Chapter 5: In Sickness and In Health
*Note* I know that the font sizes and styles change throughout the chapter. This happens when I transfer my writing from Word to Wattpad. I would change it, but Wattpad enables me to change font sizes and styles. Sorry about that!
After the fire, school returned to normal. I had more episodes of depression, but it was not all that bad, yet. Since the Day of Blazes and Broken Hearts (that’s what I’m calling it), Iris never talked to me. Sydney continued to admire Flo’s awesomeness. I went to the therapist’s on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Everything seemed to return to normal.
“Hey, where’s Sydney?” Flo asked me one day.
“I don’t know. I’ll text her,” I said, pulling out my phone.
Where R U? I texted her. I waited for her response. She finally replied Uh…….. Can we talk over the phone or video chat after school? I texted back Sure
When I got home, I immediately went to the computer and video called Sydney. She picked up after a few rings.
“Where are you?” I asked.
“Well,” she said, sniffling. She wiped her face with her hands. Sydney looked away and placed her hand on the side of her face, placing her elbow on a tray below her. She blinked slowly, three times.
“What is it,” I asked. I could feel the fear and panic welling up inside of me. Sydney to a big gulp, then look into my eyes. She said two words,
“It moved.”
“What moved?”
“The cancer.”
“Oh, where did it move?” Sydney crossed her arms and turned away. Tears ran down her face like ribbons on a present. She put her face on her arm. I heard muffled cries as Sydney’s body moved up and down frantically. Still, I waited. I knew that sometimes you needed to cry. But I didn’t ask her why she was crying, or anything for that matter. It was strange for Sydney to cry. She was very strong when it came to talking about her cancer. Something had flipped in Sydney’s mind.
After Sydney’s episode, we decided to do friendship vows.
“I, Piper Blackwood, take you, Sydney Panetta to be my best friend, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish; from this day forward until death do us part,” I said, smiling at Sydney.
“I, Sydney Panetta, take you, Piper Blackburn to be my best friend, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish; from this day forward until death do us part.” Then we smiled. I had not planned to do friendship vows, but I felt that it was important that Sydney and I had a good connection.
“So, why are you in the hospital?” I asked.
“I passed out. I don’t remember much. What I do remember is gone with the wind,” Sydney said.
“It must be pretty bad,” I said.
“Yeah, it is. They have me on all sorts of medication. Taking oral chemo, have an IV in my arm, and the worst part is the G-tube.”
“G-tube?”
“This thing,” Sydney said, lifting up her hospital gown. “Humbug.”
“It’s going to be okay. Look, I know it’s going to be okay.”
“You’re not the one dying here! I’m never going to be loved, I’m never gonna leave a mark, I have no meaning. Just pull the plug. Why are they even keeping me alive? I do nothing for the world. Why can’t I just stop making the world worse?
“Look, you are loved. I love you, indefinitely. You want to know why they’re keeping you alive. They’re keeping you alive for me. I want you to be here so that my horrible qualities will deflect off of you and I can know them. I need someone to help me realize the real Piper. I know cancer sucks. I can absolutely assure you that it sucks. But, just know that this is for me. I know you don’t want to suffer; I don’t want you to suffer either. Just, suffer with me. “
“I don’t know who long I will be able to. But, having hope is half the gas you need for the trip.”
“There you go. Maybe strange, confusing metaphors can help with the pain. Sometimes the things that don’t make sense can be medicine.”
“Uh, sure. Whatever. Just not medicine that will make me live like you. I want to be a bird, free to be whom I want to be and go where I want. Instead, I am confined to this hospital gown and bed.”
“There’s no one holding you back from expressing yourself except you.”
“Cancer is holding me back, my parents are holding me back, doctors are holding me back, but I am not.”
“Oh yes you are,” I said, shaking my finger at Sydney. “You are letting those people and things hold you back. If you look past them, tell them that this is your time, you can soar high above the clouds. You can travel the galaxy in the blink of an eye. You can… Where’d you go?” The screen was pitch black. The house was completely dark. There was only the sound of the tree branch tap-tap-tapping at the window. It was eerie with the mist outside creeping at my door. I shot up from my chair, pushing it back. The chair hit the ground with a thud.
