Sweet Serendipity (11 page)

“I can’t do that to her. I don’t want to worry her more than I have to. She’s with Richard, and he’ll keep her busy. I should pack a bag, I just don’t care to,” Tasha said in a saddened tone.

Rebecca packed what she thought would be necessary: toothpaste, toothbrush, deodorant, hairbrush, makeup (it is Tasha we’re talking about), and comfy, loose fitting clothes, such as her cotton capris, some loose t-shirts, and her bathrobe. She found Tasha sitting at the table staring at some paperwork.

“What is all that?” Rebecca asked.

“Hospital forms, insurance forms, my health care proxy, and my will.”

“Do you want me to hang on to all of those? I’ll put them in your bag.”

“Thanks, sweetie. I need to call my office and have all my cases transferred to my partner. I didn’t have much of a chance to call. This happened all so fast. That’s how you know it’s bad, when the doctors immediately want to cut you open,” Tasha grumbled.

“They just want to take every precaution. The sooner they start, the sooner you can beat this thing.” Rebecca tried to boost her spirit.

Tasha quietly walked into the other room to make a few last minute phone calls. Rebecca took the opportunity to call Gloria at the shop next to Solstice and ask her to hang a sign on the door explaining that they would not be open today. Gloria sent her best wishes to Tasha and told her not to worry about a thing.

Rebecca found herself checking to see if she might have had a text or voice message from Ethan. They hadn’t talked since yesterday morning, and she knew he must still be pretty upset with her. She debated calling him, just to hear his voice and tell him about Tasha, but she realized that he hardly even knew her, so she found herself calling Jack. He picked up on the second ring.

“Hey Becca, what’s going on?” The background was filled with loud bells and screams from the amusement rides.

“I shouldn’t have called, but…Tasha has cancer. She’s going into surgery today, and I’m…scared. I know I shouldn’t have called, but I didn’t know who else to talk to.”

“I’m glad you called. I’ll call the airline and change our tickets. I can have us home later today. We’ll meet you at the hospital.”

“Jack, you don’t have to do that. I don’t want you to do that.”

“It’s done. I just did it while we were taking. We’ll be there in a few hours. Give her my best and we’ll see you soon.”

Rebecca hung up the phone and began crying. It all seemed so surreal. Her best friend had cancer and she was starting to see how fragile life was.

Her thoughts were cut off when the door flew open and Ashlee began screaming for her mother.

“Mom, where are you?” She was crying uncontrollably. She saw Rebecca in the kitchen and ran to her and threw her arms around her. “Is it true, Aunt Becca? Does she really have cancer?” She asked her.

“Yes, baby.” She held the girl’s face in her hands and looked into her dark eyes. Ashlee suddenly seemed so young. “She’ll beat this, hun. She’s the strongest person I know.”

Tasha walked into the kitchen and Ashlee flew into her arms.

“Why weren’t you going to tell me? How could you even think about going through this without me there? What if something happened to you and I didn’t get to see you?”

“You are absolutely right, kiddo. I just thought I was protecting you. I want you there if you want to be there.”

“Yes, Mom!” They clung together and cried in each other’s arms.

Richard walked in the room and stood off to the side watching the exchange between mother and child. Tasha opened up her arm and called Richard into a hug. Rebecca noticed that he couldn’t control his emotions, either. He grabbed onto Tasha and Ashlee and they stood in an embrace.

Rebecca finally had to point out the time.

“I hate to break this up, but we need to leave if she’s going to make her appointment on time.”

Richard rubbed Tasha’s back and looked over at Rebecca.

“I’ll drive all of us. There is no point in separate cars.”

“OK,” she responded. They all rode in silence into Boston.

They got Tasha checked in and brought her into a private room. The nurse told her to change into a hospital gown and get settled. She told her that she would be in to draw blood from her and that they had to run a series of tests to verify that she was cleared for surgery. Tasha excused herself and changed in the bathroom. When she came back out she looked like a child, so scared and small.

The nurse returned almost instantaneously and set up her kit next to the bed. She tied the tourniquet around Tasha’s arm and inserted the needle. Ashlee buried her face in her father’s shoulder. She couldn’t stand the sight of blood.

