A Twist Of Fate (PREVIOUSLY A Purple Garden)

Chapter 15

The cold air of the hospital felt colder than usual as Sydney and Jeremy sat waiting in the waiting room for their mother. She was there having scheduled testing before her regular doctor's appointment.

Sydney didn't know what to expect but she was hoping for the best nonetheless. She knew she was being more quiet than usual but Jeremy was too. She assumed he was silently praying in his head too while they waited for their mom to come back through the doors she had disappeared behind.

"What will the MRI show?" Jeremy asked, breaking the silence.

They were the only ones in the waiting room aside from an older man who was sitting on the other end of the room reading a magazine he found on one of the small wooden side tables. "It's a type of imaging," Sydney explained quietly as her hand fidgeted with the side seam of her jeans. "It will show if her cirrhosis has advanced any more."

"I figured that much. I didn't know if there was anything else you could tell me about it since you're a nurse and all," he teased, trying to lighten the weight in the room.

She shook her head. "No, that's about it."

Jeremy blew out a deep breath. "I hope it looks okay," he thought out loud, shifting uncomfortably in the stiff plastic chair.

Her mind was racing as she thought of what all she didn't want to be found on her mom's testing. She hoped that the fibrosis hadn't got much worse. She hoped that her mother hadn't developed esophageal varices. She was at a high enough risk for bleeding as it was. She hoped that masses, both malignant and benign, wouldn't be found on her mother's liver. She hoped that her mom's blood work wouldn't come back with an INR level through the roof. This with esophageal varices would be a nightmare.

She was trapped in the torture of her own head where her knowledge was tormenting her.

Right then, her mom stepped into the waiting room from the glass door she had been escorted through nearly an hour before. She smiled at them both, the dark bags under her eyes looking more like bruises in the white LED hospital lighting.

"Hello, loves," she said sweetly as she moved towards them slowly. "I'm glad to be out of that MRI scanner. I don't do well in such tight spaces."

Sydney stood up and reached for her mom's purse that was hanging from her shoulder. "Here. Let me help you, mom." Weighed down with medications, papers, and a slew of other things her mom deemed essential to have with her at all times, she was surprised the weight of it alone didn't pull her mom to the floor with as weak as she was.

"Thank you, dear," her mom said with an appreciative smile.

"Where are we going from here?" Sydney asked, watching her mom patiently.

Her mom paused, an unsure and blank look of exhaustion on her face. "Dr. um," she thought, "I can't think of his name. It's something foreign, I know."

Jeremy eyed their mother with concern. "Dr. Miller?"

"Oh, yeah," she chuckled at herself, resting her hand gently on Sydney's arm who smiled back at her despite the worry in her eyes. Sydney and Jeremy shared a silent look of worry that they held for a quick moment.

Following Jeremy who led the way down the twists and turns of the hallways, they reached the office with Dr. Reynold Miller printed onto the glass door.

"I'm glad you know where we're going," Sydney pointed out. "I'd get lost if I had to find it myself."

"We got lost the first few times we came," he told her as he reached for the door handle and pulled it open for them. "The more often she's had to come here, I've ended up memorizing every step of the way."