A Small Matter (25 page)

“Dalk,” Vickie said.

“I’ll protect you,” he said. “Stay down in
case some idiot starts firing.”

“Dalk!”

“Stay down!”

“Dalk! Listen to me! Mulroney’s eyes
opened!”

Together, the brother and sister separated
and looked into Mulroney’s eyes, where the fire of life was once
again burning.

“He’s trying to say something,” Vickie
said.

“I can’t hear him,” Dalk said.

Vickie put her ear to her husband’s mouth.
“Go ahead, darling,” she said. “I’m listening--I’m here for you,
baby. Go ahead. Talk to me.”

From deep within Mulroney’s throat, a harsh
whisper issued forth.

“Get ... that ... stinking ... rat ... off
... my ... chest.”

Epilogue

“I’m sorry I took so long to get back to
you,” Vickie said. “But I had some things to take care of last
week. My husband had a bypass yesterday at UCLA.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Dr. Bienenfeld
said. “Sometimes it seems like everything happens at once.”

The woman before him seemed changed somehow,
he thought. It wasn’t the short hair. No, it was something in her
eyes. He realized it was the absence of fear in her face, and a
feeling he got from her that was hard to define--she presented a
confident connectedness to her surroundings that was a far cry from
the angry, unfocused woman who had sat before him only a week ago,
dazed and frightened, asking him questions about her dog.

“Was your husband’s bypass successful?”

“They had him up and walking this morning,”
Vickie said. “He’s done a lot of griping about the pain, but he’s
already admitted to me he feels better than he has in years.”

“They do wonders at UCLA these days,”
Bienenfeld said. “Now, with your permission, we’ll begin discussing
your options for the treatment of your pancreatic tumor.”

“I’m ready,” Vickie said.

“We’ll start by going down the hall to meet
Dr. Wellborn. She’s going to discuss with you your pain management
program, and plan a strategy to help you prevent other
complications from the cancer. Later, I’ll introduce you to our
counselor, Judy Wallace. She’ll introduce you to a wonderful
support group. Believe me, a support group can work wonders. It
helps take some of the burden off of your closest family
members.”

“That’s important to me,” Vickie said. “In
fact, the reason I’m here is for my husband.”

“It sounds like you’ve got the best reason in
the world to want to get well,” he said.

“I guess so,” Vickie said. “Are we talking
about surgery, chemo, radiation, or what?”

“In your case,” he said. “We may start with a
small laparoscopic surgery, then move on to radiation, and finally
to chemo. I think we’re in time to work towards a complete
remission using one or a combination of all of the above. It’s
fortunate for us you didn’t take too much time deciding to seek
treatment.”

“It wasn’t an easy decision,” Vickie said.
“But now that I’ve made it, I feel it’s the right decision.”

“When you first left my office last week,” he
said, “I was concerned--but I knew you’d be back. Most people just
need a few days to think about it.”

“I did a lot of soul searching last week,”
Vickie said.

“As well you should,” the doctor said. “After
all--it's no small matter.”

M. M. Wilshire

A True Independent Author

[email protected]