Soul Song

Chapter 8

I got a call from Allie telling me that she wanted all of us to meet at her house; she had news.

"He said it's not cancer."

It seemed really good for a second but when I looked at her, I could tell there was something more. I knew she wasn't done and when I looked at Jackson, I could tell he was thinking the same. I kind of elbowed him and he nodded. He saw it too. I spoke up.

"There's something else, isn't there?"

"Yeah, you got me. So, there's still something in there but they're going to have to study the tumors to figure it out."

This is new. She's never actually said that they were actually tumors. She stops and lets this sink in for a moment. We all kind of look around at each other, not really sure what to say. A couple of us had something in the back of our minds, questions we wanted to ask but really didn't want the answers to. Allie could tell and she went ahead and answered one of them.

"Yes, that does mean I'm going to have to have surgery to remove the tumors but, as I said, at least it's not cancer. They said, once they get them out, I should be able to speak and breathe better which sounded pretty good to me. They said they would have a set date for the surgery pretty soon."

We all just sit there for a second realizing things actually are looking up.

"Well that's good. You can do chorus and band and stuff better."

I look up to see who spoke. It's Hunter and he keeps going.

"So did they tell you what they think it is or did they just say they were going to study it?"

Allie just shrugged. Geez, these guys get paid the big bucks, you'd think they could tell us something.

"They seem to be absolutely clueless about it or if they think they know, they haven't told us."

Hunter nods. I just want to smack my head against a wall. Again, you'd think that by now they would have figured something out.

"Ok, so basically, they aren't telling you anything you didn't already know."

"Well, no, not necessarily. They did tell me that I have tumors but that I don't have cancer, so they are telling me something. Jonathan said, today, that this is confusing. He said that they should have been able to figure something out by now but something just isn't coming up right. Just one piece of the jigsaw is missing, but, somehow, it's the most important piece in the box. He said that they should have seen something to tell them what it is by now but they just aren't seeing anything. I would assume that if they can't see anything coming up, there's nothing there, but apparently, they still think there is whether they find it or not."

For a second we all just sit there kind of waiting for someone to say something. I look over at Keaton to see what he thinks about this but he decides to be the one to speak.

"So what do you think it is?"

Now it's really quiet. None of us really wanted to answer that. We all had our thoughts but none of them were good. Allie, takes a second to come up with an answer.

"Well, I -- I don't really know. If the doctors don't know though, I assure you, I'm wrong."

Allie kind of sat there thinking for a moment, like the rest of us. I had in my mind of what I thought it was but I knew it couldn't be. I still think it's cancer. It's as simple as that. If it's not benign, then it's got to be cancerous or at least that's my thought on the matter. Of course I'm not a doctor so what do I know?

"Well, I know, but just take a guess. If we're just going to sit here and let it drive us crazy, we might as well make a game out of it."

Ok I have to give him credit for this idea. He knows how to pick up the mood. I'm not really sure what to say yet, I'm still thinking but Hunter speaks up.