One month in Alaska

Knock! Knock! Knock!

"It's time for breakfast Gianna." Mrs Adams shouted from outside. Annoyed and disturbed, Gianna yelled at her "Leave me alone mum!". Mrs Adams left her room and went downstairs to join the rest of the family who started eating already. " She's not ready to come out of her room." Mrs Adams drawled as she took a seat on the right hand side of her husband. "I wonder what's going on with her." Mrs Adams said again as she looked up at her room door.

"Mateo,what's wrong with your sister?" Mr Adams asked. Silence followed and the couple looked up at Mateo who playing games on his phone with earphones plugged in his ears. "Mateo!!" The couple yelled. This time around he heard them. He looked at them confusingly and removed the earphones. Staring at the cheesed off faces, he asked cluelessly "What?." "Hand over that phone...Now!" Mr Adams said with an authoritative voice and shaken Mateo dropped the phone on the table for Mr Adams to pick it up. "What's wrong with your sister?" Mrs Adams asked Mateo again. "You should ask her yourself" Mateo said with sarcasm.

Mrs Adams stretched her hand and slapped his back hard. "Mum!" Mateo screamed. "You lack basic manners and I'll teach you!" Mrs Adams shouted at him. "Now,I'm going to ask again, what's wrong with Gianna?." Not wanting to receive a hit again, he answered politely "I'm not sure, maybe the psycho doctor is giving her problems.." "And who is this psycho doctor that reserves a seat in a bus to the afterlife? Huh! Why making my daughter's life miserable?" Mrs Adams was shouting at a neutral tone. "Calm down honey.." Mr Adams cooed.

Gianna's footsteps could be heard as she walked down the stairs slowly. Everyone's attention was gained as they all look up to watch her till she got to the ground floor. Her eyes were kinda red and she looked pale. Her lips were dry too. "Good morning everyone.." She greeted. Her voice came out hoarse. She had cried the whole night, her head was banging hard that when she got up from the bed, she lost balance and had to stay for a while to gather strength. She came down to eat breakfast probably because she had no strength to cry again.

"Good morning darling.." Mrs Adams replied as he made her seat beside her.

She started eating and she noticed that Mateo was glaring at her. "What is it?." She asked as she put a bacon in her mouth. "You know what? Everything about you is just so annoying!." Mateo said. "Stop that Mateo! She's your elder sister" Mr Adams scolded. Gianna wasn't in anyway surprised,he has always been like that so she's used to it. "Apologize now!" Mr Adams ordered. "..I'm sorry" Mateo said to Gianna insincerely and he got up to walk out on the family when he heard his dad say "Walk out and you're taking a break from your phone for a month" Wtf! No on told Mateo before he took his seat and resumed eating. He was going to make Gianna pay for this!.

"Gianna, pack your bags, you are visiting Alaska tomorrow" Gianna was surprised. Her fork slipped from her hand clumsily. "Alaska? Going there for what?". "A month holiday with Old Williams.." Mr Adams said and Mateo let out and mocking laugh. "Ha ha haha ha, I guess I'm gonna have peace for the rest of the year." "Don't get too excited Mateo, you're also going to Florida, to stay with the old Adams,for a month."

Mateo was unable to believe what he just heard "You've got to be kidding me mum, there's no way I'm going to Florida, absolutely no way! I'd better go to Alaska" Mateo protested. "It has been decided, I booked a seat for you already. It's an early take off, you are on the train's top reserved seats so get set very early tomorrow okay?" Mr Adams said, not expecting a reply. Mockingly, Gianna let out a smile and said to Mateo "Wish you a happy holiday bro!." Mateo glared at her angrily but she only smiled back.

"Gianna, I'm sure you haven't take a leave at your place of work this year, so you should be granted a one month leave right?" Mr Adams asked. "Yeah..sure." "Uhmm, speaking about work, Gianna don't you think you should be at the hospital by now?" Mrs Adams said after glancing at the wall clock in the living room. Gianna turned to check what the time was and damn! It's 8:49am. "How come no one told me time's far spent?" She screamed as she sprang on her feet. 'Temple run activated!'. She ran to her room like a crazy cheetah. She almost fell on the staircase and Mrs Adams heart gripped in fear "Take it easy darling.!"

After she spent a minute under the shower, she turned it off and quickly dressed up, she didn't bother applying her body lotion. She put on a high waist black fitted trousers, a cropped white T-shirt with a black camisole beneath , a white sneakers and packed her hair into a neat ponytail.

Getting to the ground floor, Mrs Adams quickly crossed Gianna with a cup of tea in her hand. "Finish up your tea.." Gianna collected the cup and emptied the contents into her mouth and then gave it back to her mum.

On her way to the bus stop, she jogged for a while, stopped, walked for a while,stopped and jogged again so that she wouldn't miss the last bus that morning. It went on like that till she got to the bus stop. She waited for about ten minutes before the last bus arrived and she boarded it.

Getting to the 10th floor, she went straight to her office which she shared with a cardiothoracic nurse , a colleague and two other junior practitioner. Getting there, she met no one in the office and she wondered where they were. She dropped her bag and put on her gown which had a badge that indicated the name of the hospital and 'Gianna Adams'. She peeped outside the office and called the attention of a passing nurse quietly to ask him where the cardiothoracic surgery team were. She was replied with "They are in the OR (Operating room)" and Gianna was shocked to her bones. Jeez,she felt like dying right now. Her life was so doomed. She missed an operation again!. Getting to know that her boyfriend is dating her best friend was more better than this news she just received. The psychopathic dog is definitely going to pull her ears and scold her till the Heavens open. She sneaked to the OR area and tried to get the room that her team were preforming in. She tiptoed from one room to another and when she got to the 6th room she'll be checking, she peeped again to see those who were inside and she suddenly heard a voice behind her "And where have you been?." Gianna stiffened as she already knew who it was - the one she has been trying to avoid.

