A Walk Along the Beach(50)

My relief was instantaneous. Walking pneumonia made perfect sense. My mind had automatically gone down dark alleys with monsters lurking behind every door, ready to pounce and take my sister from me.

    Annie wrote out a slip, handed it to Harper, and directed us to the diagnostic imaging unit across the hall from the clinic. No appointment was necessary, so Harper went up to the desk and handed the receptionist the paper Dr. Annie had given her.

“You can head home if you want,” Harper said to me. She looked greatly relieved. It all sort of added up. Harper hadn’t been herself for a while now, moping around, depressed. It seemed as if everything she’d planned and worked for had fallen through. Nothing felt right with her, and it hadn’t in some time. While she hadn’t said anything to me, she’d been worried. Afraid. She’d refused to deal with this, held back by fear, choosing to hope it would all go away on its own. Only now that the pain in her chest had worsened did she take the necessary steps to face the future.

I should have known. Should have paid more attention, especially lately. I’d been doing my best to play by Harper’s rules and be the sister she wanted instead of mothering her. In the process I’d pushed my concerns aside and concentrated more on how much I missed Sean.

“I’d like to stay, if you don’t mind.”

“Sure.” Most likely Dr. Annie was right about the diagnosis, but it made me feel good that Harper still wanted me by her side.

After a few minutes, Harper was taken back for the X-ray. While I waited, I reached for my phone, eager to see if I’d heard from Sean. A text message from him came up right away.

Arrived. Miserably hot and tired. Missing you.

I read his few words and placed my hand over my heart. I missed him, too. How quickly he’d become an important part of my life.

For several minutes I considered how best to reply. I wanted to tell him that Harper was at the doctor’s getting an X-ray, but feared that would alarm him unnecessarily.

Miss you, too. Be safe.

His reply came quickly.

Always.

    It didn’t take long for Harper to reappear. We were instructed to return to Dr. Annie’s office, where once again we sat in the clinic’s waiting room. Harper smiled and I realized how long it’d been since I’d seen my sister genuinely happy. A while. It hurt that she hadn’t felt free to share her concerns with me. I wondered if she’d shared any of this with John, and hoped that she had.

The waiting room was empty, and we sat for several minutes, discussing what we wanted for dinner. My sister suggested vegetarian pizza, but I was more in the mood for Chinese takeout. Neither of which was especially great, health-wise, something we wouldn’t normally consider. This was to be a celebration. Dr. Annie would write out a prescription and we’d return home, our minds free from worry.

Finally, Becca called us back into the same exam room where we’d been sequestered earlier. Dr. Annie followed directly behind her. She had her laptop with her, and she wasn’t smiling as she looked over the X-ray. I could see there would be no pizza or chicken chow mein tonight.

“What is it?” I asked, breaking into the silence.

“The X-ray shows a shadow,” Dr. Annie said.

Puzzled, Harper and I looked at each other, both of us shocked into silence. I found words first. “What does that mean?”

“It could mean all sorts of things.” She looked to Harper. “Because of your medical history, I want you to head to Aberdeen, to the ER. This late in the afternoon, it’d be impossible to get you into a doctor’s office.”

Harper reached for my hand, her grip punishing.

I waited until we were outside before I spoke. “Let’s not panic. Remember, your blood tests showed you were in perfect health. We need to think positively. Like Dr. Annie said, it could be any number of things. This doesn’t necessarily mean it’s cancer.”

For the life of me I don’t know how we made the forty-minute drive in one piece. I barely remembered getting into the car, traveling into the city, and locating the hospital. Neither of us spoke. Not a single word during the entire drive.

    When we walked into the emergency room, I paused, shocked to find the entire room was crowded with the sick and injured awaiting their turn. After checking in, we were fortunate to locate two seats together. A baby coughed next to me and the man sitting directly across held a towel around his bleeding hand.

An hour passed. Then another before Harper was called in for a more detailed look at her lungs. Waiting for the results seemed to take an eternity. I connected with Shirley and asked her to fill in for me at Bean There the next morning. Alice would cover the front and I was grateful. Before long I’d need to hire a replacement, as the teenager would be leaving for college in a couple of weeks. So many thoughts spun through my head, colliding with one another.

Just after midnight, we were given the results. From the physician’s sober look, I knew it wasn’t good. The scan revealed a tumor on Harper’s lung. It was cancerous.

Less than a month after the lab results showed my sister to be in robust health, the leukemia was back in the form of a rare chest tumor.

A choked gasp filled the room before I realized it had come from me. “No,” I whispered, panic rising in me. “It can’t be. Her blood work showed no signs of cancer a month ago.”