by Emma Quinn
“There you go. You look like a princess again. Kinda...”
“I feel like I'm dying.”
“I really think you should see a doctor.”
“Nah, they'll no doubt just tell me to go to bed. I don't have time for that.”
Emily sighed and tossed the tissue in the trash.
“You do too much,” she said. “You work too hard. No wonder you're ill. You need some time off.”
“I'll be fine,” I insisted. “I'm sure it's just a stomach bug. You know, those twenty-four hour things that soon work themselves out.”
“Either that or you're pregnant,” she laughed.
“Yeah, pregnant,” I chuckled.
“Which of course you're not.”
“Obviously. How could I be pregnant?”
“Well, when a man and a woman love each other very much the man puts his-”
“Yes, yes. Very funny. I can't be pregnant. Me and Ethan are really careful.”
“Are you sure?”
“Okay, mostly careful.”
She raised her eyebrows at me.
“Okay, we're careful some of the time.”
“Sophia!”
“What? Don't tell me you forget to take the pill sometimes.”
“Well sure I do but... Oh, God Sophia if you think there's even a slight chance you could be pregnant you'll have to take a test.”
“I'm not pregnant!” I insisted, laughing nervously. “Honestly, it's probably just a stomach bug.”
But the look on Emily's face was telling me otherwise.
4
Ethan
“ M
om? You awake?”
I walked into her room and saw a lump beneath the covers. Approaching gingerly, I poked my head around the bed and saw her face nestled against the pillow. For a second, I was gripped in fear.
Is she not moving?
Has she stopped breathing?
But then I saw the rise and fall of her chest as she took a breath and I felt my body sigh with relief.
Mom had been brought into the hospital two months ago, but I never got used to the sight of her surrounded by wires and beeping machinery. And I could never get used to the sterile smell of her room or how the whole ward was eerily quiet.
It was just one room after the other filled with people desperate to survive. Even though many didn't. It seemed that barely a week passed when I didn't enter the ward to see an empty bed that previously housed someone who was intent on fighting for their life.
I hoped Mom wouldn't lose the fight. She was the toughest old girl I knew and was going to kick the shit out of cancer. That's what I thought anyway, but with each passing day my optimism began to dwindle.
“Hello? Are you Penny's son?”
I had been so lost in thought I hadn't realized there was someone in the doorway. Looking over my shoulder, I saw an unfamiliar doctor in a white coat standing with a clipboard in his hand and a serious expression on his face.
“Yeah... I'm Ethan. You are...”
“Doctor Trent. I don't believe we've met before.”
“We haven't.”
He entered with a brisk stride and shook my hand. His eyes darted down to Mom then back to me.
“We had to sedate her earlier because of the pain,” he explained.
“Oh... I didn't realize it was so bad. She never complains about it.”
“She's a real trooper all right,” said Trent. “A real fighter.”
His eyes moved sadly up and down her shrunken body.
“She talks a lot about you,” he said.
“She does?”
“Says she's real proud of you. Says you're going to be an actor some day.”
“That's the plan. Don't know how likely it is, though.”
“Ah, a good looking boy like you could breeze right into Hollywood,” he smiled.
But there was a sadness behind his smile. Like he was on the cusp of bearing bad news.
“Would you be able to pop into my office for a chat?” he suddenly asked.
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