Thanks for all the comments! They're all very similar in essence, so I'll just say:
. Yes, Bubba died.
Chapter 102 - Sauna in the Snow They had just kissed each other good night and climbed into bed when it happened. Mama heard a soft little sigh as she was drifting off to sleep, and she turned her head to see that he had risen up, almost floating. His body died and became ghostly as she watched.
Iris Bianca Elysi is a doctor. She's seen dozens of people die as she tried to save them, and she let the families mourn while trying to save the next patient instead of moping after the last. Dr. Elysi is professional, detached, and tireless. My mother is the exact opposite.
The last two things in the world Daddy saw were his wife, and a picture of his daughter that he had taken. Then he dissolved into gray mist.
And Mama cried, and cried, and couldn't stop crying. She felt like she had when Bianca had died all those years ago, when Grandpa Brandon died when she was just a little girl at the festival. All of that pain, but infinitely worse.
She finally went to sleep, on his side of the bed, and pretended that the still-warm blankets were his arms around her.
I didn't know until morning. But I must have felt something, because that night I held Jerry close and didn't let go, as if afraid that he would melt away into the mist.
Rest in Peace, Bubba. Fan Favorite. Watcher's Favorite. A truly wonderful spouse and father. You died seconds away from turning 110.
The elders were the first to know, as they left their cubicles for Ambrosia. They had gone through the same exact pain and loss, so they had comforting words to offer, and knew that the comforting words meant nothing. There is pain that never goes away, and is barely numbed by the passing of two-hundred and fifty years, as Grandma Serena knows only too well.
My great-grandmother held my mother as she broke down in the sacred room where the Ambrosia is held, while the other elders looked on or looked down.
Everyone has a different way of managing their grief. Me? I run. I am an astronaut, a warrior, a military general, the one who halted the alien invasion of Sunset Valley, the youngest person to reach the very top of the military. And I can run for fifteen hours at a time, until my muscles collapse and I can't breathe.
But even fifteen hours of sprinting on a treadmill isn't nearly enough.
I found her standing alone in the snow, and I did my very best to comfort her. I had lost my father, but she had lost her husband. I had come to terms with losing Daddy after unleashing my alien technology on the Spring Festival, but I couldn't begin to imagine losing Jerry.
But somehow the words turned to tears, and tears became sobbing, and then Mama was telling me that it would all be okay was if I was a kid again and had scraped my knee.
She went back into her little house, and I returned to Level B2 to start trying to cheer myself up. Grandma Bree had passed down the mascot costume through the years, and I had always wanted to try it out but never had the opportunity. Now seemed the perfect time to take up my birthright.
Jerry knew something was wrong when he came home to find a llama backflipping in the basement.
Actually, that was a semi-normal occurrence--he knew something was wrong when he came home to find me walking through the house in my everyday dress.
I told him quite calmly what had happened, and he nodded, lifting my hand to his face comfortingly. "
It'll be okay, Mikayla. We'll get through this, and see him again at the end."
And so, while Mama played chess all alone for the first time since her young adult birthday . . .
We snuggled in the sauna while the snow fell. "
Do you want to do this?" he asked, turning his head to look at me.
"
Now? After everything--"
"
Yes, after everything." He answered firmly. I love it when he's like that, frankly it's adorable. "
Nothing will help you more than to have a child, your father's grandchild. You know it's what he would have wanted."
"
You don't have to convince me." I stood up, pouring more water on the coals. "
I want a baby just as much as you do."
"
Girl or boy?"
"
Girl, of course! Don't be so silly, Jer-bear."
"
But don't you like it when I'm silly?"
"
I absolutely love it."
After trying several times and hearing chimes, Jerry froze and fell over like a human popsicle. Isn't that just too cute? Like a little puppy with panda eyes.
"
Bubba, you know it was your turn to clean the bathtub!"
Silence.
"
All right, all right, you don't need to look at me like that. I'll get it this time, but you'd better not flake out on me again, mister!"
