Chapter 488 Big Girls Don't Cry:>19

• The drive to the airport was as grim and tense as I'd been dreading it would be; Lena went in the MPV taxi with mum, dad, and their luggage, squeezing-in a last few minutes with them, and I followed with the aunts as my passengers. Min tried talking to me as we drove to Bristol International, the old Lulsgate Airport, but I had too much on my mind right then, so after a while she gave up, Doreen just leaning over to brush my face with her fingertips without saying anything. Lena had been even more uncommunicative this morning, the reality of our parents' leaving now striking home, but I had nothing to say to her; what could I possibly have said? Min and Doreen seemed to understand this, and even their small talk together soon petered-out.
• We sat in the departure lounge, waiting for their flight to Paphos to be called, me mostly in silence, Lena looking lost and ready to cry.
• I felt like I was about one step behind her; they weren't going on holiday, they weren't retiring abroad, they were going to Cyprus because my dad was dying, and his doctor thought he might eke out a few more weeks or months of life if he left. I understood that; I'd probably have made the same recommendation, but that didn't make me feel any better about it.