Who Am I?

Chapter 4

Chapter 4 DAYA

I heard mom go to her room and change into her running clothes. She loves to run. The last couple of years have been the worse so she has not had a lot of opportunity to go run. Another cause of misery I present to the world. She actually had a cross country scholarship that paid her way through college. She could have went pro but she became pregnant with me.

I watched her go out the front door as I walked into the living room. I grabbed the computer off the counter and walked to my room. When I sat down at my desk something caught my eye out the window. I looked out my window and I saw my mother jogging up the hill towards the old barn. She lied to me. Go figure.

There was a faint glow behind the barn. This day is getting wieder and wieder. It look like the tree was lit up. I got up wanting to go outside to see better but I knew I would not make it up the hill. I still felt so weak from my earlier escapade. I sat back down and just stared out the window for a while.

My mother did not give up much information at the dinner table. I know she believed me when I told her all that stuff. Her eyes told me that much. I know she has been to the golden meadow. In the dream, the lady, my grandmother the tree, told me to remember the stories of my grandpa use to tell me. He loved all of the old greek myths, ancient Egypt tales, and tales that came from Europe. He even loved all the Native American stories.

The Greek ones were his favorite. I opened the computer and googled, Daphne Greek Myths, and hundreds of sites came up. I clicked on a random one and read, Apollo, one of the most powerful gods and a great warrior, mocked the god of love, Eros (Cupid), for his use of bow and arrow, saying, "What are you doing with powerful weapons naughty boy?"; "that equipment of yours are fitting my shoulders, which are able to give certain wounds to the wild animals, and to the enemies, which recently killed the swollen Python with countless arrows, the Python who was pressing down so many acres with his disease bearing stomach! You will be content to provoke some loves by your fire, not to claim my honors."

The insulted Eros then prepared two arrows: one of gold and one of lead. He shot Apollo with the gold arrow, instilling in the god a passionate love for the nymph Daphne. He shot Daphne with the lead arrow, instilling in her a hatred for Apollo. Having taken after Apollo's sister, Diana, Daphne had spurned her many potential lovers, preferring instead woodland sports and exploring the forest. Due to her identity as an ""aemula Phoebes" (female rival or emulator of Diana), she had dedicated herself to perpetual virginity. Her father, the river god Peneus, demanded that she get married and give him grandchildren. She, however, beseeched her father to let her remain unmarried; he eventually complied.

Apollo continually followed her, begging her to stay, but the nymph continued her flight. They were evenly matched in the race until Eros intervened, helping Apollo catch up to Daphne. Seeing that Apollo was bound to reach her, she called upon her father, "Help me, Peneus! Open the earth to enclose me, or change my form, which has brought me into this danger! Let me be free of this man from this moment forward!" And with Peneus answering her plea, "a heavy numbness seizes her limbs; her soft breasts are surrounded by a thin bark, her hair changes into foliage, her forearms change into branches; her foot, just now swift, now clings because of sluggish roots." She was turned into a laurel tree.

In spite of Daphne's rejection, Apollo vowed to love her forever: "Always my hair will have you, my lyres will have you, my quivers will have you, laurel tree. You will be present to two Latin places, when the happy voice will sing a triumph and they will visit the great ceremonies at the Capitoline Hill." Apollo also used his powers of eternal youth and immortality to render Daphne ever green. For this reason, the leaves of the Bay laurel tree do not decay.

Well that was an interesting read. My mother's name is Laurel and she said she got that name because that was her mother's favorite tree. My grandmother was running from someone when she met my grandpa. I know this is a myth but sometimes there is truth in myths. I wonder how much truth is in this legend.

The pain in my stomach started up. I bit my lip trying not to cry out. When it was bearable, I closed the computer. When I stood up, everything in the room became blurry. What is going on with me? Another pain shot through my lower torso. I grabbed hold of the desk. I screamed out loud this time. It felt like someone was stabbing me. Tears spring to face. I sat back down in the chair. I started rocking back and forth trying to make the pain stop. Only it kept intensifying.

I felt like my lungs started filling up. It was getting hard to breathe. That's when the coughing started. I coughed so hard it felt like my stomach was going to explode. I looked at my hands they were covered in blood. I tried to stand up, to go to the bathroom. Everything was blurry and my head felt so dizzy. I pulled myself to the floor and started crawling to the bathroom. I looked at the carpet as I crawled. Blood was everywhere. The pain was unbearable. As soon as I crawled into the bathroom, my nose started bleeding. I grabbed rag and put it to my noise. Then my stomach starting to turn. I crawled around to the toilet and vomited. It was nothing but red. Blood. Blood everywhere.

Three months the doctor said. They said I had three months! I think they were wrong. I pulled myself up to the counter to looked at myself in the mirror. My reflection was a site you would see in a horror movie. Instead of tears running down my face, its blood. I touched my ears and looked at my hand. More blood. Blood is oozing out my ears too.

I felt my underpants go wet and looked down. They were stained red. My whole inside is bleeding out. I looked back at the mirror. Who am I? Cancer or Daya? Blood is coming out my nose, stomach, eyes, ears, actually anywhere it could escape. I looked back at my reflection, death is ugly and I shall die alone. My knees give and I collapse to the bathroom floor. "I love you mom," I said as I layed on the bathroom floor. I closed my eyes and started humming the tune I heard earlier.