Forever & Always

6. Surprises and Chemotherapy

I help Mom get in the passenger seat of our car and settle the oxygen tank beside her feet carefully so it doesn't fall against her legs on the drive to the hospital. I give her a tired smile and shut the door before placing her 'Bag of Goodies' as she likes to call it in the backseat behind her. I quickly double check the bag of snacks, two or three books, magazines, blankets and an extra jacket just in case we forgot anything and walk around the car to get in the driver's seat. I wave to my uncle as he stands in the doorway to the kitchen from the garage glad he didn't argue about me taking Mom to her last Chemotherapy appointment before Christmas and pull out of the garage. I turn on some Christmas music to listen to in the background as we head toward the interstate to travel the route we take all too often thankful for no traffic thanks to this midmorning appointment and I'm off school until the New Year.

"How was your date last night?" Mom asks in an attempt to have a normal conversation with me not centered on any medical drama that has become our lives and I smile at her.

"It was great. We tried that new Chinese place and went to see a movie." I say remembering the real date Kyle and I actually got to have last night after I got off from afternoon shift at the diner.

"What movie?" Mom asks and I take a sip of coffee from the travel mug I grabbed this morning.

"The new Star Wars actually." I answer with a snort of a laugh as my mom looks at me with a brow a raised and I put my mug down in the cup holder shrugging a shoulder. "It's what he wanted to see after vetoing my choice of that new musical that just came out. I honestly can't say I didn't like it."

"I just thought you didn't really like those type of movies." Mom says and I come to a stop at an exit looking over at her huddled into the passenger seat with a pair of thick sweat pants on along with a sweater over a shirt and even a coat because she stays so cold nowadays.

"Oh he had to fill me in quite a bit but it wasn't a bad movie." I say and shrug my shoulders getting in the correct lane of traffic to turn onto the street that leads to the hospital.

"You were just happy to be with Kyle." Mom says and I see her smile at me raising her hands to adjust her knit hat that another Chemotherapy patient made for her last year before she started to lose her hair again.

"Maybe." I reply with a smile of my own and follow the flow of traffic toward one of the parking garages for the Oncology department of the hospital. I find a parking spot near the sky bridge we have to cross to get in the lobby of the Oncology department where we'll sit until a nurse calls Mom's name and then we'll go into a sterile and cold room that we know very well by now. I grab my coffee cup before climbing out of the car to come around to help my mom out of the car and get my purse as well as her 'Bag of Goodies' putting both over my shoulder so I can I pull her oxygen tank with us. I walk beside her and make sure I match her pace that is a bit slower due to her tiredness that the Chemotherapy brings along with various other side effects that are not pleasant.

We enter the quiet waiting area and I get Mom settled in a chair before walking over to sign her in with the receptionist, Wanda who smiles at me in a now familiar way. I come back to sit with my mom and quickly reach for the water bottle in her bag as she coughs hard enough to make the few people in the room to look over in concern. I give them a sad smile and feel Mom's frail hand slip into mine giving it a squeeze before she takes a few sips of water. I sigh and put the water back crossing my legs as I subtly look around the room seeing various degrees of cancer patients all suffering the woes of Chemotherapy.

I notice a couple coming in through the direction of the sky bridge and bite my lip when I see both of them look as though they are healthy. I push a hand through my hair and fight back the urge to scream at them to run away from this peacefully deceptive hell hole that could take either of them from each other. I frown as I see them sit down with a clipboard to fill out the dozens of forms that I remember Mom filled out with my aunt the first time and the second time with me. I notice the nervous look on the woman's face and immediately know that she is the one going through the treatment that will eat at whatever healthy cells are left in her body not being destroyed by the cancer inside her.