Play Date

Two

May 20th, 2021

Hi again. It's currently 8:13 in the morning. It's an awfully sunny day, even for LA.
It's only day two of writing in this journal and to be fair, I'm quite over it. I don't know what I'm supposed to say or write down, but I'll bring it with me to the doctors today, just so I have something to do, besides reading the horrible gossip magazines they have.

I grab Ashton's bag to bring to my mothers. It's got a change of clothes and a couple of her favourite toys to bring, just in case my mother doesn't have any she'd like to play with.

Ashton is already dressed and ready to go, I just have to grab my bag.

My bag is pretty much just full of entertainment, like books, my headphones, some snack, nothing too heavy.

I head down the stairs, stopping half way to catch my breath, feeling like I ran for miles.

I see Ashton already putting her shoes on.

"Ready to go see grandma for a few hours?" I ask walking over to her and bending down to tie up her shoes.

"Yeah! We can play with my dolls!" She says with excitement

"Okay, let's go baby"

We go out to my car, and I help her in. We begin the almost hour drive to my mothers house, well, her new boyfriends house, in Beverly Hills.

We make it to her house in record time. What was supposed to be an hour, only took 55 minutes. It was surprising, honestly.

I get Ashton out of her car seat, grab her bag and walk up to the massive black doors to a Beverly Hills mansion. Quite typical for my mother, using the rich to get richer.

I knock on the door, only to see it be opened by my mother, with her long black hair, long black dress that just gracefully slides on the marble floor. Her hand is full of rings that is clutching onto a wine glass.

"Hi dear, how are you?" My mother says as she opens the door further, so Ashton and I can come in

"I'm good mother, how are you?" I ask as I put Ashton's bag on the floor beside the door.

"Ashton, go play, I'd like to talk to your mom" My mother says.

Ashton runs up and gives me a hug, then heads up the large stairs, towards her play room.

"What's going on? What did you need to talk about?" I ask shifting in my spot on the welcome mat by the front door.

"How's chemo going? I can keep Ash longer if you'd like"

What?
My mother?
Being nice to me?
This is new.

"Things are the same, no changes. Im fine enough to keep up with Ashton for now. Thanks though, mother. I've got to get going now, I'll come by when I'm done to pick up Ash." I say going to open the door but my mother stops me.

"Have you talked to your father lately?" She asks and I shake my head.

"Mother, I'm not doing this again. He's moved on, he's married. He's happy, let him be." I say walking out the door to my car, getting in and driving to the hospital.

My mother and father got divorced when I was 15. My mother cheated on my father with some fancy millionaire. I lived back and forth with them both, until I made it to 18.

I decided to just live with my father, since my mother began sleeping around, and plus we never had the best relationship.

My father then bought a house for me when I got pregnant with Ashton, and he met, his now wife, Mary, so they wanted their space.

My mother still asks about my father, for money. She wants to know how he's doing to see when she could weasel her way back into his life to try to take advantage of him.

I make it to the hospital, hop out of the car, grabbing my bag and head to the cancer ward.

I get to the right floor and walk the bleach smelling hallways to the ward. I walk in the large metal doors and stop at the front desk

"Hi dear, ready to get started?" The nurse asks and I smile

"Hi Donna, let's get to it"

I smile at her and make my way to the comfortable white arm chairs. They try to make you as comfortable as possible in here, because they know you'll be here a while.

I sit across from a middle age woman named Stephane, she's got two teenage boys, she has stage 1 breast cancer.

I sit beside an older gentleman named Felix, no family, stage 2 mouth cancer.

And I? Stage 3 lung cancer,
survival rate? 10 percent.

Donna comes over and helps set up the chemo. We make small talk until it's all set up, and she walks away.

I pull out my headphones, play my music and get started on my new book series, Bloodlines. I have no idea what it's about, but it should at least past the time.

As my nose is face down in the book, already on chapter 9, Donna comes and taps me on the shoulder.

"Hey sweetie" She says softly as I take out my headphones.

"In a few weeks, Dr. Katz wants you to come in to get fitted for the oxygen tank we talked about last time, is that okay?"

"Yeah, that's fine" I nod in acceptance

"I'll go write down your appointment on a card so you remember, okay?" I nod again as she starts to walk away.

Great. I have to carry an oxygen tank around with me, if my body didn't scream cancer enough, an oxygen tank will surely do the trick.