Daisy received a video call from one of her children, the eldest being Dinah. She looked a lot like her mother when she was younger, though she has her father's nose. "Hi, mom. How are you feeling?" Dinah asked her.

"I'm fine, thank God. I'm worried about your aunt, she ran away." Daisy said.

"No! Did Peter do something to her?" Dinah asked her, she was a cop and she had contacts that dealt with cases of domestic violence.

"No no no! He didn't do anything to her. Is Camila. She moved out to get treatment."

"Treatment? Is she sick?"

"Yes, she has cancer." Daisy told her. Paul was serving his meal when she heard the conversation.

"Dinah, are you still there?" Paul asked as he tried to look at the camera.

"Yeah dad. How've you been?" Dinah replied at her father.

"I'm fine. Listen, your aunt needs all of your support, she needs to stay calm for her treatments to work. Tell your brothers when they find out to give Camila words of encouragement. No crying, no sob stories, no drama, just send her all the love." Paul advised her.

"Sure thing, dad. If it wasn't for your words of advice, I wouldn't be where I am today." Meaning she encouraged her to become a cop. Daisy was still upset that she took the job, the risk of getting shot, confronting dangerous criminals, agressive protesters, murderers. She begged her daughter to take another profession, but she already made up her mind. When she suceeded in getting a position within the police force, Daisy gave Paul the silent treatment.

Now Dinah was a mother of 2 beautiful boys. Michael, a 12-year-old brunette, and Gabriel, a 9-year-old raven haired boy with chubby cheeks.

"Hey Gramps!" Gabriel shouted.
"Hey kiddo!" Paul hollered.
"How you doin' grampa?" Michael asked him.

Dinah knowing how her boys love their gramPaul, they chat for hours.

Peter is having the worst day of his life, he had his bad days, but this takes the cake. He got a $10,000 fine in Iowa when he drove on his way to Minnesota for speeding. Now he is getting yelled at by an oncologist because he accidentally bumped into the oncologist's white Mitsubishi Mirage, making a dent that damaged both doors on the right side of the vehicle.

"You idiot! I just finished paying my car! You're going to pay for this. I'm gonna sue!" He yelled before he inspected the car to take pictures.

"No no please! I'm looking for my wife. She has cancer, please!" Peter begged, grabbing the coat of the oncologist. "I'll pay with what little I have, but please help me find her." Peter was on his kness, imploring for the man wearing an uniform.

"Very well then..." he took a photo of Peter's license plate as evidence in case he tried to get away. "I will help you, but I'm not gonna let this slip through my fingers." The oncologist held a smartphone with the photos of the damages. Right now, Peter was at his mercy.

Lilly and Camila arrived to Lilly's house. Lilly pressed a button from her car keys to open the garage. After parking, she unlocked the door and the woman came out of the minivan. Camila laughed while she walked to the trunk to open it, taking out her luggage. The glossy gray luggage rolled with its tiny dark wheels while Camila pulled the handle of the luggage.

"He did that?!" Lilly laughed.
"Yes! He brought me to a chinese restaurant and used the chopsticks as tusks on our first date!"
"If I were you, I would've dumped him on the spot. Do you have any idea how serious those Asians can be?" Lilly asked her.
"C'mon Lilly, the Asians have their own sense of humor. You dated a Chinese guy once. What was his name again?" Camila asked her.
"Ling Jianguo, he was such a good catch though. He kept his things organized and his shampoo smelled fantastic, too bad that he was a control freak. I don't know how a guy can keep a straight face while holding a butcher knife." Lilly unlocked the door.

"Hi Camila." Rachel greeted.
"Welcome." Marcus waved, albeit lazily.

"Hi, Rachel." Camila went up to them, first giving Rachel a hug. "You look beautiful."

"Uh, thanks." Rachel showed a nervous smile at her mom. Lilly gave her children a don't-you-dare-make-me-look-bad scowl.

"Hello, Marcus." Camila kissed him on the cheek. "Looking great, broken any hearts yet?" Camila quipped.

"I wish." Marcus thought, "Nah!" he responded.

"Lilly, where should I unpack?" Camila asked, walking down the hallway.

"It's next to my room." Lilly replied. Camila found the room that was prepared for her. The walls were painted in a peachy color, a twin sized bed. She laid the luggage unto the floral sheet of the bed to unzip it, opening it to reveal 2 blouses, 8 pieces of underwear, 3 pairs of pijamas, 3 skirts, 2 pairs of jeans and 3 pairs of shoes.

