“You don’t understand,” he said. “We moved into her house without any warning and turned her whole life upside down. She has every reason to hate us.”
“Josh, would you stop being so difficult?” said his mother, flinging her skeletal arms into the air in a gesture of frustration. “I’m not asking much. I just want you to be pleasant. Can’t you at least do that for me?”
“I’ll do whatever you want, but I can’t guarantee Shannon will play along, especially if Lisa doesn’t stop making snide remarks to her,” said Josh, who felt like he was sinking into a sea of misery. “If Shannon decides she doesn’t like Lisa, I’m not going to be able to change her mind. You know how stubborn she is.”
“I don’t care about that,” said his mother. “I’m depending on you to keep the peace, even if that means turning the other cheek. As for Shannon, if you anticipate a problem, you’ll just have to intervene before the situation gets out of control.”
“I can’t be everywhere at once,” said Josh. “It’s too much.”
“No, I’ll tell you what’s too much,” she said, laughing bitterly. “Being confined to a bed and dying—that’s too much. Your life is a breeze, Josh. You’ve got nothing to complain about.”
Josh was embarrassed because he knew Agnes was listening to the conversation. He wanted to leave, but he couldn’t move. His mother relaxed against the pillows and the excitement in her eyes faded.
“I didn’t mean to lose my temper,” she said. “I just couldn’t understand why you were being so uncooperative. Of course you’ll do your best. Don’t worry about Lisa. I’m sure she’s not a naturally spiteful person. In fact, she could be very good for you.”
Her dreamy expression terrified Josh. He knew what she was thinking, but he refused to entertain the idea. He wished she would stop talking about Lisa. Things were already awkward enough between him and Lisa without the added pressure of a hypothetical romance. He didn’t want to give his mother a chance to pursue the matter, so he stood up, leaned over, and kissed her on the forehead.
“I love you, Mom,” he said. “I’ll see you after school tomorrow.”
“No, you won’t,” she said. “I don’t want you moping around in here. Besides, you’ll be much too busy to bother about me anyway. I’m sure your dad will keep you updated on everything. I’m not planning to die tomorrow, but if I do, you’ve been a wonderful son, and I couldn’t love you more.”
She extended her hand to him, but he was too afraid to take it. She looked so frail that he couldn’t shake the mental image of her face dissolving into dust. Her skull grinned at him through her skin, and the sight paralyzed him with horror. He forgot to breathe, and the room began to spin.
“Josh, I think you’d better run along now,” said Agnes. “I’ll take care of your mom. Don’t you worry.”
Her voice brought him back to reality, and he felt the air entering his lungs again. The room stopped spinning. He heard footsteps in the hall and turned his head. The door opened and his father hurried in, followed by Richard and Lisa’s father. They looked tired, but there was a triumphant air about them. Lisa’s father was carrying a container used for transporting biological specimens. He set it on the table beside the bed. Josh saw his mother’s eyes light up with incredulous joy.
“You did it,” she said in a breathless voice.
Lisa’s father put on a pair of gloves and opened the container. It was full of ice. He pulled out a glass vial and held it up so Josh’s mother could see it. For a moment, it glowed with the color of gold, but condensation gathered on its surface and shrouded it in a smoky blur.
“It’s beautiful,” she said. “When can we start?”
“Tomorrow,” he said. “I don’t know the ideal dose, so we’ll start low and work our way up. I’ll give you some fluids tonight to increase your blood volume. Agnes, you can go ahead and put in a central line so we’ll have reliable access.”
“We don’t have baseline clotting studies,” said Agnes.
“I’ll order them,” he said. “I have to go to the hospital tonight anyway to get some work done. We’ll get a complete blood count and a basic metabolic panel too, and I’ll arrange with the blood bank to have platelets on standby just in case we need them. We’ve already got four units of packed red blood cells in the refrigerator.”
All the talk about blood made Josh feel faint. He turned to leave and stumbled against his father, who had been standing behind him.
“Are you okay?” said his father.
Josh hated lying, but he felt guilty about being so weak. His father had enough things to worry about without having to worry about him. He took a deep breath and tried to sound like he didn’t care.
“I got dizzy for a second, but I feel better now,” he said.
“Josh, you don’t have to pretend,” said his father. “I know you want to help the family as much as you can, but you need to take care of yourself first. You’re under an enormous amount of stress, and if there’s anything I can do to help—”
“There’s not,” said Josh. “I’m fine. Just focus on Mom. I can always talk to Richard.”
His father looked surprised.
“Is that what you’ve decided to call him?” he said.
Josh didn’t know what to say. As strange as it was to refer to his grandfather by name, it made more sense than attaching a family title to a person who had never participated in his life before. He still didn’t know why there was so much animosity between his father and Richard, and he regretted mentioning him.
“Do you want me to
