This isn’t happening again, she tells herself constantly. They have visited the same bright walls with the scent of cleanliness around them once before. She is an only mother; she can handle anything, well that is what she always told herself in hard times. She never expected this. They said last time they shouldn’t have to come back. They were wrong: so wrong.
The same feelings run through her. Fear and sadness paralyze her, hope the only thing keeping her alive. They say there isn’t anything for her to do, that all she can do is be there for her youngest son, Luke. So that is what she does. She sits in the room full of luminescent lights and IVs. She sits in a chair she has moved to be right by Luke’s bedside. His pale body lays limply, so fragile, his eyes closed but his pain still visible on his face. She stares at his chest for what seems like hours, she can hardly see the rise and fall of his lungs as he breaths. A picture of him a few months ago flashes in her mind, his eyes so full of energy and his smile so radiant. Tears start to well in her eyes as her oldest son, Adam, walks into the room. His body fatigued, drained, and disheveled, mirroring her own.
This all started about a year ago when she realized Luke’s unnatural headaches and confusion. She took him to the doctor because she knew something wasn’t right. She can still remember the doctor walking out into the waiting room and the pained look on the doctor’s face as he told her the news: Luke had a brain tumor. Once the brain tumor was found Luke was admitted into a children’s hospital fifty miles away from their home and eventually was sent into surgery after all the precautions were reviewed.
The doctors said, “The surgery was a success. We were able to remove the tumor without a hitch due to its location in an easy spot.” She still remembers those words because she can’t even begin to describe the feeling of relief that took over her body at that instant. They told her Luke was going to recover however he might have a lapse in the brains ability to learn, but all in all this was a miracle.
“Mom you should really go eat something, I’ll stay here with him.” Adam’s words bring her back to the present.
“No, no, I’m fine. I’m not leaving him.” She replied hastily, and continued to watch Luke, her eyes full of sadness. She could still feel the stained stream of tears on her cheeks. She tried to tell herself she wouldn’t do this; she wouldn’t turn weak and lose control. She needed to be there for Adam who was suffering too. She looked over to where Adam was now, sitting on a chair at the foot of Luke’s bed, his expression blank.
Trying to regain her strength, she left Luke’s side and walked over to where her other son was sitting. She wrapped her arms around him, Adam’s stiff body turned frail in her arms. They needed to be there for each other. Breaking the embrace she put her arms on Adam’s shoulders. When she met his gaze she could see he was looking at something beyond her. Following his gaze she turned around.
She saw Luke sitting up in bed. Shock took over, as she stood paralyzed with happiness at her youngest sons change in ability. She rushed over to his bedside but he did not look at her. Luke stared straight at the ceiling, his eyes full of light; his lips formed a brilliant smile. “They’re here,” he whispered weakly, calm and comforting. He waved to the ceiling, and then fell lifeless as the steady beeping filled the room.