"Dinner is ready!" Rachel hollered by the time Camila finished organizing her clothing.

Lilly's daughter, Rachel, made pasta with eggplants and salad with ranch dressing while Marcus, Rachel's younger brother made his own sandwitch with lettuce, cheese, pastrami, pepperoni, anchovies with mustard and ranch dressing.

Back in Wisconsin, Daisy prepared dinner while her husband chatted with the grandkids about sports and players.

"Dinner is ready!" Dinah announced before the boys said goodbye to their grandPaul and ran to the dinner table. Dinah took hold of the video camera. "Talk to you tomorrow, dad. Love you." Dinah blew a kiss to the camera as Paul humored her, grabbing the invisible kiss and slapped it on his chest as he used to do so when Dinah was a child, then she hung up.

"Paul! Dinner is ready." Daisy hollered.
"I'm coming, woman!" Paul said in his usual gruff tone as he returned the phone to his wife. Daisy had already prepared the chick peas, beans, tuna, rice and gravy. Just the way he liked it.

"I called Dinah to ask if she could help track Camila, but she has no lead to where she is."

"Daisy, have faith in your sister. She'll call when she's ready."

"Are you sure about that?" She asked him, sounding hopeful.

"Of course! That's what I would do." He received a smack on the shoulder.

"Just shut up and eat already!" His wife commanded, sounding upset.

"Well don't mind if I do." Paul replied, as he looked at his plate greedily, taking a spoonful of rice, beans and tuna.

The oncologist walked up to the receptionist.
"Good evening, Oscar." The receptionist greeted him, she had her ash blonde hair tied in a bun while the screen reflected her glass.
"Good evening Sharon. Are the plaques ready?" He asked as he saw her type in the computer.
"Yes, already sent the paperwork into your office." Sharon replied, as she sent a notification to Oscar.
"Good." The receptionist before retreating into his office. After clearing the misunderstanding they had, Peter requested him to help find his wife.

"Tell me what is your wife's name? I'll have to check her name in the clinic's archive." He asked Peter.
"Her name is Camila Rose. If you find her, please let me know."
"I will, but I also need to see a photo of her in order to confirm it." The oncologist insisted. Peter agreed to show a picture of his wife, he couldn't deny that the woman looked beautiful. Camila had blonde curls, chestnut eyes and rosey lips. The emerald earrings made her eyes stand out in the photo, and she had a peachy skin tone. "I'll see what I can find."
"Thank you, doctor."
"You can call me Oscar."
"Thank you, Oscar." The oncologist didn't expect to get a bear hug from a stranger.

Oscar searched in the clinic's archives one by one. Checking the long list of patients. What he was doing is unethical, it would cost him his job. Yet he couldn't ignore the feeling that he had in the pit of his stomach, as if he longed to see more of her. As attractive as this Camila could be, is, he wasn't stupid. He wasn't going to throw his bachelor degree in Oncology over a woman he never met. He at least sympathized with the man to understand why he was risking everything to find her, but unlike Peter, he had common sense to not lose his objective. In this job requires quick thinking and firmness, that same firmness to bring stability to a patient with a potentially fatal illness. Speaking of which, his first client of the day came in to his office. He closed the window of the website to open another one.

They both made an agreement: Oscar would help him in exchange for him to pay for the damages on the dent that Peter provoked, whether intentional or not.

Peter returned to Winsconsin that night, he unpacked everything to leave his things where he left it before the day he discovered that his wife left him. He sat on the couch and wept.

At Lilly's house, Camila was in the shower washing her sensitive skin, and used a creamy soap that softened the hardened patches of her skin. Marcus entered the bathroom to pee, he lowered his shorts and briefs and urinated in the toilet bowl. He didn't mean to, but he looked at Camila's silhouette that was visible through the shower curtains. Afterwards, he let the last drops of urine drip out from his urethra before pulling up his briefs and shorts. In his teenage mind, he found it funny that a woman that wasn't his mother or sister washing up. Though he had to admit, Camila had a nice figure, even if it was just her silhouette that he could see. So he flushed the toilet and ran out of the bathroom before one of them could catch him there. Unfortunately, he bumped into his sister in the hallway.

"Watch it!" Rachel whined.
"Well excuuuuuuse me." Marcus drawled as he shrugged. Rachel glared at him as she saw him enter his room. Rachel was outside the bathroom and knocked on the door.
"Ms. Rose? Are you in there?" No response. She opened the bathroom door and found Camila on the floor. Oh my God! MOM!" Rachel shouted for help.

