a dance with cancer

sixteen

Valentina Karas

Thanks to the traffic gods' smiling down on me, I completed the drive that should've been at least twenty-five minutes in a little over fifteen. An easy drive isn't the only surprise I'm met with. Mom's white Mercedes-Benz shares the garage with me after days of seldom seeing either of my parents. 

I find her wrapped in a blanket on the couch with the TV remote in her lap. From behind, I can't tell if she's napping or lounging. Either way, I get why she's trying to rest. Putting on a front around everyone outside of the family drains the life out of her and all the binge-watching Love Island in the world can't make everything perfect again. 

Just in case she's napping and doesn't want to be bothered, I quietly try to get her attention. "Mom?" 

Mom sends a startled glance in my direction to confirm it's me and manages a soft smile when she verifies the house isn't getting burgled. "Hey, V. How's your brother feeling?"

"Ronan stopped throwing up," I report. "He's doing great. The cabin fever's been hitting him hard, but his doctors said he's holding up well." 

Mom nods. "Let's enjoy it while it lasts." 

We all breathe a sigh of relief now that Ronan's first vomiting fit is over, but the doctors have warned us that the side effects are far from over. Even months into treatment, we'll never be fully prepared for them. It feels like for every step forward, there are five steps back, and the prospect of being cancer-free seems almost intangible.

"I'm glad you're home." 

A fatigued yawn escapes from Mom as she moves closer to me. "Me too, V."

After one hell of a week, watching Love Island and seeing Mom for the first time in days makes everything feel normal. As ridiculously scripted as it is, the show on the screen makes things feel more normal than they have been lately. Mom needed a little convincing to enjoy binge watching it with me and now the roles have reversed; the show turned into her band-aid on sucky days. 

We eventually get bored of Love Island drama, letting the show play in the background as we catch up. 

"How was your week?" I fill Mom in about my disaster of a math test and making up for it with the easier history test the next day. I'm lucky to have parents with reasonable expectations, so they've never given me a hard time about my grades. 

Mom nods, processing the information. "I'm sorry about your math. There are more tests to be taken, right?"

"You're right."

"How's Katelyn?" Her question catches me off guard, but to be fair, she hasn't seen her since everything hit the fan. Our normal life before everything happened feels like a lifetime ago. Speaking of which, tonight is her big date with Sawyer. 

"She's doing well. She's on a date with her boyfriend as we speak." 

She was ecstatic when she found out, planning her outfit to a T. It started a couple of hours ago and I haven't heard anything about how it's going. I know it's unrealistic to expect a play-by-play, but the silence is unlike her. Katelyn is usually quick to share every detail of her life, and her radio silence tonight only fuels my imagination.

Mom lets out a hum of shock. "That's nice. Is he a good guy?" 

"I mean, he's weird, but he's far from a jerk," I confide. 

"As long as he doesn't treat her like shit," she comments. 

Hearing Mom swear is pretty rare, so I can't help but chuckle. "They're a cute couple."