Mollie + Chester

Chapter Six

I squeezed the seat of the chair so tight my fingers turned white. My legs were wrapped around the front two chair legs, my feet hooked around them and my knees shaking nervously. My eyes didn't leave the two swinging doors where Mum and the doctor disappeared after the tests to talk, leaving me alone in here: the kids' waiting room.
Miss Keery, or as I called her: Miss Grin-Face, was the 'baby sitter' who watched us kids while we were in here. She walked around the room, smiling like crazy in her bright pink skirt decorated with sparkling stars and green stockings covered her legs. She had a blue blouse and had her hair pulled to one side of her head in a ponytail and was tied with a red ribbon.
Most of the kids here like the little boy playing with building blocks in the corner, completely ignoring the metal pole next to him connected by many cords that run into him, were here to pass time as they waited for operations instead of spending all day in their rooms. Two little girls moved donated, tiny, wooden people around the dollhouse, laughing and making up silly voices for each one.
"Hi Mollie Dolly!"
I dragged my eyes away from the door and looked at Miss Grin-Face and her giant smile. She always made up funny pet names for everyone here. My name wasn't even the worst. The girl over by the TV playing video games was called Trishy Fishy.
"Hi," I said in a voice that sounded depleted compared to hers.
"Are we here to just check everything?"
I nodded in reply and tightened my grip in the chair again. The cotton stuck to the crook of my elbow began to turn red. Miss Keery pried my fingers from the bottom on the chair and held them in her hands.
"Mollie, listen sweetheart," I looked up and her and saw her smile had grown smaller. "For all of you, there is nothing you can do. That was what I hated about it: I couldn't fix it myself. I was not used to having problems I couldn't solve." She turned her hands over and I caught a glimpse of the angry faded scares. "You've just got to make good of a bad situation. Have as much fun as you can."
"Miss Keery! Can you reach Scrabble for us?!" A boy with a clean shaved head yelled. He stood on his tippy toes but still couldn't reach the second shelf, let alone Scrabble on the top.
"I have to go Mollie Dolly, hang in there." Her grin was back.
My gaze returned to the double swinging doors and my hands clenched the seat of the chair again.
Come on! I thought, how long does it take! Just tell me SOMETHING. It was the wait that would kill me before the cancer.
I didn't even realise a kid had sat down next to me until he slipped a notebook into my lap.
Hi, it read in wobbly handwriting. I looked up, shocked and saw him.
He had a full head of fluffy brown hair as long as my own hair and over his head sat a robot like headgear that made his head tilt to one side because of the weight. His wore a badly knitted woollen jumper with a picture of a dog's face on it instead of pyjamas meaning he was not an overnighter.
He held out the pen in his left hand, his right hand grasping the chair like mine, but his fingers were crossed over each other. I took the pen and wrote underneath his message.
Hi.
The boy smiled and took the book and pen from me, writing something that I couldn't see. When he was done, he held it up.
Autosomal Recessive. Deaf in both ears. That explained the notebook. I liked how he didn't spend excruciating amounts of time making small talk and avoiding explaining the obvious.
Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, I wrote, stage IV, tumour in the thymus.
The boy read the note without expression and proceeded to answer.
I'm Toby. That's it. I didn't comment on his imperfection, he didn't comment on mine. We weren't defined by our illness.
I'm Mollie.
That's a weird way to spell Mollie.
I poked my tongue out at him and he grinned.
Would you rather: only live inside and eat whatever you want, or live outside and only eat tomatoes?
I looked up at him, wondering if he were joking. He wasn't.
Eat tomatoes. I like outside too much.
Toby nodded as if I had given him the right answer.
What are you going to do when you get home today? I asked. I liked this Toby already.
Draw. He wrote this without thinking as if it were not possible for him to do anything else. What are you going to do?
Play Mario Kart with my brother.
I've never played that. Maybe because I don't have brothers.
Do you have sisters?
5. Two older and three younger. Who's your brother?
Seth, he's seventeen. He would usually be here but he had to go to school.
My sister Emma is here but she's a baby so she's with Mum. I have to wait out here.
Me too. Mum had to go alone.
Toby nodded. Do you go to school?
It was good having someone who knew what it was like. Most kids ask me where I go to school, Toby just knew. I'm home-schooled. You?
I go to Northrud Primary.
I used to go to Southrud.
Tamwood and a bunch of other perfect towns as well as some little country neighbourhoods were all in this big area with the most boring name: Rud. Toby must have lived in one of the little country neighbourhoods on a farm as most of the towns are in the north.
What do you want to be when you grow up?
A vet, without thinking and Toby had already seen so it was too late to scribble it out. It wasn't like I was going to grow up anyways.
Cool. When we grow up, I'm going to call you to fix all of my animals that will live on my farm. Even my favourite pet duck: Pop.
You have a pet duck called Pop?
No, my duck is called Pip. But you are gonna be a vet in the future when I get another duck called Pop.
Okay.
And I wouldn't trust anyone else to look after Pip and Pop, just you.
"Oh, Mollie," I looked up and Mum was standing right in front of me making a gesture for me to hurry. I hadn't even noticed her come out, I was too busy talking to Toby.
"Okay, I'm coming, Mum," I answered taking the notebook and writing my last word.
Bye.
Toby smiled and waved as Mum led me through the double swinging doors away from the child-friendly and colourful playroom to the cold corridors of the hospital. My doctor was waiting outside of one of the rooms, standing without leaning against the wall like most people would have done. She was the picture of professionalism.
We sat in the squishy chairs in front of Doctor Clara's desk when she folded her hands over one and another. I had taken to grasping the seat of the chair again as Toby was no longer here to distract me.
"The good news, Mollie, is that nothing has changed." She paused, waiting for a reply but neither me nor Mum said anything. She would never call it good news if there was not bad news to come. "The bad news is; the worst isn't in your lungs, it's your immune system. It's working overtime to keep your healthy and sometimes it is working too hard and is making your black out. The coughing with the blackouts, as we know, is because the thymus is important in keeping you healthy and it is swelling up and blocking the air so it can't get through."
"So what now?" Mum asked. "Is there anything you can do to fix it? Help her immune system?"
Doctor Clara shook her head. "The best I could do is to prescribe more medicine but that's only going to make her more tired. The drug she takes now prevents the cancer from spreading, so her condition is going to stay the same for a while."
They both talked about me as if I wasn't there. Wasn't that why they spent forever in here without me? Why not include me now?
"Okay," I said, "not any better, not any worse. Can we go home now?"
Mum glared at me and Doctor Clara laughed. "Yes, you may go now. I will see you next time, Mollie."
Mum held me by the shoulder and steered me out of the room. She was trying to push me out the door when I stopped her.
"Wait, can we go past the kids' waiting room? I want to say goodbye."
Mum sighed but turned down the hall that would take us. We didn't even need the signs to show us anymore.
I walked faster than Mum, bursting into the kids' room, my mood deflating when I saw Toby was gone, in his place a girl with long braids and a cannula in her nose. I was about to turn around when Miss Keery caught me.
"Mollie Dolly! This is for you." She handed me a piece of note paper from Toby's book and I unfolded it. Inside was an email address written with a message underneath.
See you soon?
I smiled and folded the note into my pocket.