Daisy got out of the shower with her bathrobe and shower cap, she saw that the lamp was on as she walked into the bedroom to find her husband reading a horror novel by L. Luna while he adjusted his glasses, squinting, scrutinizing the letters and words amidst the fifth chapter. "Paul, stop squinting! It will ruin your eyesight!" Daisy admonished him while he looked at the page.
"Can you look for the magnifying glass? I'm trying to read this." Paul requested, not taking his eyes of the book.
"What's so important about that stupid book?" Daisy asked him.
"Not much, is just a teen horror novel about a group of boy scouts getting killed off or scared shitless by a missing boy scout, if you ask me, the plot is kind of flat." Paul closed the book before looking at his wife. "Daniel can tell scarier campfire stories than this dud. I still remember how I crapped my pants when he told me of the Peach Creek Serial Pincher when we used to go to summer camp. Dirty Dan going cabin to cabin, pinching the butt cheeks of the boy scouts of Peach Creek." He made a crab like gesture, pinching the air as if he were pinching his wife's nose from afar as he narrated part of Daniel's story, exposing his gay cousin's modus operandi. His wife remained unimpressed.
"Good night, Paul." Daisy brushed him off as she grabbed her pijamas and left the bedroom to change. He grumbled, then turned off the lamp.
"Good night."

Lilly checked on Camila after she and Rachel carried her to the bedroom. "What happened?" Camila stirred as she saw that her skin had a horrible rash.
"Your body collapsed," Lilly said to her, checking on her, "you should be careful, Camila. You need to be careful with what you apply to your skin. Usually, melanoma patients have sores on the skin that take longer to heal. You need to stop using body wash, it can moisten your skin, but it could also take the natural oils that your body needs. If you want to moisten your skin with something natural, try applying olive oil." Lilly stood up from the edge of the bed to find it. Camila heard Rachel and Marcus murmir about something, probably about the accident she just had. That is what she hated, gossip. If she had to bear with the fact that she got herself in this embarrassing situation, she didn't want to imagine what her husband would be doing if she saw her now.

"Camila." Peter dried his tears as he looked at the photo of him and his wife when they were younger. The photo was taken during their second date when they perused at the amusement park. They were teenagers back then, Peter has luscious, toussled chestnut colored hair.

Oscar finished attending his clients and resumed searching for Camila's medical record in the clinic's archives, starting with the folders that were listed under the later R. Scrolling with the wheel on the mouse, he looked for the surnames that began with that letter. "Ramirez... Reyes... Rivera... Rodriguez..." Then he stopped and found the surname. "Rose." He looked at her medical records to the oldest one up to the most recent. "So Lilly appointed herself as Camila's oncologist." Though neither of them interacted much at the clinic, he noticed that Lilly had a keen interest for her former college roommate. On one occasion, he noticed that her eyes glowed when she was talking to Camila on the phone. Back then, he hadn't known who was the woman that Lilly was talking to, but now that he had heard and seen this Camila. He started second guessing himself. Oscar worked from dusk till dawn during his shift and decided to inform Peter at another time.

At the next day, Peter returned to work. Though he did his job to keep himself busy, there were short instances that he couldn't stop thinking about his wife. His coworker noticed that Peter moved the crane a bit farther and alerted him.

"Oi!" He yelled, thought it wasn't heard since the gas emissions of the heavy machinery cancelled out his shouts, and the fact that Peter was working on an excavator ans his coworker on another. Peter put his excavator on hold when he saw a ping on his phone. It was from Jerry.

(Watch where you're swinging the clamp, you could hurt somebody.) Jerry 7:12 AM

After their shift, they entered to a café to eat lunch. "What has gotten into you, Peter? You're not like this." Jerry started.

"I know!" Peter retorted before he ate his BLT with mashed potatoes.

"If there is anything that you wanna get off your chest, let me know." Jerry told him, before he ate his baked potato with cheese and brocolli.

"I'll let you know." He lied as he ate his BLT.

At the clinic, Lilly took a lunch break and texted Camilla. No reply yet. She put her phone in her pocket before waiting in line at the clinic's cafeteria.

Camila simply looked for work, so far, no such luck. Lilly's text wasn't the only thing that popped up on her phone. She also received text messages from her relatives. Ranging from greetings, quotes, memes and emojis. The missing calls were from her sister.