“Mom, where are you,” I said as my voice quivered. I took deep breaths in through my nose. “MOM!!!”
“Why are you screaming?” Evelyn asked, suddenly appearing at the bottom of the stairs. “Don’t you remember? Mom is working late. Now, go do something while I fix the power.” Evelyn headed into the garage. I plopped onto the couch and texted Sydney.
“Where were u?” Sydney texted.
“The power went out. It still is.” I texted back.
“Wanna get together some time?”
“Sure, when?”
“I’m going to be in the hospital this whole week. But, if everything goes well, I can get out next Friday.”
“C u then?”
“Sounds good”
“The power just came back on. Wanna vid chat?”
“Gotta do something with the G tube. To graphic, and just, not really a good time to vid chat.”
“Oh, well TTYL”
“K DFTBA”
“OSWGO”
“Hey, pizza’s here!” Yelled Evelyn from the front room.
“Bring it here!” I said. Then I rolled around on the ground and waited for Evelyn to come with the food. I stuffed the pizza in my mouth, then finally got up to get more.
When I sat back down on the couch, I rolled onto my back. I couldn’t help thinking about what would happen if Sydney was gone. Our conversation had sparked a side of Sydney I had never seen. Her crying and screams were almost as bad as the first time she was told she had cancer. I curled up into a ball and cried. In the back of my mind, I remembered that I had not taken my medicine this morning.
By the time I was woke up again, Mom and Jerry were home. They were screaming at each other from the kitchen. I felt like seeing what all the commotion was; instead I just listened.
“Why didn’t you do it then?” Mom screamed.
“I thought Evelyn could do it,” said Jerry.
“Did you ask her?”
“No.”
“Don’t you know how important this project is? You know, Evelyn called me and asked me how to turn the power back on!!!! You should have been here to help with that!” Mom started to pace back and forth. Her fisted were clenched as tight as babies swaddled in blankets.
“I wanted to give her responsibility.”
“You don’t care about my children. You’re a stupid, rotten, ugly, thief trying to steal me away from my children. You provide nothing to this family, nothing!”
“Oh, and what does Evelyn bring? Yeah, what about Piper? All she does is sit around and be a messed-up, wonky little brat.”
“You don’t care about my children. Okay, gets me mad. But, okay. But when you insult them, when you insult my everything, you have crossed the line. Get out of my house and never come back!!!!! Pack up your things and leave right now!” I heard stomping and then Mom sat on the couch next to me.
“I heard about Sydney. I’m sorry. Did you hear us?” Mom asked.
“Every bit,” I said, head still buried in the couch. “Am I messed up?”
“No, sweetie. He is just a big, fat, lying, conniving, devilish bastard.” Then, Jerry came thundering down the stairs and stood in front of Mom.
“You are the worst person I have ever met,” Jerry said, staring at Mom. Then he threw his bags down the stairs and left. I was still on the couch, being moppy and not a big help to anyone. I guess I really do bore people, since Mom left to go do something in the house. I kept crying, then fell asleep. I was nestled in a warm pillow filled with tears. I just didn’t want another friendship like the one with Alex. (But being all messed up, all friendships result in madness and end in tragedy.
The next day, I woke up with a prodding pain on my side. It felt like someone was tweezing my insides. But, I got up anyway. I had a big report due today and was not (correction) could not miss school today. I texted Sydney that I was nervous and then she texted back
“More nervous than me? No way!!”
So after that, I was intrigued with the situation she was going through. All throughout the morning, I would text her then wait for a response. When I got off the bus at school, I was surprised to see who was waiting at the door for me.
“I got released early!” Sydney said, running towards me. I wrapped her in a bear hug. Her body and shrunk and she was wearing a knit beanie to cover her head.
“Bloop bloop boop,” Flo said, cartwheeling over to where we were. She bopped Sydney on the nose and said “So, I have a question. How many craters are blue in Tennessee’s farm of watermelon if the purple dinosaur in the washing machine started to spin around?”
