In the evening, Joe felt very delighted to sit in the dining room and eat the noodles Cherry had cooked for him.
"Mommy, it's so yummy! You're the best cook in the world, " cheerfully said Joe while munching on his food.
"There's no need to hurry, boy. No one's going to take your food away, and there's also still some more left in the kitchen, " gently said Cherry as she gazed at Joe with all the love and tenderness that she could reflect in her eyes to him.
"Okay, " replied Joe.
After dinner, Cherry and Joe relaxed on the sofa and chatted with each other.
"Mommy, do you have any plans about what we're going to do next?" suddenly asked Joe as he seriously looked at Cherry.
Cherry pondered his question for a moment, and replied, "Joe, what I'm thinking is that tomorrow we should go to your Uncle's home and visit your grandparents. Next week I'll start looking for a job, and you'll go to school as usual. We'll live in this house, and I'll drive you to school and back every day. How does that sound?"
"But Mommy, you'll get very tired if you do so many things every day. You'll not only have to work, but you'll also have to take care of me, " said Joe a little upset. It seemed like they were living abroad again, because his Mommy will be busy working all day long again to make ends meet. What time she would have left after that, she would have to dedicate it to Joe.
Cherry gave off a little smile, and while she gently stroked her son's hair, said, "It's alright, Joe; Mommy's already used to this sort of thing."
As he looked into Cherry's eyes, Joe asked, "Mommy, did Daddy really leave us? Is it true that the three of us can't live together anymore?"
Cherry calmly answered him, "No, it's not true. Your Daddy would never leave us."
Along with the strong encouragement that everything will be alright, Cherry also had a strong will. Even if Jackson wanted to leave her, she would never let him go, and would stay with him no matter what happened. She had already decided long ago that she would be with him forever, to love him and to protect him.
While Joe remained silent, Cherry continued to say, "Joe, your Great-Grandpa has just passed away, and this broke your Daddy's heart, because your Great-Grandpa was the most important person to him. Your father has lost the one person that he loved the most. We move back here so we can give him some time to be alone, because he's very depressed now, and doesn't have time to take care of us. After his sadness passes, he'll come back to us; all we need to do is wait." After she paused for a moment, Cherry looked at her son with a deep look in her eyes, and in a serious tone said, "Don't forget that we're your Daddy's family too, and that we should always be there for him."
After he heard her words, Joe nodded diligently. Now he also started to believe that his Daddy would eventually return to them.
"Mommy, when will Daddy come back to us? I miss Great-Grandpa too, " said Joe as he lowered his head, with tears streaming down on his cheeks from his eyes.
Watery sparks also glittered faintly in the corners of Cherry's eyes. She was very sad about what had happened, and also missed Andrew a great deal.
"Joe, " affectionately called Cherry, as she threw her arms around her son and tightly held him in them.
In the morning, Cherry got up very early to make breakfast for Joe and herself.
After Joe had awakened and washed up, he walked downstairs and immediately smelled food in the dinning room.
"Mommy, it smells really good what you did there, " cried Joe as he rushed in the dinning room.
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