"She still doesn't pick up. What am I going to do with her?" Daisy said as rubbed her temples in circles.

"You already know how she is? Why do you keep calling her?" Paul replied in his usual gruff voice.

"Even the kids have texted her and she hasn't replied to one of them." Daisy replied in a worried voice.

"She's probably busy, you told me that she likes to stay active. Didn't she used to work out at the gym?" Paul asked him.

"No, she used to work with Jim, the masseur. She used to work at a spa and beauty salon." Daisy clarified. "I already told you what happened! She got fired for putting the wrong essential oil and the client had an allergic reaction to one of the chemical components of the oil."

"Oh! Guess I got the whole thing mixed up." Paul admitted. A knock was heard.

Paul opened the door before a baritone voice greeted him. "Hey cus."
"Well look who it is!" Paul let him enter.

"Hello, Dan. If I had known you were coming, I would've made you a snack." Daisy greeted.

"No need, Daisy, I brought my own protein shake." Dan showed a fanny pack that contain velcro to hold his beverages.

Camila already sent her resume online and put the laptop down that she borrowed from Lilly. Wgen she picked up her cellphone she found 13 text messages and a missed phone call. She read all of the texts and replied to some of them.

While Peter and Jerry ate their lunch, Jerry checked his phone and found that he received another notification from the bank. His brows knitted together when he found out that his wife spent over half of the loan that was supposed to pay off the mortgage, instead, she is using to pay a lawyer to get their eldest son out of prison. He fumed. "$30,000.00" Jerry had to bite the urge to yell. Peter's eyes bulged when he saw his coworker tried to swallow the knot that was in his throat. Then he coughed. "They're gonna be the death of me." Jerry hyperventilated, Peter dashed next to his coworker. Jerry's eyes were focused on his coworker, "Peter... you're lucky that you don't have kids." He wheezed. "I dedicate my life to raise them right and they end up being ungrateful whelps." Jerry steadied himself. "And my wife...I love her, but she is driving me crazy, I put overtime not just to please her, but I also do it to stay away from them as long as possible."

"At least you have your wife, mine left yesterday." Peter confessed.

"Sorry to hear that, Pete. Guess we're both having a hard time." Jerry said.

"What brings you here, Dan?" Paul asked.

"I heard what happened to Camila from Dennis and I came to visit." Daniel replied.

"Camila ran away yesterday, she still hasn't come back." Daisy said to him.

"She needs time and personal space to sort things out." Daniel said to her.

"That's what I've been telling her." Paul commented.

"Thought I'd give you a present." Dan gave Paul a book.

"You seriously wrote a book?" Paul held the hardcover of the book. It contained a collection of short stories, including the campfire stories that Daniel used to tell during their teenage years.

"Well yeah, it's more of a hobby. A friend of mine works at a publishing company. Thought I'd give it a shot." Daniel said.

"With the boring books that's getting published lately, at least I'll be getting a good read."

"It also has a bookmark." Daniel added, Paul saw the bookmark of two boyscouts, illustrated in a cartoony style, with a dark swampy background, with fireflies on the upper right corner and a fake badge illustrated at the bottom.

"Nice! Reminds me of the old days." Paul said as he smirked. "Thanks, Dan."

"Have fun." Dan said as Paul picked up his reading glasses and sat on the recliner. Daisy was still bewildered that Paul acted like a child sometimes.

"May be you can convince her to come back. You got cured from cancer, you can give her some advice." Daisy suggested.

"The only advice I could give her is to have faith. Whether she wants to take the advice or not is up to her." Daniel told her.

After lunch, Lilly received a text message from Camilla. (I'm doing fine, just sent my resume. Wish me luck.) She put her phone down and checked on her computer for her client's medical records before calling in her next patient.

Oscar was in his house, sleeping. As he slept, he dreamt that he was at the clinic doing his usual routine, checking his patients and giving them treatments related to the type of cancer the patient had. As one of his patients left, he saw another patient entered. Only this time, it was Camila that came into his office.

"I didn't expect to see you here." Oscar admitted, he tried to call his secretary. "Adelaide, have you brought her plaques? Adelaide answer me! Where are you?" Oscar felt a hand on his shoulder and she whispered in his ear.

"I am your new secretary."

Oscar woke up in a cold sweat, with bloodshot eyes. He checked his alarm clock, it was 4:23 PM where he was at. "I have to warn Peter." He tossed the bedsheets to the side and got out of bed, trying to ignore the hard on from the wet dream he had.