When the nurse was finished she asked, “Do you have a health care proxy? I just want to be sure you have everything lined up.”

Tasha signaled to Richard, and Richard pulled out the copies.

“Everything is right here.” The nurse thanked him and then turned back to Tasha.

“The test should only take about an hour, the surgeon will be in to speak to you himself. We should be good to go by one o’clock.”

Tasha thanked the nurse and Ashlee jumped into the bed and curled up with her like she did when she was a little girl. Tasha pulled her daughter tightly to her and Rebecca excused herself from the room to allow Ashlee to have a few minutes alone with her mother. Richard followed her out into the hall.

“This is very surreal,” he told her.

“You can say that again. We just have to think positive.”

“Riley sent a text to Ashlee; I guess they’ll be here about the time Tasha goes into surgery,” Richard told her. “That’s how Ashlee found out. I wasn’t going to tell her, but I’m glad she has this time with her mother.”

“I’m so sorry, Richard. I called Jack, Riley must have heard. I didn’t mean for either one to find out like this.

They noticed a man walking into Tasha’s room. He pulled up a seat next to her, so Richard and Rebecca entered the room.

“Hello, Tasha, I am Doctor Milian. I will be performing your surgery this afternoon. There are a few things I would like to discuss with you, and I have a few forms that need to be signed.”

Richard stepped forward and took the forms from the doctor to look over.

“Well, your procedure is one of the most common ones that we do here at Brigham and Woman’s. We are a state-of-the-art facility with the top of the line equipment. You have two options to consider. The first is abdominal surgery in which we make an incision across the abdomen that would run from six to twelve inches. The surgery takes several hours, and the recuperation time is quite extensive. We offer a new technique in our facility now. It is called the “Da Vinci Robotic System.” What that means is that we have two interactive mechanical arms, a camera arm, a 3D image processing system, and a remote control unit. The motions of the Doctor are then translated to the robotic arm. Each robotic arm consists of multiple appendages connected by joints. The hand of the robot holds interchangeable surgical instruments that can be moved in a manner similar to the human wrist. The advantages are that we make several one to two centimeter incisions instead of one long one. So it will have less scarring. Your recovery time will be cut in half to a week or two, allowing you to return to your daily activities faster. There is also less blood loss and fewer complications.”

Richard cut him off.

“So you are saying that no human hands would be touching her? You expect us to believe that a remote controlled robotic arm is going to do what the human hand can do? What is the failure rate of something like that?”

The doctor turned to Richard and nodded his head.

“I understand your hesitation, of course, like any surgery, there are always risks. So far, the Robotic system has less of a failure rate than traditional abdominal surgery. It allows the surgeon to sit comfortably and the robotic arm remains steady at all times. There will be a doctor standing by the mechanism, supervising, available to take over at any second.”

Tasha perked up.

“Well I don’t need to think about it, I want that.”

“Now, Tasha, wait,” Richard called out.

“Richard, this is my life we’re talking about. I get to make the decisions now. This is the way to go.”

Dr. Milian interrupted.

“We are the only facility in the Northeast that utilizes this machine. Our success rate is one hundred percent so far.”

“So far…Did you hear that Tasha? So far,” Richard threw in.

“Just give me the forms to sign. I choose this option.” Tasha reached out for the forms.

Ashlee didn’t budge from her mother’s side, and Rebecca sat in a nearby chair taking in everything that she was hearing.

Dr. Milian then pulled out another form.

“Well now, on to the bigger issue at hand,” he began.

Richard let out a sigh.

“Your blood tests show that it would be in your best interest to begin radiation before and after your surgery. I am recommending external radiation therapy. It is a machine similar to that of an x-ray machine, which beams radiation onto the body where the cancer is located. It doesn’t take long, and if we begin now, we may stand a better chance of killing all the cells.”

“So you want me to start now?” Tasha asked.

“I think it would be the wisest decision,” Dr. Milian responded.

Tasha looked from Richard to Rebecca.

“This is all real?” She put her arm around her daughter and pulled her to her. “I love you guys. If anything should happen to me…”

“No, Mom, you don’t get to say that. You are going to be fine. People get cancer every day and live to tell about it. You are going to be fine.”