Slowly, she turned around to face him and she kept her head low. "I'm sorry.." She said as she intertwined her fingers at her back nervously and waited for the crazy dog's lashing. "You are always sorry for your unpunctuality,you missed a heart operation class again. I wonder when you'll graduate from this university, I bet you'll be here till you get grey hair." Doctor Jose was shouting on top of his flat voice. People passing by stared at him as he kept blabbing. Gianna wasn't embarrassed because she was used to get these scoldings almost everyday. Apart from the first lines of words he said, Gianna didn't hear anything anymore, the only thing on her mind was how to escape the crazy dog now.

She saw a group of doctors in their gowns and seeing that the crazy dog wasn't looking at her,she mingled with the passing by doctors and acted normal. Before he realised that she was gone, Gianna was close to her office. Angry, Doctor Jose yelled out of anger"Gianna Adams!!!."

"So you got coffee this morning?." Nurse Maya asked. "Sure..a hot one" Gianna answered as she tiredly sat on her chair. Maya wheeled her chair to where was and patted her back "This will also pass." Gianna let out a smile and sat up straight to start work. She felt energized by Maya's words. Maya wheeled back to her space also. After some minutes, Maya said uncomfortably "My throat feels sore..". Gianna offered to go get her coffee and as she was about to open the door, the door was pushed from outside and a medical practitioner called Zoe,walked in. The lady and Gianna stared at each other for some seconds then Zoe walked into the office fully while Gianna left.

***

It's lunch break and Gianna and Zoe were the only ones in the office,the others had gone out to have lunch. Gianna was looking up some internal organs on the computer while Zoe was doing only - God - knows on her phone. She was giggling and all, Gianna couldn't bring herself to challenge her. She was feeling really uncomfortable with her.

Minutes after, the door opened and Gianna let out a sigh of relief, believing that the other practitioner s were here but she was shocked to her bones when she saw someone she always hoped and prayed not to meet or see for the rest of her days on earth. It was Axel.

The latter walked in with a smiling face and Zoe got up from her seat to hug him. Gianna and Axel's eyes met but she immediately withdrew her eyes and turned to her computer. Her heart started beating at a very fast rate and as she saw Zoe place her lips on his lips, she felt shattered and tears threatened to drop from her eyes. She quickly took them back and tried focusing on what she was studying. Suddenly,Zoe intentionally started forming false emotions just for a show in front of Axel "Baby...I missed you so much, I thought I was gonna die of missing you..I..I..I missed you so....." Her voice broke and she shed crocodile tears. Touched by her words, Axel pulled her into his arms and patted her hair just like he used to, to Gianna. Gianna was really amused and angry at the same time, how can someone be two - faced?. Zoe forced a kiss with Axel again,this time, it was long. Even though Axel wasn't in support of kissing her in front of Gianna,she did it intentionally to anger Gianna. Not able to withstand the freaking scene, Gianna shut down the system and walked out of the office.

Just after she left, Zoe pulled out of the kiss and smirked when Axel wasn't watching. ",Look, I brought you lunch" Axel said.

After she left the office, Gianna ran to the restroom and locked herself up in one of the toilets. She fell to the floor and started crying very hard, she cried for minutes and tried to get up. With wobbled legs,she fell to the floor again. She had to stay for minutes before getting up again. This time, her legs were stable and she washed her face, wiped it and dressed her hair neatly before leaving the restroom.

***

"Whoa! The smell of Alaska.." Gianna said as she inhaled deeply. She was away from the rail port now,all she needed to do was board a cab to her grannies' home.

Ting! It's time for the passengers' crossing. Walking across the road slowly while pressing her phone didn't make her realise that the 'P.C' light had changed to the red light. A car was driving towards her at a full speed and before she realised it,the car almost hit her but it didn't. It mist have taken the driver a lot of human capita to stop the moving car. Gianna quickly moved out of the road in fear and bowed her head in apology to the driver. She couldn't see him though, the car was tainted black. After the car left, Gianna sighed and said to herself "This is a very bad one.." She believed that her days in Alaska will be filled with risks and dangers. After some minutes, she successful boarded a taxicab to her grandparents' house.

As she entered the Williams' house, she shouted "Hello here!" There was no reply. She wondered where the old couple had gone to. Suddenly, she heard an old but firm voice behind "Is that my granddaughter?" Turning back to look at him, her grandfather, Gianna said happily "Of course! It's me grandpa" She says and pulled him into a right hug "I missed you so much grandpa" Pa Patrick patted her back and pulled out of the hug. They really missed each other. The last time they saw each other was 10 years ago,when she was 14. She and her parents including little Mateo came to Alaska for a Christmas holiday, but this time around, she came alone, as a grown up.

"I don't see grandma..." Gianna said as she eye - searched.

"Grandma!" Gianna screamed as she sighted ma Lucy in the garden. "Gia..is that you?" "Yes granny" Gianna replied and ran to where her grandmother was and hugged her tightly. "I missed you so much" Gianna said amidst happy tears. "I missed you too..grandchild..." Ma Lucy said and Gianna chuckled. "I'm no longer a grandchild granny. I'm a grand lady!" Gianna said hilariously. Ma Lucy slapped her back "Aargh!" Ma Lucy held her face and said emotionally "To me, you are still a child." Both granny and grandchild laughed at their emotional talks.

"Go get a bowl and start plucking those fruits and vegetables" Ma Lucy ordered.

"One of the reasons this place is like hell..." Gianna mumbled. Ma Lucy slapped her back again "What did you say?" Rubbing her pained back,she replied quickly "Nothing..."