chocolates, which might have been the look the designer
had been going for. We were in Hershey, after al.
I perched on the edge of the couch but jumped again at
once when the doctor entered the room. Dr. Frank turned
out to be tal, with a head of wild, dark hair and a strong
grip. 'Paige DeMarco?'
I nodded and he smiled as he let go of my hand. 'Your
mom's going to be fine. Her blood pressure's stabilized
and we managed to stop the hemorrhaging. It was touch-
and-go there for a while, though, I won't kid you. And
she'l have to stay in the hospital a bit longer.'
I'd thought I was okay until the floor jumped up to try to
smack me in the face, and Dr. Frank's big hands eased me
onto a couch, where he put a hand on the back of my
neck and pushed my head between my knees with the
practice of a man used to dealing with fainters.
'Breathe in through your nose, out through your mouth,' he said.
I tried, but my hands were shaking and each breath I took
whistled through my nostrils in a way I found utterly
distracting. It worked, though, because in a minute or so I
no longer felt a red haze threatening to cover me. I looked
up.
up.
'Sorry.'
He shook his head. 'It happens. Your mom realy is going
to be fine.'
'She didn't even tel me she was coming in,' I told him. 'I had no idea. I'm just a little…can you tel me what's going
to happen now? With her treatment, I mean.'
So he sat beside me and laid out the plan of treatment for
my mom, how long it would probably take and what she'd
have to do, and what I could do to help her. Her reasons
for choosing a reconstruction right away instead of waiting
for chemo treatment, the way I'd thought it was always
done. He explained everything to me, more about breast
cancer than I'd ever wanted to know, and I stil didn't quite
understand it al. It was worse than I'd been expecting,
only because up until a few hours ago I hadn't known
anything was wrong with her. My shock must have shown
on my face, because he patted my shoulder.
'There's nothing you can do for her right now. Why don't
you go on home and get some sleep.' He paused. 'Do you
have anyone who can come get you? You don't look like
have anyone who can come get you? You don't look like
you should be driving.'
I nodded without realy thinking about who I'd cal, already
puling out my phone, and he patted my shoulder again. He
left without saying much more, but what was there to say?
My mom had breast cancer, she'd almost died, she'd
probably be fine, but she was stil going to need treatment.
