Sail With Me Read Free Page A

Delaney had considered giving the windfall to a local charity but had a change of mind.   She decided to pay off the mortgage on her three-bedroom cape cod and get a Mini Cooper.   The Mini Cooper was red with white racing stripes down the center.   It had a leather interior and most importantly, air conditioning.   She then donated the rest of the insurance money to the Ronald McDonald House Charity at University Hospital.  
     
                When Delaney was a teenager her younger brother Matthew had come downstairs one morning with a bloody nose.   She called him a loser and was teasing him when she suddenly realized his pajamas were soaked and bloody footsteps had followed him down the stairs.   It was as if someone had turned a fountain on to make the blood flow and there was no stopping it.   She recalled sitting in the emergency room and looking at Matthew as purple blotches began covering his body.   Initially the doctors and nurses falsely accused her parents of child abuse, and she was terrified of what would happen to her family.   Matthew was admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit and they were not allowed to visit.   It was two days later when a hematology oncologist physician called her parents and told them to come immediately to the hospital.   They had been cleared of all abuse charges and told their son was diagnosed with ALL, acute lymphocytic leukemia of childhood.   She could still hear the sound of the phone falling to the kitchen floor as her mother vomited.  
     
    Delaney and her parents lived on and off in the McDonald house for two years.   During that time Matthew completed his course of chemotherapy and radiation and was in remission.   Five years later he reached the status of being considered cured and has been healthy as a horse since.   Her family had always been thankful for the McDonald house and their mostly volunteer staff.   Donating the insurance money to help other families was the least she could do.
     
    Delaney went upstairs, peeling off her sweaty uniform, and took a quick cool shower.   She spent a few moments in front of the mirror combing out the knots in her dark long hair before throwing on a pale yellow tank top and gray cotton shorts. She seemed oblivious that she had won the genetic lottery, both physically and intellectually.   She never appeared to notice the men drooling over her or the women who would become lost in her beauty while talking with her.  
     
    She had been raised in this town, the daughter of a teacher and a linguist.   Her father traveled often to Washington DC where he did top secret work for the National Security Administration.   Delaney shared his love of languages and cultures and she would often fall asleep while her dad was reading her a bedtime story in an exotic foreign tongue. The year after her high school graduation she traveled extensively with her dad through Europe.   While her girlfriends in New Jersey fretted over summer loves and which sorority to join at college, Delaney experienced the world.  
     
    She received her international driver’s license in France and drove on the Autobahn to Poland, where she purchased cobalt blue hand-crafted dishes for her mother.   In Germany she visited the wall which at one time separated the country in half and painted her name on it.   She picked up a piece of loose rock that had fallen to the ground and placed it in her bag.   Her dad laughed at her enthusiasm and asked a stranger to take their photo.   To this day it remained her all time favorite picture of just the two of them.   They spent weeks just traveling around and immersing themselves in other cultures. While in Italy she shopped at the international market and attended fashion shows.   She toured the Catholic Cathedrals and even saw the Pope.   Every day they walked to the bakery and purchased fresh baked bread which they would enjoy for breakfast the following day with thick wedges of tomato