Charlotte Gaspel: Demons and Ghosts

XI: A Bad Day

Knowing full well their fortune, our dear Jeff and Clara went on a relentless search for funds. They tried borrowing money from the bank, but apparently you can't do that when you first set up an account. They couldn't get donations either because it turns out that no one was going to donate more than a few coins to two strangers. They looked at every, absolutely every job option they had, but it was hopeless, the treatment needed more than a few months of overtime if they were going to save Charlie.

Two months and a few weeks later, unfortunately, they came up with an idea, and I say unfortunately because they would have preferred never in their lives to have thought of a similar madness. What I mean is that they had the alternative of returning to the village and paying off their debt to The Coffin in some twisted way. It was a bad idea, but it didn't mean it couldn't be implemented properly.

Steven G. Ledger was still in town, and Jeff took advantage of having his phone number to call him and ask him to do something impressively complicated.

It had been two and a half months since Charlie had started chemotherapy, that's two months and fourteen days since Jeff and Clara had last seen Steven. A little visit wouldn't hurt.

And so it appeared, Steven teleported to Spoirtown and was curious about his friend Jeff's new life. Obviously they couldn't receive him without first serving him a cup of coffee. Steven wore a blue jacket over a red shirt, proving once again his total ignorance of fashion. The three of them sat down and began to chat.

"Thanks for coming," said Jeff with some seriousness. We need your help with something very important.

"Let's not delay any longer," said Steven. What is it that needs to be done?

"It's complicated and we're asking too much of you," said Clara, "but we want you to borrow money from The Coffin for us."

"But," replied Steven, somewhat confused and puzzled, "what do you want another loan for?"

"There's... something we need to show you," said Jeff after seeking comfort in Clara's look.

They then headed to the hospital to see Charlie. He was in an entertainment area for hospitalized children, similar to Soufreville's waiting room but noticeably larger and cleaner, not to mention with more toys. He was sitting in the corner, and you would think he was looking at the colorful and disturbing floor decorated with giant rubber puzzle pieces, but more than anything else, he was reading Arthur's extensive notebook, as it helped him overcome his fear of the hospital and what they do there. Since he had arrived, that was the only book he was interested in reading apart from Little Red Riding Hood, whose metaphor he found very intriguing, but too explicit. Jeff and Clara entered the children's area and there they saw him, in an embarrassing mint-colored wardrobe, (that nasty mint color). Apart from his discouraging lack of hair, Charlie looked regularly good, with hardly any bones sticking out of his skin or his pale colour.

Charlie, upon seeing his beloved parents, went to greet them, but the hugging time could not continue because the nurse notified him that it was time for his chemotherapy routine; to this, Charlie says to his parents with some excitement: "You know, cancer can be removed from the body with a professional operation, and that could largely exterminate it, at least for a few months." His mother patted him on the head and said, "I don't know if that's true, son, but if it were possible, it wouldn't be free."

Charlie walked to his stretcher quite disinterestedly, but he couldn't allow himself to look sad, not when his parents were doing everything they could to make sure he wouldn't be. Charlie didn't remember, but tomorrow was his birthday, so the surprise was genuine when his parents congratulated him and told him they had his present in his briefcase, ready to give it to him tomorrow. What a nice surprise, something to look forward to the next day at last!