The Long Journey

Screams fill my head. I puke into the trash can. These are side effects of having cancer. I am Autumn, and I have had lung cancer for as long as I can remember.

My story is tragic, like all other cancer stories, but it has a certain ring to it. When I was little, I was put in the E.R. I remained in the hospital ,unsure of what was wrong with me, for a year. The doctors ran scans and a million other tests on me, but none of them seemed to show my problem. Suddenly, one test came back, and we found out that I had lung cancer which would explain my inability to breathe. My mom was dumbfounded. She had no idea how we would pay for this since my dad died last year in a car crash.

I have had 13 surgeries since my diagnosis, and my lungs still suck at their job. I'm an average fifteen year old, but even though cancer is not contagious, I am still avoided by all, except my best friend, Jane.

Jane has been there the entire time, and she seems to enjoy making me feel better about being ill. Every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, Jane visits me.

Today was not a very good day. I choked eating my ham sandwich, and I couldn't regain breath. My mom went ballistic. She practically carried me to the car while I coughed. She ran red lights, and she exceeded the speed limits. I was almost certain that the cops were going to pull her over at any minute,but it seemed as though they could read her need to get to the hospital.

Once we got there a nurse took my hand as I fell dizzy. I must have passed out because when I woke up I was in a white hospital room with my mom hovering over my face saying, "Sweetie, are you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine mom. Can we go now?"

Without a word, my mom waved in the nurse. She unhooked me from the monitor cautiously, and walked me to a wheelchair, which I kindly refused.

When we got home, Jane called me with deep concern. I told her I was fine, but she insisted that she came over, even though it was a Tuesday.

There was a knock on the door. I was sure it was Jane, but when I opened the door there was a strange man that I had never seen before. I called for my mom, and she told me that this was her boyfriend, Larry. I couldn't believe her, dad had just died, and now she was dating some guy that she hardly knew. Furious, I slammed the door to my room, but my mom came in telling me that she needed him so that she could pay my hospital bills. I asked her why her job wasn't enough all of a sudden, but she shook her head crying into her hands. She had been laid off, and now we had no money.

Jane finally arrived, so we went out for smoothies. I told Jane about the whole Larry episode. I thought she would support my opinion, but instead she said, "Well, Autumn she is only doing it for your sake."

"Ugghhhhh, now everybody is on board except me!" I replied, we sat in silence the rest of the time. Jane drove me back home, and without so much as a goodbye I shut the door and walked into the house. I am pretty sure that that is the first fight we ever had.

I had some trouble sleeping, so I went to get a glass of water. When I got to the cabinet, there was a note on the cabinet from my mom saying that there was a guy that she wanted me to meet. Confused, I went into my mom's room. She said that she found this guy that she thought would be perfect for me. His name was Daniel.

My mom had arranged for me to meet him the next day. She had me put on my best dress, and then we hopped in the car. We met him at the square, and my mom waited in the car. I walked around wondering where he was. Maybe he blew me off, hopefully. Out of nowhere a tan, handsome boy approached me. "Excuse me, are you Autumn?"

"Yes, I am. You must be Daniel, nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you, too"

We sat down on a blanket that Daniel provided. We sat there and talked for hours, and I could feel the connection between the two of us.