, after for the Heidi thing, anyway."
"My father-in-law, the male whore," she said.
"Pretty much," Dennis replied. "I finally quit that when I retired."
"Why?" Jeff asked.
"I guess I was looking for something. I finally came to the realization that I was never going to find it."
"What were you looking for?" Sarah asked.
"You were looking for what you had with Heidi, weren't you?" Jeff asked.
His father nodded.
"Who and what is Heidi?"
"Sarah, do you believe in love at first sight?" Dennis asked.
"Oh yeah," she replied, squeezing her husband.
"I was about twenty-five. I saw Heidi in a restaurant and fell head over heels in love with her."
"So, what happened?"
"We were together for about three months. The happiest three months of my life. One day she just left. I never heard from her again."
"Why'd she leave?"
"No idea. She left me a note on the kitchen table that said, 'I'll see you again.'"
"Did you?" Sarah asked.
"No. It was like she left the planet."
"Before Heidi, dad dated occasionally. After she left, he didn't go out with anyone for a least a year. Then he went woman crazy," Jeff added.
"You really loved her, huh?" Sarah asked.
"I still do. I never got her out of my system."
"That sucks," Sarah said, seriously.
"Yeah, but if I had it to do over again, I would. Those three months made the next fifty-five years worth it."
"I'd like to hear more about her sometime," Sarah told him.
"You can read my book when I finish it."
"I'd like that," she replied.
Dennis went back to his trailer a short time later. He was up writing much of the night. The following day he met with hospice and made arrangements for placement when time grew nearer.
A month passed, then a second. His book was finished. He had lost a lot of weight. Before asking Sarah to drive him to the Collinwood Nursing Facility, he presented her with his only copy of his book. The title read, "Found, Then Lost Forever." She drove him to the facility and stayed with him until he was settled in. Sarah cried on the drive home.
She began reading the book the following morning and had trouble putting it down. When Jeff came in from mowing, he found her on the bed crying. He sat next to her, stroking her long brown hair.
"What's wrong?"
"I finished your dad's book. That was the most beautiful, heartbreaking, thing I've ever read."
"Heidi was special. We both loved her," he said.
"You knew her?"
"I did. She said she was the Queen of the Fairies. I believed her, but I was only about five."
"I wonder what happened to her?" Sarah asked.
"No idea. I can't count the number of times I've looked for her online. She just doesn't exist."
"Do you think she loved him?"
"She loved us both. Sarah, there was something magical about Heidi. I have no doubt that it hurt her as much as it did us when she left."
"It just doesn't make sense that she left that way."
"No, and I doubt we'll ever know why."
*****
Jeff and Sarah visited their dad the following afternoon. He was sitting at a large table full of women playing bingo. The women seemed infatuated with him. Sarah chucked and pointed it out to Jeff.
"He's a chick magnet, babe. Kids flock to him the same way. The dad you know isn't the one that raised me. He was always the life of the party."
"Was he like that before Heidi?" she asked.
"Not to the extent he was afterward. She changed him. Me too. I was a really shy little kid until I met her. She brought me out of my shell."
"He has the note she left in the back of the book."
"Damn, that's about fifty years old."
They waited in the sidelines until bingo was over then joined him at the table. None of the women seemed to want to leave until he did, and even then, two of them followed along behind as he went to his room.
"So, how is the place?" Jeff asked.
"Crowded. It's tough finding a place to be alone."
"You'll have to lock your door to keep your fan club out," Sarah chuckled.
"No lock on the door. If it's closed, the staff knocks once then comes in. My fans, so far, don't come in unless invited."
"I read your book. Are you going to publish it?" Sarah asked.
"Hadn't planned on it. What did you think?"
"Beautiful, loving, heartbreaking. You should publish it."
"I won't have time for that. After I'm gone, maybe you can do that. Change the names though. The original is on my laptop."
"Why change the names?" she asked.
"Heidi's probably out there with a family of her own. I wouldn't want to do anything that might interfere with that."
"You did get pretty graphic with the sex," Sarah said, grinning.
"Yeah, but the story wouldn't have been complete without it."
Sarah thought for a moment before answering. "No, it wouldn't have.
They chatted for about an hour before leaving.
*****
His decline was rapid. Within a few weeks the pain had become worse, he wasn't eating hardly anything, and his weight dropped rapidly. Sarah visited daily. Jeff came about every other day. Watching his father's rapid decline was taking a toll on him.
Within another week Dennis was mostly in bed. He slept more than he was awake. Sarah got a call from Diljan, his hospice nurse, telling her that it would be a matter of a few days now.
