Sleeping Jenny (2 page)

“I think I'll just about die if anyone sees me carried out like this.”

Angela had a sparkle in her eye. “Think of it this way—it adds to your mysterious persona. You'll be the talk of the school.”

“I fall down and you turn into quite the comedian.”

She laughed and winked. “I have a good teacher.”

CHAPTER THREE

Haunted

T
he doctor walked in holding X-rays underneath his arm. Unlike Dr. Resin, this man looked like a doctor, with wispy gray hair, round spectacles, and rings underneath his eyes. He was the real deal.

My mom had come from a meeting, and she sat in her pencil skirt and ruffled blouse with Angela in the metal chairs beside my bed.

“I've been reviewing your files and your X-rays, and I've got some difficult news.”

Just the look on the doctor's face made my stomach twist. Right then I knew. I'd eluded it for years, but it always hung in the corner of my consciousness as a dark inevitability.

He clipped up the X-ray and clicked on the switch. An ugly black clot lay right where my leg had split. “The cancer's come back.”

Emptiness barreled a hole through my heart. My mom gasped and clutched her chest with her palm, wrinkling her nicely pressed floral shirt. She reached out with her other arm and squeezed my hand, but her fingers felt brittle around mine. “Oh, honey.”

The doctor continued before the barrage of questions came. “We went ahead and had multiple X-rays and a PET scan.”

He clipped up a few more, but I couldn't stand to look at them. I stared at my broken leg instead.

“It's spread up her leg to her spine and from there to several of her organs, including her liver and kidneys.” He stood there and waited for us to digest the bad news.

“What do you mean, it's back?” Angela stared at me like I'd lied to her all this time. I had. I wanted to be considered normal. I didn't want pity friends.

“I'm sorry.”

“You never told me.”

I shrugged, regretting bringing her into the hospital room. I didn't want her to have to suffer like me. “I thought you might have seen the episode of
American Idol.”

Angela's eyes widened. “You were a contestant on
American Idol
, and you didn't tell me that either?”

“No, no, no.” I shook my head. If it was any other afternoon, I would have laughed out loud instead of verging on tears. “I had osteosarcoma as a kid, a nasty bone cancer. They cured me. I was cancer-free for seven years.
American Idol
did a special where the contestants serenaded sick kids. There was a segment about me and my family.”

She shook her head, tears running down her face. “I never saw it. Geez, isn't that something you'd tell your best friend?”

My mom interrupted us to ask the doctor what I was too afraid to ask myself. “Can she beat the cancer again?”

He shook his head and shut off the X-ray screen. “The cancer has progressed to stage four, ma'am. It's not likely.”

I glanced at my body. My limbs looked so fragile and thin underneath the hospital gown. I'd been queasy the last few weeks. I forced myself to sit up straighter as if I could will him to be wrong. “I feel fine.”

His mouth was a thin line. “Many people do until the last few weeks.”

I thought about Timmy, my mom, Angela, and my dad. I wanted to be there for them. I didn't want to leave them behind.

“Is there anything we can do?” My mind scrambled around all the different treatments I'd heard of. “Chemotherapy, lasers, drugs, anything?”

His face was as blank as a mask. I wondered if he felt anything underneath his clinical façade.

I hated him for being so businesslike.

“I'm sorry, but it's too late.”

The anger swirled up inside me like a tornado waiting to strike. I wanted to throw my pillow at him, or maybe something a little harder, like a shoe. I'd already dealt with this and now I had to do it again. Except this time there was no winning.

My mom must have seen the anguish in my face. The earlier bout had almost killed me, reducing me to a skeleton. I'd used all of my courage to fight it, and I wasn't sure I had anything left to give.

She wrapped her arm around me and we faced the doctor together. “I'm not going to take no for an answer. We've beat it before, and we'll do it again. Money is not an issue.”

The doctor rubbed his eyes and his chin, like he'd gone through this a thousand times before with a thousand other unlucky girls like me. “Well, there's an experimental technology being developed right now. It's highly controversial and very expensive. Truthfully, I'm not sure anything will come of it.”

