Challenge #10a: Title This (Part 1)
“But that’s impossible,” she stuttered. “You said I only had months to live! My children sold my house! They’ve been reminiscing, saying their goodbyes!” She was yelling now. She was ready to die. She wasn’t sure she was ready to continue living.
“I know, I know,” said the doctor calmly. “But look at the x-rays we took this morning. Do you see how there aren’t any more tumors?”
She was no expert at reading x-rays, but it did look pretty normal to her.
“You’ve been feeling better, right?” asked the doctor.
“Well, yeah, I guess,” she said. Riddled with cancer or not, she still had an old woman’s body and with that came some natural aches and pains, but she had been feeling better. She’d just assumed her body was giving up. Death wasn’t supposed to hurt, just all the stuff that came before it. “But how did that happen? I haven’t been on any sort of treatment for months.”
The doctor paused. “Honestly, we don’t know. Those x-rays you took yesterday that we said were unclear? They were clear. We just couldn’t explain them. We wanted to wait to tell you until we could.”
“But you can’t, so why are you telling me now?”
The doctor took a deep breath and looked around the room. “You aren’t the only patient who has shown remarkable improvement in their condition.”
She didn’t know what to say. One miracle was difficult to believe. Multiple miracles were impossible.
“In order to determine the cause of your improvement, we must ascertain the similarities among your cases,” she replied matter-of-factly.
“In other words,” she replied, “I shouldn’t worry about my children having sold the house because I’m not allowed to leave the hospital yet anyway?”
“I’m afraid so, Margaret,” said the doctor quietly before she turned and exited the room. Through the gap between the curtain and the wall, she could see the doctor enter the room across the hall, probably to share the same news with the patient in that room.
“I know, I know,” said the doctor calmly. “But look at the x-rays we took this morning. Do you see how there aren’t any more tumors?”
She was no expert at reading x-rays, but it did look pretty normal to her.
“You’ve been feeling better, right?” asked the doctor.
“Well, yeah, I guess,” she said. Riddled with cancer or not, she still had an old woman’s body and with that came some natural aches and pains, but she had been feeling better. She’d just assumed her body was giving up. Death wasn’t supposed to hurt, just all the stuff that came before it. “But how did that happen? I haven’t been on any sort of treatment for months.”
The doctor paused. “Honestly, we don’t know. Those x-rays you took yesterday that we said were unclear? They were clear. We just couldn’t explain them. We wanted to wait to tell you until we could.”
“But you can’t, so why are you telling me now?”
The doctor took a deep breath and looked around the room. “You aren’t the only patient who has shown remarkable improvement in their condition.”
She didn’t know what to say. One miracle was difficult to believe. Multiple miracles were impossible.
“In order to determine the cause of your improvement, we must ascertain the similarities among your cases,” she replied matter-of-factly.
“In other words,” she replied, “I shouldn’t worry about my children having sold the house because I’m not allowed to leave the hospital yet anyway?”
“I’m afraid so, Margaret,” said the doctor quietly before she turned and exited the room. Through the gap between the curtain and the wall, she could see the doctor enter the room across the hall, probably to share the same news with the patient in that room.