Forget me not

Forget me not - A short story

Rose looked out at the park through her hospital window. Wind whipped loose leaves around the empty grass as moonlight flashed through the clouds. Her roommates constant snoring filled the room taking Roses little peace she had left.

Today was Williams, her brothers birthday. She had called him between therapies and doctors visits but couldn't reach him, so gave up and send him a text. To which she got no reply. She couldn't reach her parents or her sister either.

Rose tried to ease her trembling heart. They must have been busy, she shouldn't feel left out, it was not her families fault that shes sick.
But it was hard staying positive when feeling so alone.

Rose hasn't always been sick, it started three years ago when she was 17. She was constantly at some doctor to find out whats wrong with her, when her friends started college Rose started staying more and more at the hospital. First the visits got less, then the calls. Six months had passed since a "friend" of hers called. After a few weeks Rose gave up calling and texting her friends, the constant rejections was just too harsh.

Her brother and sister came by from time to time but they visibly didn't do so voluntarily and got up each time after exactly 20 min. These are the things one notices if you lie in bed all day.
Rose, be grateful she tried to tell herself, but another darker voice whispered 'they are tired of you, they want to forget you so they can live their lives peacefully, youre too much a burden'.
Rose tried to silent her mind, taking a deep breath. Her mother made an effort to call twice daily and visit her every other day. But her last visit was four days ago. But thats okay, everybody can have busy days, also her brother turned 18 which is huge.

But also Rose got her test results back today, her family knew the test would be back today. Maybe they expected bad results like her, and didn't want to dull their joyful day. Maybe they just hoped Rose would die already so they can move forward with their lives.

Rose blinked the cold tears in her eyes away and thought its okay, nobody would want to have a terminally ill family member, she should just accept that everyone wants to forget her. Trying to ease her mind she picked up her birthday present for her brother. He always loved her self made cakes and pies. Before she became sick he used to say that she was the best baker on the planet, so she wrote down all her secret recipes, that she refused to share with anyone and bound the book in the hospital workshop.

Most terminally ill patients that had the strength spend at least some time a day in there as most of them didn't get much visits either. It was the first book Rose had bound but it looked very well, she thought and she was proud of it. Maybe her brother would bake a recipe out of it someday and would think of her.

She put the book back to the unread results. It didn't matter to anyone what was in there, so she didn't open the letter, even the doctor didn't press on the matter. And the nurses were distant too. Maybe they all were relieved that Rose would be gone soon. Every one would just move on and forget that Rose even existed. All that would be left of her would be a gravestone in a lonely graveyard. No one would visit her just like today.

Rose picked up her phone and went to the storys. Lily, her sister had posted a childhood picture of her and William with the text 'happiest birthday ever to the bestes brother'. After that a lot of decoration pictures followed. The party looked huge, Rose didn't recognise the room, her family must have rented a space for the occasion. Lilys next story was of their mum, who was in complete party manager mode with lilys text 'perfectionist at work'. Of course everything had to be perfect, as Rose wasn't present to dull the moment.
The party decoration looked a little too bright and colourful for Williams taste, Rose thought. In fact there was a slight Circus theme going on, which irritated Rose because 'Nightcircus' was always on her night table and it was wildly known that she loved it. She even talked some nurses into reading it and had a small book club going on. But of course she had no claim circuses, william must have developed a liking for them too.