Chapter 4

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I just want to take a moment to let you know that this chapter is dedicated to a really amazing writer. SHe has a great book and I really enjoyed reading it, so basically I would suggest that you all head on over to her profile and check it out. :)

Ch. 4

So that is how I ended up standing in the gathering hall for a second day in a room while twenty other people watched Joe blow out the seven candles that were lit up on his cars cake. The party had started at noon and I was just getting here one hour late.

I had never felt more out of the loop. There were kids of all ages and their parents. Everyone was wearing fresh jeans and I saw shiny purses dangling from more than one woman’s thin arms. They all gathered around Joseph with their smooth shiny hair and made up faces.

I could see the big pile of gifts on the side of the room and I felt myself look down at the brown paper bag I had brought with feelings of embarrassment. I was able to find some toy cars that were fairly cheap so I splurged and bought some for him.

He laughed with joy as he blew out all but one candle on his cake. I took a chair in the corner of the room just watching him. His eyes danced with excitement as he tried to swipe a bit of frosting before his mom had been able to cut the cake.

“What are you doing over here?”

I jumped in surprise when I heard the deep voice of Joe’s dad from behind me. The chair scarped next to me as he took as seat.

“Oh I just got here and I didn’t want to interrupt Mr. Hart.” I explained looking anywhere but his at his eyes.

“Interrupt?” He asked sounding surprised, “Honey you say that like it is a bad thing; trust me Joe would have been more than happy to see you. And please don’t call me Mr. Hart I would prefer Dave.”

I looked up at him from the corner of my eye surprised by his kind voice. “He is a good kid.” I wasn’t sure what else to say and I fingered the brown paper bag hoping he wouldn’t catch on to my nervousness.

I licked my lips and finally asked a question I had been wondering since I first met Joe, “Do you mind me asking what is wrong with him?” I grew red once again when I realized how badly I worded that, “I mean, I just mean like what disease does he have?”

Dave’s whole face grew darker and he cleared his throat before he started speaking, “Hepatoblastoma. It’s a rare tumor that is growing in his liver.”

“Oh.” I once again turned my gaze onto the young boy. His sickly small frame seemed even smaller to me and the light in his eyes only seemed to highlight his pale skin color and the dark bruising under his eyes.

I turned my head back to Dave when he landed his head in his arms and ran his fingers roughly through his hair, “It’s almost unheard of in kid’s age. It’s mostly newborns that are infected. I mean he had been fine up until a few months ago, a healthy and active young boy.” When he looked up I could see his eyes that were tinted with red, "He started throwing up and he got really pale, we just new that something wasn't right. They did a biopsy on him. I had to sit while they cut open my son and take out a peice of his liver only for them to find a rapid spreading tumor."

I couldn't imagine being him right now. My mind wasn't alowing me to go there- it wasn't allowing me to go to the place he was discribing. It was simple unimaginable.

"We decied against more surgery and decieded to start with Chemo. Well that seemed like it was helping for a while but," He seemed to choke up. His chest shook slightly as he rubbed his eyes, "but, he stopped responding a week or two ago."

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