I walked into the hospital lobby. I knew the place like it was my home. The huge glass doors and wall for the entrance. The laminate floors inside with white walls neatly painted. The ceiling way up to the fourth floor and the wooden front desk and the feet made from stainless steel. I knew every shortcut in that hospital and I knew most of the cancer patents on mom's floor. She stayed on the 3rd floor. On the way to the elevator something caught my eye at the front desk. It was one of the nurses, she was talking to someone, no one I knew the woman was tall and slim. She had a briefcase, glasses, and she was wearing a pair of pant suits. I heard the nurse say “It’s sad, the girl all on her own..” then the door closed without another word. I kept to myself. They must have been talking about Marie on the third floor. She was a foster kid, 14 about the same as me. Marie has stage 3 Osteosarcoma, I hear it's really painful. I talked to her once in the cafeteria, she was having trouble with the vending machine so I went over there and gave it a kick. We started talking and she was really interesting like no one ever I met before. Turns out her dad was a druggie and left when she was 6 then her mom got into the wrong crowd and started dealing so CPS strip her mom of parental rights and her mom didn’t get busted for drugs but she was put on 3 year probation for child endangerment. Most people felt pity for her, I didn’t. She didn’t want our pity she wanted someone to talk to who wouldn’t feel bad who would just listen. The elevator finally reached the 3rd floor by then there was only a doctor from the 4th floor derm. wing. I got off and wait straight to the front desk.
“Hey Dawn”
“Hi Ms. Carrie. How’s your day? ” I said casually walking to the lady behind the desk
“Ya know, busy. how about you?”
“As good as it’s gonna get”
She giggled as I stepped back going the way I came from to go to my mother's room. “Well I’ll see you later”
“Bye Dawn” she yelled
I walked down the hallway to mom's room she was almost at the end of the hallway. I checked out some of the art on the walls nothing I hadn’t seen before. It was basically the cheap stuff you could get at kohl’s for a couple bucks. Most of the doors were closed because most of the patients in the hallway got treatment that morning so they be worn out. Then I heard someone call my name. “Psstt. Dawn.” The man whispered. It was Mr. Donahue, he was one of the kindest old guy I had ever met not the sweet type though. He had a scruffy hair with the typically old age hair, missing an immense patch of hair on the top. He laid upright in his bed with his usual grey robe. I flashed him a smile. He taught me how to play chess when I first got here and things were kind of tough. He was incredible at chess and I’m not just saying that to make him feel good. I heard talk from the nurses that he had actually been state of Washington champion back in ‘72.
‘Hey Mr. Donahue. How are we feeling?’ I said as I walked in.
‘Ey, Blah blah I sat on my ass all day”
I laughed. Mr. Donahue wasn’t really great when it came to language but it wasn’t like anyone would ever say anything about it. We all loved Mr. Donahue. Me, mom, the doctors and nurses. Oh and of course almost everyone on the fourth floor including the kids in the peds wing on third.
“So what you kid up to?’
‘Oh, coming to check on my mom.’
‘Ahhh. Of course’ He said sarcastically
‘But you already knew that’ I giggled
‘I might be old but I’m not stupid’
‘Yeah I know, I’m trying to get my mom to the top of the donor list no one will budge’ He gave me a simpatic look.
‘I would give her mine. If I wasn’t so old?’ He said screaming almost as if blaming someone for his old age. I cracked at that. He always knew how to bring my spirits up. That old man was strange but sure did everyone love him. I couldn’t believe what he had gone through and still be so uplifted. Two years ago was a big year for all of us. I had known him for a while Ms. Donahue had been helping my mom by looking after me during routine procedures she didn’t want me to see. Especially Mr. Donahue. He lost his wife to breast cancer. Then the next year he got lung cancer although he never smoked a day in his life. He lied in bed dying while people were throwing away their lives.
‘I should probably go see my mom now’
‘Okay, well you take care now… Oh and tell Karen I say hi, would ya?’
‘Sure thing. I’ll stop by later.’
YOU ARE READING
Hope and All its Enemies
Fiksi Remaja13 year-old Dawn has a mom with stage 3 liver cancer. She knows the hospital like its her home. While creeping around the hospital she over hears a conversation that her mother has with a man. She discovers something about her mother that she was ne...
