WHEN DADDY LEFT

Buzzed

Y'vania's POV

Everything goes silent.
The world stops moving.
Everything shatters.
It shatters right before my eyes.
I know it's hard.
So hard to fix a broken into tiny pieces family.
A family that's afraid.

Afraid of losing yet another loved one.
But this.

This is different
so different because this time
the loved one isn't forced into leaving them.
yet so similar
similar because if everything was said earlier this couldn't be happening.
It couldn't be silent
The world couldn't have stopped
Nothing would be shattered
I wouldn't be trying to fix this broken remnants of an expensive flower vase
a flower vase that's impossible to remake rather than purchasing a fake replica to replace it.

Silence.
It's like a sharp object.
I hate every sharp object
because they tend to destroy
they reduce everything into small pieces.
I hate
Silence.

So I find a way to break it
Just anything.

Raquel's POV

She takes my shaky hands into hers and smiles like everything is okay. Yes it is.
Of course everything's fine. She's just joking. Probably playing one of her pranks.

"Y'vania. Are you joking? Don't use such a deadly illness to prank us you're getting us worried."

She stops smiling and shakes her head.

"I'm not joking mummy. I always go to Miller Rosa hospital for appointments and check ups. A couple of months ago I noticed something strange about me. I kept on feeling weak, having random infections, nosebleeds and headaches that couldn't stop. I decided to check into the hospital and they confirmed it."

Wow she's being so open today.
Probably took something to boost her morale.

"Is it treatable?"
Tanisha asks in a shaky voice. Y'vania shrugs and says,
"Yeah I guess so. I am currently taking immunosuppressants. They are meant to slow down my immune system from destroying the bone marrow. It is highly risky because it slows the immune system so I am at risk of severe infections. It's not the treatment but it buys time for the stem cell transplant which is really expensive."

"So it's not helping?"

Nisha asks amid sobs.

"Come on Nisha it's just a first aid. A highly risky first aid. So if it was working would I be fainting, getting nosebleeds, losing my hair, stomach infections and many others?"

No wonder she has been wearing beanies. I thought it was a new fashion sense.

"So there is no way out apart from the stem cell transplant. How much is it?" Mia asks,

"First, it's not a guarantee for me to be completely healed. It's just a fifty-fifty chance of survival and because my condition is a severe one and has progressed they will have to do a complex procedure which costs up to five hundred thousand dollars."

Wow.

Five hundred thousand dollars and we're not even sure she's going to survive. How I always joked to myself saying that nothing was going to take away my Y'vania and now God is just laughing at my joke.

Mia gets up, pacing up and down. I know she is thinking of where to get the money or if her savings will help her get a loan. Her business is still new and she can't have all that money at once.
Nisha is quiet, very still, like she suddenly froze into a statue. Y'vania decides to break up the sad moment,

"Can everyone put on a smile and forget that I said anything?"

Look at how brave she is.

Everyone smiles and comes in for a family hug. It's true what my baby said;
acting like she didn't say anything, letting the air cool off before asking anything else. Anything like how we are going to raise the money.