Post by gvb on Mar 11, 2019 16:57:48 GMT -6
She had been waiting for too long. It’s been three weeks since she got the answer she was waiting for. Not the one she needed, and sure as hell not the one she wanted. But the one, deep down, she was expecting.
Unlike most 8 years old kids Cassidy Kane didn’t use to read comic books. There were no heroes with fancy clothes and superhuman abilities fighting terrible foes and saving the world filling those hours in her room, between one nap and the other. She spent all her time awake reading medical tracts she understood half of, and that’s being generous. She diligently copied all the info she could find on her notebook, in that simple, insecure calligraphy typical of a second grade student. She made her own research because her terrible foe was very much real, and it had a name, a scary one.
Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia. Or, simply put, "It" as she started to call her condition.
She recognized the symptoms even before Chris took her to the doctor a little over a month ago. There was the tiredness of course, the one she always found an excuse for. And then there were all the little things she never mentioned, the bone pain, the nosebleeds. It all fit together, like pieces of a puzzle. And she knew oh so well what picture they were going to form.
That was why she wasn’t really surprised when the hospital called her for further exams a couple of weeks after. She didn’t ask Christopher to accompany her this time. He was already going through a lot at that time, he was days away from the biggest night of his career, and he didn’t need to deal with this. She would have told him, of course. And she would have told Brittany as well. She was her favorite cousin after all, and her best friend.
But then… You know how this thing goes when you start delaying something.
“There’s no better time than now”. Those words echoed in her mind, softly whispered with her sister’s Tifa voice. It was one of her motto, a constant reminder that it’s always better to face a situation as soon as it presents itself, instead of dragging it. And now Cassidy wished she followed the advice.
This was the worst possible time to drop this news on them. Brittany was going through some rough times, her self-confidence was at an all time low and even professionally, she found herself in a sort of limbo after losing the Cloud Gate Championship. As for Chris, he was the champion and Top Guy (this self appointed moniker always made her chuckle) in Millennium, but the joy of finally becoming the face of the promotion had already been tempered by losing his girlfriend, Melissa Reeves.
But she couldn’t wait any longer. Not after the doctor’s call she got very that same morning. Standing up, she walked to the open door, calling both Chris and Brittany, asking them to join her in her room.
“Please take a seat guys.” She said with a quick smile pointing at her pink bed dominating the center of the room. Cass grabbed a chair and sat in front of them, noticing the worried look on their faces. Without adding another word, she handed the letter to Chris, starting to tell the whole story to the unsuspecting Brittany.
Unlike most 8 years old kids Cassidy Kane didn’t use to read comic books. There were no heroes with fancy clothes and superhuman abilities fighting terrible foes and saving the world filling those hours in her room, between one nap and the other. She spent all her time awake reading medical tracts she understood half of, and that’s being generous. She diligently copied all the info she could find on her notebook, in that simple, insecure calligraphy typical of a second grade student. She made her own research because her terrible foe was very much real, and it had a name, a scary one.
Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia. Or, simply put, "It" as she started to call her condition.
She recognized the symptoms even before Chris took her to the doctor a little over a month ago. There was the tiredness of course, the one she always found an excuse for. And then there were all the little things she never mentioned, the bone pain, the nosebleeds. It all fit together, like pieces of a puzzle. And she knew oh so well what picture they were going to form.
That was why she wasn’t really surprised when the hospital called her for further exams a couple of weeks after. She didn’t ask Christopher to accompany her this time. He was already going through a lot at that time, he was days away from the biggest night of his career, and he didn’t need to deal with this. She would have told him, of course. And she would have told Brittany as well. She was her favorite cousin after all, and her best friend.
But then… You know how this thing goes when you start delaying something.
“There’s no better time than now”. Those words echoed in her mind, softly whispered with her sister’s Tifa voice. It was one of her motto, a constant reminder that it’s always better to face a situation as soon as it presents itself, instead of dragging it. And now Cassidy wished she followed the advice.
This was the worst possible time to drop this news on them. Brittany was going through some rough times, her self-confidence was at an all time low and even professionally, she found herself in a sort of limbo after losing the Cloud Gate Championship. As for Chris, he was the champion and Top Guy (this self appointed moniker always made her chuckle) in Millennium, but the joy of finally becoming the face of the promotion had already been tempered by losing his girlfriend, Melissa Reeves.
But she couldn’t wait any longer. Not after the doctor’s call she got very that same morning. Standing up, she walked to the open door, calling both Chris and Brittany, asking them to join her in her room.
“Please take a seat guys.” She said with a quick smile pointing at her pink bed dominating the center of the room. Cass grabbed a chair and sat in front of them, noticing the worried look on their faces. Without adding another word, she handed the letter to Chris, starting to tell the whole story to the unsuspecting Brittany.