Chapter 70
After
that day, Nick didn’t see Claire for the rest of the week, and it was just as
well. He spent most of the week in bed,
too sick to stray too far from the bathroom, too weak to move anyway, and from
the few phone conversations he had had with her over the course of the week, he
knew that her parents had driven from Gainesville and were staying in a hotel,
while her brother and his wife made frequent trips from their home in St.
Petersburg, which was less than half an hour away.
According
to Claire, the whole family was going to be tested that week to see if any of
them would be good bone marrow donors.
She promised to call and tell him the results when they found out, and
for the first time in many years, Nick found himself praying, actually praying
to God that one of her family members would work as a donor. If none of them did, he figured it was
unlikely any of her more distant relatives would either, and that would mean
waiting for an unrelated donor, which he knew could take a long time. Time that Claire may not have as the leukemia
continued taking over her body.
The
thought of Claire dying was deeply frightening to Nick. Though they were still new friends, Nick had
come to care about her. And in a way, he
felt he needed her. In the past
few weeks, she had become his rock, his support, his one and only ally in the
war against this disease. Recently, she
had been there for him and made things easier… and it scared him to think of
how much harder dealing with this would become if she was taken away from
him. Selfish? Maybe.
But that was how he felt.
While
the rest of the week had been a living hell, both physically and emotionally,
the following Saturday proved to be a good day.
The completion of what he hoped would his last round of chemotherapy
left Nick in good spirits, relieved to wake up and not feel nauseous, to be
able to eat and keep his food down (though the outbreak of canker sores in his
mouth once again made eating difficult), and to be able to walk around the
house without feeling like passing out from the dizziness and fatigue that
always accompanied the nausea.
When
the phone rang that afternoon, and Nick saw Claire’s name and number on the
caller ID, he reached immediately for the phone, then hesitated. What if the news was bad? What if no one matched? Did he really want to hear that?
Well,
he couldn’t just ignore her.
“Hello?”
he answered cautiously.
“Hi,
Nick,” came her familiar voice, and he tried to read the emotion in it. It was impossible – he couldn’t tell what
kind of mood she was in or what kind of news she had for him.
“Hey,
Claire,” he replied and waited.
“Well,”
she started and sucked in a breath. He
listened, impatient for her to continue.
“Kyle’s a match,” she exhaled, saying the words all in one breath.
“Kyle? Your brother?
He matched?”
“Yeah.”
“Oh
thank God. That’s great, Claire! Aren’t you happy?”
“Oh
yeah,” she replied, “I am. But, I dunno…
I guess I’m just kind of overwhelmed right now.
I just got back from the hospital.
Dr. Rodrigo had all of us come in for the results of the blood and bone
marrow tests, and after she told me that Kyle would be my donor, she filled me
in on everything else that was going to happen.
God, it’s just…” She trailed off,
sounding flustered.
“I’m
sorry,” said Nick. “So what exactly does
happen? And when?”
“Well,
I have a week to think about it and decide whether or not I want to go through
with-“
“What’s
to decide about? You’re doing it, aren’t
you?” Nick interrupted.
“Yeah,
I am,” Claire said. “But, you know, they
want to give you some time to prepare.
So anyway, next Monday, I have to check into the hospital for ‘Phase 1’
of the transplant of the process, which is like where they run tests and crap
to make sure I’m really a candidate… then ‘Phase 2’ starts a few days after
that, and that’s when I’ll get the actual transplant.”
“I
see,” said Nick.
“So
you’ll come to see me in the hospital, right?” Claire blurted suddenly, a hint
of laughter in her voice. He could tell
she was smiling and couldn’t help but smile himself.
“Sure,”
he replied. “You know how much I love to
hang out at the hospital in my spare time.
Oh no, wait, that’s you.”
“Aw,
shut up.”
“So,
you got any plans for tonight?” Nick asked.
“Not
that I know of… why?”
“Well…
I thought maybe we should celebrate… you know, celebrate you finding a match,”
he suggested.
“Um,
okay… what did you have in mind?” she wondered.
“I
dunno, nothing big, I just thought we could go out for ice cream or
something? That’s about all I can eat at
the moment, so…”
“Ice
cream sounds great,” said Claire.
“Awesome. You want me to pick you up?”
“Sure,
if you want. I haven’t seen any of your
sweet rides yet, so that’d be good.”
He
laughed at the “sweet ride” comment and replied, “Okay… pick you up at eight?”
“Sounds
good. I’ll see ya then.”
“Yup,
see ya,” he said, and they hung up.
***