Oh, Boy

Chapter V

Knock Knock. I slowly open my eyes to see a nurse standing in the doorway.
"Hmm?" I ask a little groggy.
"Ms. Mallen, your parents requested you to come to the examination room to tell you and your parents' the results of Oliver's CAT scan." she said.
"And where is that?" I asked.
"You may follow me if you like." she said.
I slowly got up. Careful not to wake up Ollie. He might beg for me to stay and I don't know if I could handle that.
We walk down the hall to a room. It's brighter in here and my eyes had to adjust. My parents were already in the room. My mom shut the door and the doctor started talking. He wasn't talking English at first, but then he told us what we needed to hear. That my poor little brother, as helpless as he is, if suffering from brain cancer. He showed us a chart of his brain. The doctor pointed out 3 bean-shaped tumors. My parents were hugging each other and my mom was sobbing. I was standing there like a bump on a log. I couldn't believe it.
My brother has cancer, I kept thinking to myself.
My dad asked what were the options and how advanced it was.
The doctor said that they caught it earlier enough to treat it.
"I'm very sorry about all of this. But, you have only one main option. There is a children's hospital in Panama City. It's about 2 hours away from here and that would be the best place for Oliver right now." he said.
"How early can we be there?" my dad asked as my mom kept crying into his shoulder.
"I will call them that your coming. The earliest you could arrive is....." he said as he checked his computer.
"Probably 10 am tommorrow." he said.
"That will do. They will give us our options on how to treat Oliver when we get there?" my dad asked.
"Yes. They will most likely say chemotherapy and surgery." he said.
"Alright." my dad said sighing and trying not to cry.
"Oliver will be released in about 30 minutes to go home. You guys can get sleep and head to Panama City in the morning." the doctor said.
"I'm going." I blurted out.
"No your not. Your mother and Oliver are going by themselves. We can't be there." my dad said.
"That's probably a good idea. They will only be there for a week then come back. And if all goes well, they will only have to go back one more time, then checkups every few months." the doctor said to me, smiling.
"How are you smiling?" I said disgusted.
The doctor looked at me with a blank face.
"Don't you get it?! My brother has cancer. CANCER! AND YOUR SMILING?!!" I yelled.
I stormed out of the room and started walking back to Ollie's room.
I started crying. I didn't just shed a tear. I was bawling. I tripped on something halfway to his room and fell to the floor with a hard thump. I picked myself up, embarrassed. I went into the nearest bathroom and locked myself in a stall.

My mom finally found me after half and hour and told me that we're going home. She was mad at me for yelling at the doctor and storming out and that I should have "Acted more mature".

Ollie was sitting next to me in the car, asleep. Nobody talked the whole way home. Nobody talked even when we got home. My mom put Ollie to bed and went to bed herself. I saw my dad sitting at the table thinking hard and examining a few papers.
My dad looked up at me with tears in his eyes.
"How are we ever going to pay for this?" he said.
"I don't know." I said with my head to the floor.
A long moment passed when my dad finally said, "Go on to bed. It's late."
I walked upstairs and changed into my pj's. I climbed into bed and cried myself to sleep.