My mom nodded at me like she'd fix it just like she fixed my Lexus when I crashed it into the neighbor's mailbox. It had a shiny new fender the next day.

“Sign her up.”

CHAPTER FOUR

Preparations

M
om, Dad, and Timmy visited my bedside before the doctors put me to sleep. Although none of us knew how long I'd be frozen, their red-rimmed eyes and long faces looked like they were saying good-bye for forever.

Timmy ran up to my bed and hugged my head with his little arms. “Bye, Jenny. I'm going to miss you.”

“Bye, Timmy. I'll miss you, too, little guy.” Tears stung my eyes, but I held them back because I didn't want to upset him. “Make sure you brush your teeth like Mom says, and no more putting your action figures in the radiator, okay?”

He sniffed and wiped his eyes. “I guess so.”

With his head of curly blond hair and ruby-red cheeks, he looked like one of those tots on the Welch's grape juice commercials. I wanted to remember him like this—perfect, even though he bent my hairclips and wiped mouthfuls of peanut butter on my bath towel.

Mom hugged me next.

“Remember to feed my fish, and make sure Thunderbolt gets groomed regularly. Grit gets stuck underneath his shoes.”

“Of course, dear.” She pulled away and shrugged. “Who knows, they might wake you up next year.”

She laughed, but I think we both knew it would be longer than that.

“Hopefully I won't miss too much.” Big events passed by in flashes of thought—the next Disney cruise, Mom's run for mayor in two years, Timmy's first day of school, Dad's retirement party. I didn't want to miss any of it. I couldn't think about timelines anymore, or I'd make myself sick.

Dad squeezed my hand and kissed my cheek. “I've spoken with the world's top doctors, and they are on the verge of a cure. I know this will work, honey. You have to believe me.”

“Yes, Dad.” I believed him. Modern science didn't disappoint, especially when funded by significant dollar signs. It was just that I didn't know when. What if my friends were all grown up and my hair was out of style? I imagined Angela as a middle-aged woman shopping with a teenage me in the mall, and it didn't seem right. She'd probably have a life of her own, kids of her own. Why would she want to hang out with me anymore?

Or maybe I'd wake up and Timmy would be my age. We could be best buds and finish school together, double date for the prom. That'd be awesome. No more fights about letting him watch SpongeBob.

Dr. Resin came in. “The chamber is ready. It's time.”

My pulse quickened. My life was one of those hourglasses, and the last few grains had run out. I'd already said goodbye to Angela because the policy said family only in the cryo lab, but now I thought of a thousand more things I wanted to tell her. “Can I talk to Angela one more time?”

Dr. Resin's mouth set in a firm line. “We must proceed immediately while the cryo chamber settings are optimal.”

I scanned all the eyes around me. “I'm not ready yet.”

Resin wheeled my bed to the door. “It's best not to dwell on good-byes.”

I reached out to grab Timmy's hand. Mom held him back, crying silent tears, while Dad saluted me with his stoic face and dark eyes. “Remember we love you, and when you wake up, you'll be cured. You'll be free.”

My heart beat a thousand times a minute as Resin pushed me down the corridor to a new wing labeled
Cryonics Institute of New England
. I wanted to yell for someone to help me, but I knew none of the nurses would answer my pleas. They scurried by, like I was an afterthought in their world. And I was.

The cryosleep chamber looked like a giant spaceship from
Star Trek
. Tubes ran around the vacuum chamber, surrounding the hull like dreadlocks, all thick and twisted. A monitor beeped on top with a temperature gauge that read eighteen degrees Celsius. It was hard to imagine the inside would drop to negative one hundred and twenty-eight. Beneath the monitor, a small window the size of a cereal box revealed wires spewing everywhere and a faint blue light. At least I didn't have to sleep in the dark.

A hatch lifted. I expected misty air to pour out, but nothing happened. The nurses surrounded me and rubbed alcohol on my arms and legs.

