✏️ Big Brother / Little Sister [SummerCamp2024]

14. Battle Plan

Sooner or later, the topic of conversation drifted to a rugby match that Emily had enjoyed, and Joy's art project. Laura felt some of the tension ease from her shoulders. For a little while, she could pretend that everything was normal, that her biggest concern was whether or not Ben really liked her. She didn't have to worry about whether the cognitive tests Daniel was undergoing would reveal any bigger problems, the impending strain on their family finances, or weird dreams that she still didn't understand. The weight of responsibility she'd felt in the doctor's office seemed to lift momentarily as she laughed with her friends.

"That's what she said," she joked, meeting with exaggerated groans from both of the other two. But as she pantomimed the gestures associated with the clichéd line, she caught a glimpse of the clock and realised that it was already past noon. And that was enough to bring her right back to the present, and to the things that she didn't want to think about now. "Oh hell, I lost track of time."

"Huh?" Joy said, then glanced at the time on her phone. "Oh, yeah. Lunch time. Want to get something here?"

"No, it's..." Laura started, scrambling to put her thoughts in order. "They said it would be about an hour for Daniel to take these tests. It's already been more than that. I should have been in the waiting room, waiting for him. He's maybe gone back home, or he's worrying about me. Imagine if I'd done something like that with Rosie, she'd be terrified. I'm a terrible sister."

"It's no big deal," Emily answered with a shrug.

"Yeah," Joy agreed. "You'd never leave Rosie behind, because you know she needs constant attention. Your mind wouldn't be on anything else even for a moment."

"Yeah, but what will Daniel think?"

"He thinks 'What's for lunch?'" Daniel's voice came from behind her. "I figured you would have headed here to get something to eat, but you don't seem to have anything. Do I still need to remind you to eat, little sis?"

"Hey!" Laura objected, giving her brother a playful punch in the arm. But he'd managed to diffuse the tension again, so she had an opportunity not to think about anything more serious than the choice between tuna mayo and coronation chicken. She didn't ask if her friends were going to stay. It was clear from their body language, as well as the fact that they were in the line at the counter, that they wanted to stay with her. She didn't know whether Daniel would be happy to share the doctors' verdict with them, or whether they were giving her an opportunity to put the difficult questions off until she got home. But either way, she was glad to be surrounded by friends.

"How did it go?" Laura asked, as they sat down again with their lunch. She mostly expected a noncommittal answer, but it would open the floodgates for whatever other topics of conversation came to mind. She didn't want her friends to sit on their hands waiting for her to ask the big question.

"You mean apart from yet another new doctor I've not seen before," Daniel growled. "You'd think that for an experimental procedure, there'd only be like one team that knows anything about it. But it's like I'm seeing a different guy every time, and I have to keep reminding them what the last one told me, or which tests they already did. It's exhausting dealing with the medical bureaucracy on top of everything else."

"I can imagine," Laura said with a shudder. "I thought I was having trouble remembering who was who in that office, but you didn't know them either? But you looked so confident."

"I'm used to pushing for what I want," he answered. "Confidence is essential, or I'd never get there. But yeah, they gave me some tests. Stuff like putting the square peg in the round hole, naming celebrities on a TV clip, verbal reasoning tests, the kind of homophone tests they give you in year-one reading. Then they took more blood, and some CSF. Tested for antibodies, chimaerism, liver function. Every possible side effect. I feel like a pincushion, but I guess it all went well enough."