Is It Spring Yet?

No!

The next week Victoria's condition took a turn for the worst. Her fever rose, and she couldn't keep food down. The antibiotics they prescribed her made her get sicker. So they had to take her off everything and just pray that she gets better. I stayed by her bed side day and night. Making sure to be with her at all times, just in case. This drew out for weeks. It suddenly became winter and snow started to fall from the sky, covering the ground in a thick, cold blanket.

~

I was working at my part time job as a cook for Red Lobster, just something to pay bills while I work my way through law school, when I got the call.

I felt my pocket vibrate as I handed a waiter a dish. I look down to it and feel my heart skip a beat. "No... Please don't let today be the day she... she.." I start to whisper to myself as I reach into my pocket and pull out my phone. I open it up, press answer call, and hold the speaker to my ear, "Hello?" 'Please please please. Please God. Not her, not today. She has to live. She has to! Im going to take her to the park and she is going to have her birthday at the zoo. She is supposed to be so happy! Not now!!!'

"Yes, is this Mister Kobayashi?" No....

I clear my throat, in an attempt to move the lump of bile that has lodged it's self there, "Yes. This is he."

"I regret to inform you of this, but your sister, Victoria has..." the voice fades away. My eyes lose focus as the cell phone drops from my hand. The distant echo of it hitting the ground, just white noise in my ears. The kitchen chatter and sounds of fire and sizzling, fading away. My eyes go dark, and a small whimper escapes from my mouth. Everything in the world disappears as those words run over and over in my head, "Victoria has passed. Victoria has passed." The breath caught in my throat finally comes out in a large gasp as I collapse onto the kitchen floor, holding my head in my hands as tears stream from my eyes in small rivers. I curl into a ball on the ground as loud, heart-stopping sobs and screams come from a mouth that seems a million years away, that I realize is my own.

"No! NOOOOOOO!!!!"

~

"Vi- Victoria..."

I jump as my small, fragile little sister shakes my shoulder. "Big brother? Big brother, wake up. You're scaring me." I sit straight up at the sound of her sweet quiet voice.

"Victoria." I look into her eyes, wide and bright as the moon. Tears stream from her eyes as she clutches the necklace I gave her.

"Big brother. You scared me. You kept on saying 'No. Not her. Please not her. Vi-Victoria cant be-" I cut her off with a hug as a loud sob escapes her throat. I don't want to hear anymore... I can't. Not from my own sister's mouth.

"Im sorry Vick. Im so sorry. You're going to be okay. You are okay," I try to let out the breath I have been holding in since I woke up, but it just comes out as a choked sob, "It was all a dream. It was just a dream."

I feel Victoria's small hands wrap around my back, "Im okay, big brother." she whispers, more to herself than to me, "Everything is going to be..," Her voice starts to shiver as her tries to fight back on coming sobs, "It's all gonna be okay, big brother. So please, please don't cry." Another sob escapes her mouth and she crumbles in my arms. Caving in on herself as her small body shakes with sobs.

"You're right. Everything will be fine. You're going to get better. You are going to be able to go to the zoo with your friends. You're going to stay right here with me, Victoria. You are going to get all better."

If only that was the case... Because, even I know, as I am telling her these lies, she is never going to get better.

And she didn't...