Page 99 of Have a Bear-y Little Christmas
A little dazed, I called Remy, surprised when he answered on the first ring.
“Hey, is everything okay?” he asked, voice filled with concern.
“No, but how did you know?”
“You always send photos of the book haul. I texted you about an hour ago, but you didn’t reply.”
Had it really been that long already? I glanced at the clock. Between getting Max ready and masked up so he wouldn’t get other sick kids even sicker, traveling, the check-up, the X-ray, and waiting for the results, four-and-a-half hours had passed. Fuck, neither of us had eaten. Thank God for that IV, because Max needed all the extra nutrients he could get.
“Oh, uh, sorry.” I wasn’t used to having anyone to talk to about these things, so I decided to just get it out. “Max and I are at the cancer center now. He has pneumonia.”
“Pneumonia?” Remy’s voice blared through the phone. Strangely enough, it made me feel a bit better about the whole situation. His freak-out justified the fear swirling in my belly.
“Yeah, a type that only happens when someone’s already pretty sick.” I debated how much more to say, because there was a very scared part of my brain that told me verbalizing it would make it come true.
Of course, Remy picked up on it. He was always observant that way. Probably because he actually listened. “Already pretty sick?”
“Mmm-hmm. They’re saying it could just be his body recovering from what he’s been through. Or, uh…” I tapered off, half hoping that he would say it for me, but in what world would he reasonably do that?
“Jeannie? Are you still there?”
“I’m still here. But they’re saying that it might also be a sign that his cancer is back.”
“I—oh God,Jeannie, sweetheart, I’m so sorry. What do you need? I can be wherever you are in thirty minutes.”
“No, no. He’s getting an IV now, and he needs a three-week course of medicine. I know that you can’t get sick, but I don’t want to risk any sort of mutation or infection getting to yourgirls. Besides, as soon as his IV is done, I’m taking him home so he can pass out. Poor boy is tired out of his mind.”
There was a hair of hesitancy on the other side of the line, as if Remy wanted to argue with me, but I was very grateful when he didn’t. Instead, he heaved a sigh. Not a weary one, or one that felt aimed at me, but the kind of sigh someone let out when they were looking over a complicated situation.
“Okay. If you’re sure. But you know I’m here for you if you need it, right? You’ve already been through all of this before, so I know it might be old hat to you, but I promise you don’t have to go through it alone this time.”
He was kind. So truly kind. As much as I couldn’t picture what it would be like to have someone helping me out, I believed Remy meant every word.
“I’ll keep that in mind. But for now, I need to cancel all our dates and the playdates. I’m sorry, I know the kids were looking forward to the zoo crawl, but it’s just not possible right now.”
“Hey, nothing to apologize for. I’ll go ahead and tell the girls. And maybe, if Max starts feeling better a little early, we can do some sort of Zoom call and stream a movie together. That way, he won’t feel so alone? No kid wants to be cooped up inside for nearly a month. Especially not Max!”
“Yeah, maybe,” I agreed. Three weeks was nothing compared to the two and a half years of active treatment we’d gone through, and yet it still felt like an impossibly long time. “I’ll text you once we’re home safe.”
“Please do. I’ll talk to you later.”
“Later.”
Chapter 26
Remington
Call the Troops
“We’re sorry, but the person you are trying to reach can’t come to the phone right now. Please leave a message at the beep.”
I chewedon my lip as I stared down at my phone. It had been four weeks since I’d gotten that awful call from Jeannie, and I hadn’t seen her since. I’d convinced her to let me drop off food for her and Max twice, but that was about as far as it went.
I was worried. I couldn’t imagine the pain and fear she was living with every day, but at the same time, my girls were stressed to their gills and having nightmares nearly every other day. While their mother and I had put years of work into preparing our daughters for Zara’s passing and what their lives might be like after it, that was very different than the possibility of losing their best friend.
Ever since Jeannie and I started dating, our children had grown closer than ever. If it weren’t for their different features, Iwas sure people would think they were siblings when we all went out together. I did my best to be honest and answer Addy and Eva’s questions, but when they asked if Max’s cancer was back, I always had to tell them that we were waiting to see.
He’d needed a few extra days to be up for the battery of tests his doctor wanted to do, and that’s all I knew. I wished Jeannie would let me be there for her, let me hold her hand and rub her feet, let me change Max’s bedding and do all his laundry. Cook for them. Make things as easy as I could.
