Lauren Sanders is struggling to rebuild her life with her aunt and cousin after her family's tragic death. But what no one knows is the truth about two things: how her parents really died and her battle with schizophrenia.
One day, Lauren stumbles...
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I played Candy Crush as I waited in the hospital waiting room. It's only been thirty minutes, but time is steadily killing me, and I need to kill my boredom. I made three moves by tapping on a 'disco' sprinkled chocolate ball on my phone. I'm watching this while all the yellow candies on my phone are eliminated—one more move. I've got one more move, and it will either fail or succeed. I'm trying to concentrate and find a strategy, and I've now taken my last attempt, hoping to get to the next round. When I got rid of all the frozen boxes on my phone, excitement streaked through me like a comet.
"Aaren?"
I hear the voice of Dr. Fhassan, calling out for my attention. I saw him standing a few steps away from me, looking up from my phone. He signals for me to follow him to the office where my mother was.
I saw my mom weeping when I entered. All the excitement I felt recently from earlier suddenly disappeared. I went over and gave her a side hug, uncertain about what was going on. All I could do was support her and let her tears flow from the torrent of her emotions. I could see her fists clenched, not knowing whether she was trying to be angry or giving up any sense of hope.
Silently, I could hear her crying, suffocating with every breath she took hold of. I played through her hair with my fingertips, over and over and over, trying to ease the quiet battle that she's been fighting this entire time all by herself. What have they been talking about?
"Is something wrong with her?"
"I suspect her condition is getting worse. Over the next four to six months, we need to continue her medication. I'm sure we'll be able to find someone by then who will donate a kidney that matches her own."
As my mother's son, I am starting to feel helpless and somewhat useless.
Systemic lupus erythematosus is an autoimmune disease in which the body's immune system (which is the immune system of my mom) in some regions of the body mistakenly targets healthy tissues.
For over six years, she has been diagnosed with it, and now, it's just getting worse. People who have lupus will most likely die young because of kidney failure. Most of them, about ninety percent, do. My mom, hopefully, isn't part of that ninety percent.
We don't have a lot of money to afford her treatment, and even if we did, I know mom would turn it down if it came out of my savings. She would prefer to let me spend it on our rent, food, and expenses in our school.
Though, a kidney transplant would be the most effective treatment for her right now. Since no one seems to have to be a match for her, we have not found a donor for years.
Asking for help from our grandparents wouldn't help us much, either, because we have never met them, not even once, not even on special occasions.
All I know is that ever since mom decided to move out of their house and marry Christopher at the age of twenty-one, they have avoided engaging with mom's parents.