“Uh, I don’t know how to respond to that,” Sydney said, looking for my approval. I shrugged, for I didn’t want to deal with odd balls right now. I took Sydney’s hand and swept her inside the school. We snuck into the girl’s room, undetected.
“So, what’s going on with you? We only ever go into the bathroom when the conversation is very important and private. “
“Yeah, it kind of is. So, last night, Jerry got kicked out by Mom. And she was yelling at him and he said some pretty mean things. Now Jerry, presumably, is on the streets, and we, are free of all his stupid mischief. So, Mom filed for a court date and things might get super bad super-fast.”
“Man, that was a mouthful. That does sound like it’s gonna get super bad super-fast. But, I will be by your side, through sickness and health. Now, we don’t have much time to talk. We have to get to class.”
“Right,” I said. I dodged the other people in the bathroom and raced to get to class. I didn’t pay much attention. All that was on my mind was escalating fear and Jerry fighting back. During art, I was jittery. I couldn’t make a straight line or shade anything correctly. My hands shook at the thought of having to testify against Jerry. Even though I didn’t like him, I was afraid of anger welling up inside of him. I don’t exactly know why he would go to court, but I guess that Jerry was scaring me.
I sat down at lunch, waiting for Sydney to finish buying her lunch. She slid her tray next to me and plopped down. I sighed, mushing my face in my ham and Swiss sandwich.
“Okay, maybe it’s just me, but you seem real glum. Well, more glum than usual,” Sydney said, putting a hand on my back.
“It’s just you,” I mumbled.
“Oh, I have to go. Some people asked to interview me for the school newspaper.” Sydney rushed off, taking her tray with her. I rolled over, keeping my head on the table, but facing the ceiling. I placed my hand over my silver heart locket, and dreamed of a world better than this. (Just to clarify, that would be any other world or reality, mostly)
I turned to the side and heard a thwup thwup thwup sound. Flo was dancing next to me. She waved her arms wildly then told me that some people wanted me in Miss Dodd’s room. I got up, grabbing my lunch and heading to her room.
“Ah, our next victim,” she said as I walked in her room. There were a few people standing around a bench with high-tech cameras perched on their shoulders. Around the bench, there were lights that someone was tinkering with. Miss Dodd was sitting on her desk, looking at a paper list. There was someone with a clipboard standing near the people with the cameras. There were people sitting at computers off the side of the bench.
“Do you know why you’re here?” The boy with the clipboard asked.
“No,” I said, still oblivious to the fact that Sydney was there, too.
“We are with the newspaper. Your friend here was being interviewed for a video that we will put on the newspaper website. Your friend, Sydney, suggested that we interview Piper Blackwood. I assume you are Piper Blackwood, because Sydney told us you are her friend. So, if you are Piper Blackwood, then stay.”
“I am. Now, why the heck should I care about this?”
“You’re being interviewed. This could give you advantages in Miss Dodd’s class. Now sit down on the bench with your friend and let’s begin.” So I did what he told me. I sat down on the bench where Sydney soon joined me. We fixed our hair and messed with our clothes. (Well, Sydney did) Then the boy with the clipboard counted down, the lights flashed, and the cameras started to film.
“So ladies, what do you think about the school?” The boy asked.
“Uh, this school depresses me. I am surrounded by a bunch of saddening people how only cause me glum and I refuse to except any support that anyone here, with the exception of Sydney, will give me. I think that this interview is dumb and that this school is wasting my life. Good day!” I rushed from the bench and stormed out of the room.
“I better go get her. And, if you want to interview me more, that you better find another solution to you problem.” Sydney, raced toward me, getting winded and slumping down in the doorway of the classroom.
“Girls,” Miss Dodd said, getting up from her desk. “If you really do feel this way, then please, do not talk to me about the newspaper or the newspaper website.” I took Sydney’s arm and led her back to the cafeteria. We sat down where we had been before and listened to piano. The music was beautiful and mesmerizing. I looked around to see where the music was coming from. Then I saw a person sitting at a piano in the back of the cafeteria that I had never seen before. Once I saw the wonderful pianist, I knew who it was. Even from behind, her curly locks gave away her identity. As Flo bobbed her head to the music, I finally realized what was so awesome about her and why Sydney admired about her.
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