Diesel and Jerricho joined her immediately.
“So tell me why again Marge’ll go one way, and we’ll go another?”
“It isn’t for sure yet,” Diesel said. He hesitated.
Jerricho looked at him and said, “She might as well know.”
“Know what?”
“The doctors suspect that she’s got a terminal illness and that she doesn’t have very long to live. There was talk about sending her, with her permission, to a center in Switzerland, where she might get some treatment,” Diesel said.
“Wow,” she said, sitting back in shock. “When did you find that out?”
“This morning,” Diesel said.
She nodded and stared down at her food. “That seems so unfair,” she cried out softly.
“Remember? Life isn’t fair.”
“I know,” she said, “but sometimes it’s really a bitch.”
“It is. Eat up, and we’ll go see her.”
“Is this likely to be the last time I do see her?”
The two men looked at her and said, “Why don’t you just not focus on that?”
She didn’t even know what to say. She managed to get some food down but only half of what she had taken. She stared at it and said, “I can’t get any more down. I’m too upset over Marge.”
“I understand,” he said. “Let’s go talk to her, and see how you feel afterward.”
And, with that, they got up and left the table.
As she walked out, she turned to look up at him. “So am I going to Switzerland too?”
“Do you want to go to Switzerland?” Diesel asked.
“No,” she said, “I want to go home.”
“Then we’re going home.”
She shook her head. “And when is that?”
“I’ll let you know,” Diesel said. “After you visit with Marge, I’ve got a meeting with the captain.”
And, with that, Jerricho turned and walked away.
She looked at Diesel and asked, “Now what?”
“I’m taking you to Marge,” he said gently.
“Okay,” she said, “let’s go.”
Diesel escorted Eva through the ship back to the medical clinic center. As they walked in, the nurse looked up, frowned, and said, “I hope you’re not here for Marge.”
“Actually I am.” Eva stepped forward, looking at the nurse in surprise. “Why? Is that a problem?”
“She was just flown out about forty-five minutes ago,” she said, checking her watch.
“Oh no,” Eva said, “I wanted to say goodbye.”
“She took a turn for the worst,” she said.
“Worse how?” Diesel asked.
“She’s got stage four cancer. She seemed to think that she would never get away from her captives, so she hadn’t worried too much about what the end result would be. But, once we managed to take a good look at her, she said that she’d known for quite a while.”
“Oh no,” Eva said. “I was really hoping for good news. And I was hoping to see her down the road in the future.”
“I suspect that won’t happen. She did want to make it back to Australia and die there. But the best medical help for her is in Switzerland. I don’t know that she’ll make the journey all that well. Only through her insistence and the officers in charge, who made some connections happen, is she even on her way. Otherwise I don’t think she’d have survived very many more days.”
When a faint cry came from Eva, Diesel immediately reached out for her. He tucked her up close and said, “I’m so sorry.” He gently stroked her shoulder, and she stared up at him wordless. “I know you didn’t know anything about it, and now it’s such a shock.”
“Why didn’t she tell me?” she asked.
“Maybe she didn’t want to face it herself.”
Eva thought about that for a moment and then looked at him and nodded. “That’s quite possible,” she said, her voice careful and quiet. “She was never one to talk about herself.”
“Exactly. For all you know, it’s something that she’s had for a long time, and, once she was kidnapped, she knew that, if she didn’t get rescued right away, there wouldn’t be any hope for a cure. Now that she was rescued, she probably already assumed it was too late.”
Eva looked over at the nurse. “Do you have any contact information so I can contact Marge in Switzerland?”
“I’ll ask for permission to share that with you,” the nurse said. “Of course I can’t do it without permission.”
Diesel saw the distress in Eva’s facial features. “Come on. Let’s go back to your room.” He turned around, met up with Jerricho, and nodded her in the right direction and, thanking the nurse, the three of them walked back to their rooms. When they got in, she sat down on the bottom bunk and stared up at him.
“It’ll be okay,” he murmured.
“Nothing’ll be okay,” she said. “Just think about that. I mean, she didn’t even have a chance to enjoy her freedom.”
“Nope, she didn’t, and she wouldn’t want you to be sitting here moaning about her either,” he said.
She gave a bitter laugh at that. “Marge was very hard to get to know at all,” she said, “but I know, in this last week or so, she just seemed to give up. I think she was getting sicker and sicker. I noticed the lump myself, when we were with her in the apartment. When she saw the look on my face, she changed her shirt, put on one of those heavier hoodie tops. She had lumps in several spots where there shouldn’t have been any. Maybe I guess it’s just the suddenness of it. I mean, I hope that there’s still some treatment for her, and, if not, then I hope her passing is fast and painless,” she said. She leaned her head against the back wall, her body now almost flat out on the bed. “When do we leave?”
“At ten.”
She looked at him in surprise. “You already have something arranged?”
“Yes,” he said, “I do.”
“Great, and how long will we be at this next stop?”
“I can’t really say
