Slipping Through My Fingers

Dopey

**3 months later**

Janette stood in Sainsbury's, her hands closed round the buggy with Angel in, she had turned 1 last Saturday. Janette tapped her fingers on the buggy, waiting for her eldest daughter to decide which muffins to buy for Charlie...he had finished his first round of chemotherapy, he had been unable to attend Angel's 1st birthday party, and now Janette said that she would take Amelia-Lily to visit him at his house...he hadn't been at school much recently so she had seen her best friend even less.....it felt strange....
"Come on Mils....pick some that you both like and let's go...or I'll pick them for you," Janette said. Amelia-Lily sighed and picked up a pack of 4 giant double chocolate chip muffins...her and Charlie's favourite. Amelia-Lily was unusually quiet on the drive from Sainsbury's to the Clifton household. Janette looked in her mirror, "are you okay Mils?" Janette asked, becoming increasingly more worried about her daughter's silence. Amelia-Lily nodded, then shook her head, then shrugged, "I don't know." Janette pulled to the side of the road and got out the car and slid in next to her daughters. "Charlie will be okay Mils....he just may be a bit different because of the side effects of the treatment....but deep down he's still the same old Charlie," Janette said, reaching out for her hand. Amelia-Lily nodded, "but he's getting better?" Janette nodded, "I think say.....he'll have to have another round of chemo, the treatment, but eventually he should be just fine....okay?" Amelia-Lily nodded and Janette climbed back into her seat, continuing the drive to the Clifton residence. Amelia-Lily ran into the house, briefly waving to her God-Parents before running upstairs to her best friend's room, the box of muffins in her hands....

Charlie was sat in the centre of his bed, surrounded by blankets, pillows and soft toys. He wore an oversized blue jumper and a stripy woollen hat. He smiled at Amelia-Lily as she climbed up next to him on the bed. "I didn't know you had a TV in your room," Amelia-Lily said, opening the box of muffin, offering 1 to Charlie...he took it and began to nibble it like a rabbit with a carrot, "Dad bought it for me when the chemo ended 'cause I stay in bed a lot of the time," he explained. "My Dad won't buy me a TV....he said if he did then the twins would want 1, an' eventually so would Angel," she replied, taking a bite out of her muffin, being careful not to spray crumbs everywhere.
1/2 an hour passed with them talking...well mainly Amelia-Lily talking and Charlie listening, but that was nothing new, it had always been like that between the pair of them...when they were little Charlie would follow Amelia-Lily around everywhere. She told him about school and her new class and teacher, they were still in separate classes...year 3...she told him about how her baby sister had started walking on her 1st birthday party...she told him about how   
she was going to Slovenia for Christmas and how she she would get to play in the snow. Then she stopped, thinking it was Charlie's turn to say something...
Janette and Karen were standing outside, listening to their children's conversation, seeing if they would talk about the cancer...about the chemo...
"Do you want to see?" Charlie asked, his eyes pointing upwards at the hat covering his head. Amelia-Lily hesitated and nodded. Charlie pulled the hat off his head, revealing his pale bald head, he chewed his lip, a habit he'd picked up from his Auntie Janette and his God-Sister. Amelia-Lily smiled, "you look like Dopey from Snow White," she said. She watched her best friend freeze, was this good or bad? Tears welled up in his eyes. Karen went to enter the room but was stopped by Janette. "Don't worry! It's a good thing...Dopey is my favourite out of all the dwarves," she reassured him. He smiled at her and brushed away the tears. "Really?" Amelia-Lily nodded, "really truly...really truly."