Chapter 7 #2
“She almost did, three times as a matter of fact, but she pulled through each time,” Douglas said, and held out his hand for the paper.
“What the hell, you were children.” He stared at Christopher in shock, then turned to his brother-in-law.
“Remember Easter Sunday? Mom joked that it was Wanda’s twentieth wedding anniversary. This is the groom.”
Christopher had pulled the photos and started passing them around. “God, I forgot how sick she was,” Doug said as he ran his finger over a part of the photo. He passed them, and Brian asked.
“What’s wrong with the little girl?”
“That’s your Aunt Wanda. When she was three and had Leukemia. She almost died twice then.”
“But I thought she was fifteen when she had that kidney transplant.”
“She was.”
“Excuse me?” Christopher demanded.
“After you left.” Doug paused and raised his brow at Christopher waiting for an explanation.
“The military transferred Dad to Japan, Mom and I went with him. We spent the next four years there. I don’t know if you remember, but he was in the military.
He retired three years ago, and they settled in Chicago, where he was from originally.
” He paused then rubbed his face. “I stopped by the old neighborhood in California, the house I grew up in is now a vacant lot. Your old house had new tenants, but they’d only lived there for twelve years.
I was going to the courthouse to see if they could give me any information when I stopped at the church. ”
“I learned that Pastor Jones, and I only remember his name because Mom wrote it down, but Pastor Jones died three years ago. Someone working on the grounds called his grandmother and took me to see her. Found out she played the organ at the church, she remembered the wedding, said she played at it. She showed me an article that was in the local newspaper.” He pulled that from the box and handed it over.
“She also said that a National newspaper picked up the story and a huge influx of people came forward to see if they were a bone marrow match.”
“They did. Wanda was worse than she was at the wedding, but you had been gone only a couple of days when a match came in.
She was given the bone marrow and started getting better.
But because she had been sick for so long, she had to stay in the hospital for another eight months.
When she was finally cleared to come home, it had gone into remission.
“Dad worked in Silicon Valley, all that technology stuff.
When Wanda continued to be in remission, he took a considerable buy out and moved us here to Oregon.
Said he wanted to be away from the hustle and bustle.
Wanda thrived. She went from a little girl who could barely lift her head off the pillow to a vibrant, radiant child who grew up into a beautiful woman.
“However, she started getting sick when she turned thirteen. We all thought the Leukemia was back or some form of cancer. Dad wouldn’t let the doctors blow them off again, he demanded answers.
It took a while, but one of the side effects of the drugs she’d been given was kidney failure.
It was in the fine print. That’s what the sickness was.
She was admitted, put on dialysis, and put on a donor list. It took another eighteen months to get a donor.
“She had the operation, and it was a miracle her body didn’t reject the new organ.
However, she’ll have to be on medication for the rest of her life so her body won’t reject it.
I talked to her just before Easter, and she’s still in remission for the Leukemia, and her body’s still accepting the kidney.
See, you never become cured of cancer, you go into remission while the threat of it is over your head every single day, but as long as you’re in remission, you can live a healthy normal life. ”
“Is she here?”
“Unfortunately, no. We don’t know where she is.
” When Doug saw the disappointment on his face, he explained.
“A little over four years ago she came to us, she still lived with Mom and Dad at this time. But said she was still in remission and she’d done the whole high school and college thing.
But she was tired. That scared the piss out of us immediately. ”
“I can understand why. Was she sick again?”
“No, when she said she was tired and saw our reaction, she said she was tired of every time she said she was tired, we would all freak out. That she felt like she couldn’t take a deep breath with all of us hovering over her.
And in hindsight, we did hover. This is what she looked like then.
” Doug got up and walked over to a desk and came back with a picture.
He turned it and saw Christopher’s reaction.
“Holy shit, she’s beautiful. Gorgeous and sexy.” He looked up and blushed.
“Yes, she is, but we all treated her like she was like this.” He picked up a wedding picture and saw Christopher nod in understanding.
“I can’t speak for the rest of the family, and even though she was healthy, vibrant, and thriving, I always saw her or treated her like she was fragile like in these photos.
” He shook his head sadly. “I couldn’t help it. ”
“You couldn’t fully grasp that she was healthy and normal.”
“Exactly. She proposed that she wanted to go find herself. Hell, she was almost twenty-one, with a college degree. She wanted to travel. We all sat down as a family, and we agreed with certain stipulations.”
“What’s that?”
“That she had to check in with one of us, Mom and Dad, Fern or me at least once a week. She agreed, and she kept up with her end of the deal. However, six months after she left, she wrote an e-mail to all of us and called each of us individually. She found a place she fit, she was happy, and she was starting a new career. If we didn’t bug her about where she was, she would continue with the e-mails and phone calls.
Growing up as Wanda got older, she became more stubborn.
” Doug smiled fondly at the photo of his sister.
“We knew if we pressured her, she would do it. By it, we knew she would cut us off, and we’d only hear from her on her terms, so we agreed.
However, we have no clue where she is. The last e-mail I got was a couple of days ago.
A few weeks ago, she sent one saying she was going to be extremely busy and couldn’t do the weekly e-mails and phone calls, but would write when she got a minute.
Nothing in her e-mails sent up any red flags, so we shrugged it off of as Wanda being Wanda. ”
“Do you think she’d lie to you? That she might be sick someplace and didn’t want to tell you?”
“No,” Brian spoke up. When everyone looked at him, he shrugged.
“She told me once that if it weren’t for her family, she wouldn’t be alive.
I was younger and had a fight with Mom and Dad, she told me that my parents were the most important people in my life, and yes, life was hard, but as long as I had a loving family, I could get through anything.
Then she went on to explain about not sweating the small stuff.
A couple of days later I made up with Mom and Dad, and I’m not as angry anymore.
I think if she were sick, she’d be here with bells on knowing she’d have her family’s support. ”
Christopher watched as Brandon wiped his eyes then reached over and laid his hand on his son’s shoulder. “You really have no idea where she is?”
“Unfortunately, no.”
“Why is it so important you find Aunt Wanda?”
“Because according to this paper, we’re legally married. It means we can’t marry anyone until the issue is resolved.”
“Mom and Dad and Fern are away for a few days,” Brandon said. “Why don’t you come to stay with us until they return and maybe we can figure out something together?”
“I don’t want to put you out.”
“You won’t be. Doug lives next door to us, and we have plenty of room, but if you want your privacy, Fern and I have an apartment above our garage that’s empty.”
“I’ll take that if you are sure I won’t be putting you out.”
“I’m sure. Doug, why don’t you go with him and bring him out to the house?” They broke up, and on the way back to the hotel, Doug and Christopher played the ‘remember when’ game.