A Love Song

Chapter Twenty Four

They bided goodbye and Thomas turned toward the departing gate. Yuri stood gazing after him. She didn't want him to go. She wanted to call him to come back. The pain that struck Yuri got worse as she watched Thomas step into the terminal gateway.

'Thomas, don't go.' she whispered in her heart as tears started to flood her eyes. 'Thomas, please don't go, I need you.'

Yuri felt her vision blacking out and she placed a hand on her head to steady herself.

'Thomas, come back... Please don't leave me. Come back.'

However, the airplane had taken off. She watched the plane's wheels lift off the ground and Thomas was gone. Yuri felt tortured by pain. She coughed and felt something on her hand. Yuri slowly lifted her hand from her mouth. It was blood. She had coughed blood.

Yuri stumbled back to her dormitory to find Emily waiting for her.

"You let him go?" she whispered with a hoarse voice from crying.

She rounded up on Yuri. "Why did you let him go?" she raised a fist and punched Yuri across the face.

Yuri didn't move. She stood still feeling numbed. Emily screamed and ran out of the dormitory sobbing and screaming. Yuri fell onto her bed.

For the next three weeks, Yuri coughed blood often. It was harder to hide her leukemia. She was often tired and skipped half her classes. Once she even almost fainted in class. Thomas phoned every week, saying cheerfully that he was doing well. Yuri cried every time he phoned but hid it from him. She couldn't bear to end his happiness.

Emily wandered into the hospital for her annual health check up. She had just seen Dr. Slath, her private physician, and was informed that she was as healthy as ever. She was walking past the cancer hallway when she heard Yuri's voice.

"Dr. Brown, I have been coughing blood often. Does this mean anything?" Yuri asked.

Emily hid behind the door to listen to the conversation.

"Yuri, I'm sorry. Your leukemia is getting worse. I'm afraid you will not live for another two months." Dr. Brown said.

Emily gasped silently.
'So that was why Yuri looked so pale lately.' She thought.

Tears of regret welled up in her eyes.
'How horrible, Yuri had leukemia, and she is dying! However, she's still so young. She's not even seventeen!' Emily thought tearfully.

'She let Thomas go and suffered all that pain and torture alone. She only wants the best for Thomas and not herself. She truly loved Thomas. I could never do what she did.' Emily thought. 'I don't deserve Thomas. Yuri is dying and Thomas is not even by her side.'