reactions to Lara's cancer
Author: Nathalia
Rating: PG
Challenge: Creamsicle #03 - hope
Extras / Toppings: pocky chain, peaches (The antidotes to potential misunderstandings are first, don't jump to conclusions. Second, be careful what you say and to whom you say it.)
Word Count: 375
Story: Misfits
Summary: four reactions to Lara’s cancer diagnosis.
Notes: I don’t know what to say about this.
Kev
I know it’s not how I should react to it but once Lara and I have talked it through and I assured her that I’ll be with her every step of the way, I lock myself in my office and turn on the computer.
There are 4.6 million search results for “pancreatic cancer” on Google but I don’t have to open very many to get the statistics, the prognosis.
Once I’m done crying, I tell myself that Lara is one of the five percent who will still be alive five years from now.
***
Mara
I’m the second person she tells is to and I can tell she’s scared, that Kev has been doing research for hours now and has decided that the best way to approach this is to pretend that she simply cannot die, even if everything points to it.
Kev has always been a dreamer, but Lara needs more than that. She also needs a realist on her team, someone who can assess the situation correctly but isn’t too fatalistic about it. That’s going to be me.
***
Maya
Mommy is sick but she will get better. When I get sick, daddy takes me to the doctor or gives me medicine and I stay in bed longer and in my PJs all day and I get better.
Mommy says that it’s not that easy, that what she has is serious but I know that the doctor will fix her. That’s what he’s there for. I don’t understand why she’s so scared.
I promised to take care of her and that she could stay in her PJs all day so she’d get better quick. That made her cry.
***
Lara
I don’t know what to say. I don’t want to think about all of this, about me possibly not even having six months left if the chemo doesn’t put me in remission. The only thing I know is that I don’t want to end up on a hospital bed, more dead than alive. If it comes to this, I will need a back-up plan.
But I don’t want to think about this. All I want is to be with Maya, hold her close and be her mother for as long as I still can.