“You have a very smart daughter there; you should really listen to her,” The doctor told her. “I am going to send an orderly in to wheel you down to the radiation room.”

The doctor left, and there were no words to express what each one was thinking. Rebecca sat on the edge of the bed and gripped her best friend’s hand. Tasha squeezed back.

“You are going to make me cry, so don’t start, Becca,” Tasha practically whispered to her.

“I can’t help it. I just never in a million years expected either one of us to go through something like this.”

“I hear ya, sister. It always happens to someone else, right?”

“Mom, you’re going to be fine.” Ashlee said.

“How’d I get so lucky to have such a great kid?” She looked at Richard, who was welling up with tears. “At least we did one thing right, huh?”

He walked over to her and hugged her.

“I’ll always love you, you know that. No one will ever be you, Tasha, no one.”

The orderly came in and pushed the wheelchair over to the bed.

“Well, I guess my ride is here. Hopefully the next time you see me, I’ll be…alive.”

Rebecca, Ashlee and Richard all let out an air of frustration at her humor. Tasha gave each one a hug as she sat in the chair.

“I love you all.” They told her the same.

The next few hours dragged on. They all sat in the family lounge. Jack and the kids showed up. Rebecca couldn’t help but notice that Amber wasn’t with them, but she didn’t say anything. The kids ran into their mother’s arms. She hugged them tightly, grateful that they were home safe. Jack stood off to the side, not knowing his place. Rebecca let the kids go over and comfort Ashlee, and she walked up to her ex-husband. He threw his arms around her and embraced her in a way he hadn’t in years. No words were exchanged, he just held her as she cried. When she felt that she could gather herself up, she let him go and coyly smiled at him. He understood, so he sat over by Richard and began talking to him.

Emily came through the door a little while later. James was with her. She ran over to Rebecca and grabbed hold of her.

“How is she? Is there any word yet?”

“No. I expect that we will any time now,” She responded.

She noticed James sitting with the guys and said, “Where are the kids? How was the testing?

“His parents took them home. They told us that we should be here. As for the testing, we won’t know until they evaluate the results, a couple of days I hope. All I know so far is that he tests abnormally high for intelligence, so how bad can it really be? It’s nothing compared to the uncertainty that Tasha is going through. At least I know my son is going to live a long, healthy life.”

“I like the way you sound. You are like a little ball of sunshine. It’s what we need.”

Emily flipped her blond bob back and smiled large.

“Well, someone has got to be.” They giggled. It felt good to giggle. It took the stress off of the moment.

The doctor entered the lounge and he had a forlorn look on his face. Rebecca and Richard stood at the same time.

“Tasha?” was all that came out.

“She’s in recovery. You should be able to see her in a few hours.” He had a strange look on his face.

“Did something happen?” Richard asked.

“The surgery was a success.” He walked farther into the room and closed the door. “The cancer has spread a lot farther than we anticipated.”

Rebecca lost control of her knees and began to fall. Jack quickly grabbed hold of her and pulled her into a chair.

“What does that mean exactly?” Richard asked.

“It means that once she recuperates from the surgery she should think about putting her affairs in order. There is a tumor pressing against her kidneys. They are beginning to fail. The cancer has spread throughout her other organs now.”

“So you’re saying that she’s going to die? How long does she have?” Richard asked.

Ashlee began to wail. Riley clung to her best friend.

“I’d say six months. It’s tough to say how fast it will metastasize. I’m sorry; I just had to tell you all since she is going to need you now. I have already contacted the hospital psychologist to come speak to her once she learns the news.”

Everyone sat silent, staring off, dealing with their own grief. Time stopped. Rebecca flashed back to how they first met. It was math class freshman year. Rebecca was the new kid and no one talked to her until Tasha noticed a band logo on her notebook. They became instant friends and have been like sisters ever since. She remembered their senior prom, Jack and Richard were there. The theme was black and white. Rebecca wore white and Jack wore a black tux. Tasha wore black and Richard wore a white tux. She remembered graduation and the parties after. She thought back on Tasha standing by her at the Justice of the Peace when she married Jack. She was there when Riley was born, and she was there when Ashlee was born. They never missed a birthday, anniversary, first tooth, or first day of school.