From Ant to Eagle(32)
So we sat there for a while longer until the bell rang and it was time to go. I felt a sudden wave of fear rise up in me as we walked across the playground. I could see Dad’s car waiting in the parking lot. I realized how nervous I was about Sammy’s bone needle—and I wasn’t even the one getting the needle.
“I wish you could come with me to the hospital,” I said.
Aleta nodded but the rest of her body language said she wasn’t keen on the idea. I thought about how much calmer I felt when she was around—how she’d helped me calm down when I was ready to punch Tom and Joey. It would be nice to have her there.
“If Sammy ends up staying over the weekend maybe you could ask your sister to drop you off for a visit.”
Aleta stopped walking and looked at me. Her eyes looked pained and I wasn’t sure if it was for Sammy or for something else. “I…I don’t think I could ever go back there.”
So she had been there.
I was going to ask her more but I saw Dad standing in the parking lot waving so I hurried across to meet him.
WHEN WE ARRIVED at the hospital Mom was sitting in the chair next to Sammy’s bed while he slept. She put her finger in front of her mouth to shush us as we came in. The TV was on and Dark-wing Duck was playing mutely in the background.
Next to Sammy’s bed there was a plastic tray on the table and I lifted the cover to find a soggy piece of pizza next to a carton of milk.
“You can have that if you want,” I heard Sammy say from the bed.
I looked up to find Sammy watching me. “No, thanks,” I said, covering it back up and trying my best to hide the disgusted look on my face.
Dad walked over and sat on the end of his bed. “How are you feeling, sport?” he asked.
“Okay,” Sammy replied, but he didn’t look up at Dad. His lips were held tightly together and creases were splayed across his forehead.
“You’re worried about the bone needle, huh?” Dad asked.
Sammy nodded.
If I were in his shoes I would have already bolted from the hospital but despite this I tried to reassure him.
“It’ll be all right, Sammy. You’re going to be asleep so it won’t hurt.”
“But what if I wake up?” he asked.
“You won’t. Don’t worry about that,” Dad said, grabbing Sammy’s foot and giving it a squeeze. “I’ve been put to sleep before, it was actually kind of fun.”
“Fun?” Sammy and I replied in unison.
“Yeah, they tell you to count back from ten and say that you’ll be asleep before you get to one. I don’t even think I made it to eight,” Dad chuckled. “Next thing I knew I was awake in the recovery room with all the ice cream I could eat.”
“That doesn’t sound too bad at all,” I said, forcing a smile.
Sammy wasn’t so easily convinced.
When Mom and Dad left to get coffee I took my chance to execute a plan I’d come up with while I’d lay awake the night before. If eating worms and walking through rose bushes were deserving of Levels, having a needle stuck into your bone sure as heck was too. I’d brought the journal with me to school in my backpack.
“I was going to give this to you after you’d finished,” I said, pulling the journal out, “but I guess I could give it to you now. Sammy, I award you the Level of Tiger—for bravery.”
Sammy’s eyes lit up the way they had so many times before. That simple leather-bound book with poorly illustrated animals could make my brother happier than anything.
“Tiger?! You mean it?” he asked.
I nodded.
For the rest of the afternoon I sat reading R.L. Stine’s classic Say Cheese and Die! out loud to Sammy but I didn’t use my scary voice. I was done trying to scare Sammy. There were real things to worry about now.
Later, two nurses came and said it was time. They unhitched Sammy’s bed wheels and began manoeuvering him out of the room. I’d expected him to cry, or to protest, but instead he just lifted his hands beside his face, bent his fingers, and said, “Rawr,” with a stubborn smile on his face.
CHAPTER 20
I SAT IN THE ROOM THE FOLLOWING DAY WATCHING DR. PARKER’S white moustache move up and down as his lips formed words that passed through my head like a breeze through an open window.
I guess I’d already known. But when he’d said he was pretty sure that Sammy had cancer the day before, a part of me had pretended it was like when I told my parents I was pretty sure I’d done my homework.
Acute Myeloid Leukemia, AML for short, is a form of blood cancer. It is caused by one cell, one tiny, insignificant cell saying, “I don’t want to be like the rest.” Then that one cell starts dividing and building an army. That army attacks the rest of the body and slowly takes over. It moves from the blood to the lungs to the liver and sometimes, it moves to the brain. Cancer has no boundaries. It doesn’t care about anyone else, it just moves right on in and says, “Get out.” Cancer is selfish.
At least, that’s how Dr. Parker explained it.
The bone marrow biopsy had confirmed any parent’s, brother’s, sister’s, grandparent’s, or friend’s worst nightmare—Sammy had cancer. And worse, Dr. Parker suspected that given the seizure it had already spread to his brain.