The 100th Guy (English - Unedited)

[CHAPTER EIGHT] Meeting you again...

Chapter Eight

Meeting you again is traced in our destiny

Tik... tok... tik… tok…

          My eyes were closed as I listen to the ticking of the clock. Every turn of its hands was a cycle in every person’s life. No single second was the same. One is different from the other. And you could never turn back time. It would just go. And if you would be left out, you had no choice but to run after it, or else you would lose your time.

          Tik... tok... tik… tok…

          Every part of us was a means of going on with our life. But if these parts stopped just like how the battery of the clock would lose its energy, everything would stop. The only thing that differed was the fact that you can replace a dry cell, but there was no substitute for a life lost.

          “Midori…” I opened my eyes when Avril called me. “The doctor said he wanted to talk to you alone. And I also think it would be better if you get to talk to him without me. Ask him everything you want to know, okay? Take it easy. I’m just here.”

          I drew myself close to him and wrapped my arms around him. “Avril, I’m not afraid anymore. So smile for me, okay? I will get through this, I promise.”

          I will get through this, but how sure I was? What was it that I was holding on when I was only given a few reasons that I would really get through this?

          “Yes, you will get through this. It’s just cancer,” he said as he kissed my forehead.

          “Avril, what time is their arrival? I want to see them already— Mom, Dad, Lolo.”

          “They’ll be here soon. Really soon. Just focus on what you should do now, okay?”

I nodded and smiled at him. I remembered what just happened yesterday, right after the last piece of hope we had crumbled down. I went down the house as I tried my best to show everyone that I was not affected at all. I saw Avril at the living room, laughing over Oggy and the Cockroaches, the cartoon that he once said he hated the most. I asked him, “Why are you watching that?” He just smiled and said, “There’s nothing to watch but this thing.” Then he started to open up something about my sickness. He did not show any frustration. He did not get mad in front of me. He just sat there, his eyes on the television, laughing instead of crying.

          He told me that I should not let myself be taken over by the burdens of cancer. I would be cured and there was no need for me to worry about my situation.

We both glance at the door when someone stepped in. “Excuse me, Ms. Vivero. Dr. Arc is now ready for consultation.”

          I smiled at Avril before I left him and followed the nurse. We passed by the pediatrics center, then turned to the left and there I saw on the ‘welcome sign’ written the words “De La Fuente Cancer Institute”. I would be part of this institution soon, just like how the sick kids at the pediatric ward could not explore the world outside of it because they were badly sick. I would possibly be just like the other patients here— some with darks spots under their eyes, some very thin, some weak and pale, some losing their hair, and some just lay there like they were lifeless. But everyone was trying to live until the end of their time.