Chapter 35
Lily - Aged Nine
“Don’t pull that face with me, Lily Chambers.” Mum smiles across at me from her seat in the doctor's surgery.
“But I’m fine. Mum.”
“I know you are, but I just want to make sure.”
I cross my arms and sink lower into my chair. “But I’m missing the match,” I whine. The school has a tournament today, and I was supposed to be captain, but instead I’m sitting here in this weird smelling doctor's surgery.
“There will be plenty more matches for you to play.”
I don’t answer her, just stare at a spot on the wall.
Doesn’t she get it?
Victoria Bretton is now going to captain our team, and everyone loves her. Coach will pick her as the captain for every game after this, and my dreams of playing for England are ruined.
“Lily Chambers?” The receptionist calls my name, and Mum throws her magazine down on the side, holding out her hand for me. I roll my eyes and keep my arms crossed. I’m nine, not a baby. I don’t need to hold her hand.
“If you both would like to take a seat, Dr. Donald will be through shortly.” She leaves, and I still don’t look at Mum.
“Good afternoon, Lily.” The doctor comes in and heads to the sink to wash his hands, his tone is cheerful and upbeat, and it winds me up. “I’m Dr. Donald. How are we feeling today?”
“Fine.”
“Lily, don't be rude,” Mum snaps.
“But I am fine. I don’t know why I’m here.”
“Yes, you do. Sorry, Doctor.” My mum turns to Dr. Donald as she starts to explain why I’m here and not sliding in the mud on the school pitch right now.
“She keeps getting these terrible infections and fevers, and just the slightest knock, and she bruises like a peach. Then just yesterday, while she was playing football, there was no one around her, and she just screamed and fell to the ground. Her legs were in agony.” She looks at me as she explains everything, and I give her side eye, one I’ve seen her give to Dad when he’s moaning about the neighbors and their ridiculous gnome collection.
“Don’t look at me like that, Lily, you did. ”
“Is this true, Lily?”
“Well, I suppose so.” I shrug. “I was in a lot of pain.”
“And how is the pain now?” Dr. Donald asks.
“It’s gone.”
“Hmm, okay. I’ve been looking through your records before you came in.
” He leans forward and speaks directly to me.
“I noticed there have been a lot of infections, and we’ve supplied you with more than the average nine-year-old for antibiotics.
Do you have any of these bruises your mum has mentioned?
” He’s smiling, and I suppose he’s kind, a bit like my teacher Mr. Fielding.
He’s always trying to make us laugh, and I tell him everything, so maybe I can tell this doctor the truth.
“I guess.”
“Can I take a look?”
Why isn’t he just brushing this off? I thought he would just tell Mum she was overreacting like Uncle Rich did. I turn to Mum, and she just nods with a strange smile on her face. She only looks like that when she’s worried.
“Jump up on the bed there and let's take a look.” He motions to the hospital bed set up in his office. It looks cold, but I get up as Mum rushes to my side. I roll up my jeans to show the doctor the large, dark purple bruise on my shin. I can’t even remember how I got it, which isn’t rare; new bruises pop up all the time.
The doctor puts on a pair of those stretchy blue medical gloves that I see people blow up in the movies, and it reminds me of Beck saying that he would love to be a doctor just so he could do that.
“Okay, Lily, I’m just going to lightly touch this and examine it. Is that okay?”
“I guess.”
“Brilliant. Just lie back for me and relax. This won’t take long.
” He’s silent for a while as he looks so carefully at my bruise, like it's the most interesting thing he has ever seen. He starts to prod and move the skin about, and when he’s done, he smiles, taking off his gloves and placing them in the bin next to the bed.
“Thank you, Lily. Please, will you both come and take a seat back over here, and I’ll let you know what I suggest we do next. ”
Next? Is that not it?
Sitting back down next to Mum, I take her hand this time, which she grips tightly before placing a kiss to the top of my head.
“Mrs. Chambers, I would like to take some blood samples now from Lily and then, based on what you’ve described, I would like to send her to the hospital for some other tests.”
“What other tests?” Mum asks, her tone is wobbly, and my grip tightens on her hand.
“They are just routine. I want to rule everything out.”
“What are you trying to rule out, Doctor?”
“I can’t be certain without doing these tests, Mrs. Chambers.”
“Please tell me,” I ask quietly. And Mum and the doctor turn toward me. “Why are you doing these tests?”
“Tell us, Doctor.”
“I need to rule out the possibility of Leukemia. Lily is showing signs of what we call acute lymphocytic leukemia.” I have no idea what that is, but the fact that my mum is crying, I know it's bad. I turn to give Mum the biggest hug I can, because I can’t see her sad, and whatever is wrong with me is making her sad.
I need to fix it, fix me.