What the Blessings Really Are

Chapter 2

Breindel sat in her bed, reading more while an IV was pumping fluid into her system. The nurse told her what it was when she was putting it in, but Breindel had forgotten. It was about five o'clock and her dad usually comes to see her around six. Her mom was still out, probably wandering around the hospital, trying to pull herself together.

Breindel never blamed her parents for being emotional train wrecks. She understood very well that this was almost harder on them than it was on her. They were both working double just to pay the hospital bills and then scrounging up whatever they could find to pay their house bills. Then if Breindel were to die, that would be two lost children.

Her mom had miscarried her first child, a boy, five and a half months in. She was almost ready to enter her third trimester, and that's when disaster struck. Her mom went in for a checkup one afternoon and the doctor told her that he couldn't hear a heartbeat. She panicked and started to cry, even though the doctor assured her that it was just a mistake. He reexamined two or three more times after that, but still nothing. They were going to have named him Peter.

It was from a chromosomal abnormality. Something had affected the baby's chromosomes and had caused it's death. The doctor informed them that it was very unlikely to happen again in future children if they wished to try again. So they did.

Two years later, Breindel was born- a healthy baby girl, chromosomes perfectly aligned. She just had cell division abnormalities instead.

There was a knock at the door. Breindel looked up from her book and smiled. Her best friend since-as-long-as-either-of-them-could-remember was standing in the doorway with a giant grin across her face.

"Aubrey!" Breindel exclaimed, her eyes lit up and she reached her arms out, gesturing for a hug.

"Oh, Breindel! I've been dying to come see you!" Aubrey let go of the hug and stood back, looking Breindel over.

"What? What is it? What are you looking at?" Breindel inquired, her excitement was becoming unable to contain.

"Don't worry, Brin. I'm looking you over so that I can find a cure for you." Aubrey took a small notepad and pen out of her bag and wrote something down.

"Aubrey. You can't fix me. I'm broken into a million tiny pieces."

"Yes I can. I have Scarlett helping me." She said it with an I'm-right-and-you're-wrong grin that made Breindel smirk.

Scarlett was Breindel's friend in middle school, before Breindel's parents took out of public schools and started homeschooling. All three girls were best friends and together, they calls themselves "Abs"- an acronym for Aubrey, Breindel, and Scarlett. But after Breindel left school, they lost touch. Scarlett is still friends with Aubrey, just not so much with Breindel anymore.

"Plus, I have our inspiration." Out of her bag came two jumbo-size smoothies. One strawberry-cherry for Breindel and one mango-pineapple for herself.

Breindel was astonished. "I can't believe you still remember that's my favorite! Thank you Aubrey!"

"It's my pleasure. And I had to do something for you since I haven't seen you for... How long has it been?" Aubrey took a sip of her smoothie and her eyebrows furrowed in thought.

"Well... let's see." said Breindel, "I think the last time we went out together was that trip to the theatre my mom took us too and afterward we got smoothies."

"Oh yeah! We had gone to see Peter Pan, right?" Aubrey remembered.

"Yeah! And then I think the last time we saw each other was when we got smoothies was for my twelfth birthday at the end of November, like 2008? But that was only for an hour or so." Breindel had a better memory than Aubrey did. She could always remember dates and intricate details that slipped out of Aubrey's head.