One morning as Gerald was getting ready for practice, he heard a knock at the door. When he opened it up, he saw Joe standing outside.
"Morning" said Joe "I noticed your truck still wasn't outside and I was just checking if you needed a lift to practice?"
"No, I can walk. It's not that far." answered Gerald.
"Alright, well if you need a ride, call me." Said Joe, as he peeked his head around Gerald and saw his mom, asleep on the couch.
"Okay, see you at practice" responded Gerald as he frantically shut the door in Joe's face.
"I don't need his pity" said Gerald to himself.
"Maybe it isn't pity" his mom responded as she was sitting up. "Maybe he's just trying to help. He knows what you're going through, he went through it too"
"Well I don't need his 'help'" Gerald yelled, putting air quotes around the word help.
On the walk home from practice, Gerald noticed that his mom wasn't sitting in her porch swing like she usually does on nice days like these, he ran up the driveway and rushed inside.
"Ma! Ma!" He shouted, but didn't hear anything, he ran up the stairs into her room, but she wasn't in there.
"Mom! Mom!" He continued to shout. He went into the den, and saw her in his father's old chair with her head in her hands.
"Ma, what's going on?" He asked her worriedly. She looked up, tears welled up in her eyes, "It's your father." she told him, and stuck her head back into her hands and started to cry again.
"Mom, what happened? He's fine, I talked to him yesterday." He said with tears rolling down his cheeks.
"That was yesterday." She told him with her head still in her hands.
Gerald dropped to the ground, and started crying.