I tried not to think about the liquid nitrogen that would flood the capsule, stopping any physical decay. I imagined floating inside it and remembered reading how bodies sink to the bottom because of their density. My throat felt fuzzy, and I thought I'd throw up. I hadn't been allowed to eat anything the last twenty-four hours, so there was nothing left anyway.

A nurse attached tubes to my arms and legs with needles that pricked my skin. I stared at her questioningly, and she patted my head. “These are for the cryo-protectants, my dear.”

My voice squeaked out, “Will it hurt?”

“No, no.” Another nurse pricked my arm with another needle.

“You'll be asleep before we start the process.”

I released my breath, wondering how many more I had.

“Count down from ten, dear.”

I looked at her like she was crazy. Count down from ten? That was not how I wanted to spend my last few moments awake. The anesthesiologist put a mask over my face.

I didn't even get to five.

CHAPTER FIVE

Awake

S
uspended animation in cryosleep was like the time before I was born. Darkness and nothing. I don't even remember being cold.

I woke up to a hazy silhouette lurking around my bed. My eyes couldn't adjust to the light, no matter how much I rubbed them. My body felt light, and my leg moved freely. The cast had been stripped off. Most of all, I felt no pain for the first time since the accident in gym class. No pain. In fact, I felt great, like I could run a mile and beat Mr. Gold's high standards. Had I died and gone to heaven?

“Don't worry, sweetie. Your eyesight will return in time.” It was the voice of an older woman. She patted down my hair. “You've had quite the sleep.”

It felt like only minutes had passed since I fell asleep. Maybe I wasn't out for that long. “Can I see my family?”

“Right now, you must rest.” Her voice grew stern. I blinked.

“Dr. Kline will be in later to discuss the specifics.”

“Dr. Kline?” I thrashed my arms around to find her, but the sound of footsteps grew faint. “Where's Dr. Resin?” For once, I was eager to see him.

“Your new doctor is Dr. Kline.”

The door clicked closed, and then a monitor pulsed by my bed. My legs were cold, so I reached for a sheet, but there was nothing there. I lay on a cushioned surface.

Even the pillow was built into the frame. How was I supposed to sleep without my arm under my pillow? I couldn't go anywhere halfblind, so I closed my eyes, waiting for this mysterious Dr. Kline. I'd had so many doctors over the years, their names and faces blended together like a police lineup, with Dr. Resin right at the top.
But he was right. I'm awake, alive
.

Anxiety and anticipation spread throughout my body in eager little bubbles, like my veins were filled with Mountain Dew. I tapped my fingers to the same rhythm over and over to keep busy. I couldn't wait to get home and ride Thunderbolt, tease Timmy, and eat a giant bowl of chocolate ice cream.

The door opened and I squinted to focus. The vague shadows gave way to faint blurriness. I made out the face of a middle-aged man with dark hair.

“How's my new patient doing?”

I sat up on the bed and bent forward to read his expression. “Dr.

Kline?”

“That's right.” He took a seat beside my bed and brought out a device that looked like an iPhone. “Your results look good, my girl. As you've probably already noticed, after we reanimated your body, we healed your leg and cured the cancer. You're one hundred percent cancer-free.”

The burden clenching my chest lifted and I bit my tongue to keep from crying. “A lot has happened while I've been asleep, hasn't it?”

His eyes flickered as if he held something back. “You could say that, yes.”

“How long have I been frozen?”

Dr. Kline rose and put the iPhone beside the bed. “Let's invite your family in. I think it's best they fill you in on specifics.”

He stuck his head out the door and gestured to someone down the hall. I wiggled both feet while waiting, marveling at how I was still alive. Life seemed too good to be true, and I soaked it in, savoring each moment I breathed without pain.

A man walked in beside the doctor. He was the same age as my dad and had the same dark eyes, prominent nose and rugged chin, but curly blond hair covered his head. Could my dad have changed his hairstyle? It didn't seem very businesslike.

I stuttered, “Dad?”
No wait. What if Timmy was all grown up?

“Timmy?” I wished I could see clearly.

The man walked around the bed and sat beside me. He was neither of them and both of them at the same time.