Rain Again (Completed)

Chapter 27

"Dracula ah—Orchids?"

"Yeah, damn, it looked like the faces of Count Dracula were pasted on each one of them! Fascinating. I was almost convinced to buy them."

Kate was relieved that Victor didn't allow it to happen. Dracula—whatever Orchids didn't seem like the proper choice of flowers to offer to a four or five-year-old cancer patient. 

When they reached Lara's room, whatever Kate was expecting to see wasn't what she was actually greeted with. 

Lara's frail body lay on the hospital bed, her face looked dried up, and her eyes had sunken awfully inside hollows of what seemed like great suffering. She looked deathly pale, and yet when she looked up at Kate, her eyes beamed as if nothing were wrong. Her spirit was as fresh as a new sunrise. "It's you!" Lara tried squealing, but what came out was a quivering whisper. "They took your hail too."

Kate smiled. "Yes, apparently they did." Her head was still covered in bandages, but one didn't need rocket science to figure out that there was nothing but punctured skin underneath it.

A teddy bear was softly tucked into the kid's one side, and at the other side of the bed, looming figures of an anxious couple sat on a chair and a stool. It was not hard to guess that they were Lara's parents. A good few minutes passed as Lara took it upon herself to introduce them to Kate. She even pointed at the lump covered by a thin blanket on the sofa. "You see, that's my blother, Tinky—"

"It's Tony," Lara's father corrected, looking at Kate and then smiling down at his daughter.

"Yes, that too," Lara dismissed the correction like it didn't matter. "So, you know, Miss Kate, he's magical. The doctol said Tinky has magic stuff inside that long bone in his back, some of which he's going to give me, and my illness will disappeal. Ale those flowels fol me? I love pink!"

Kate remembered that she was still sitting with the roses in her lap like a fool. Ellie helped Kate bend over a bit so that she could hand them over to Lara, who grinned with weary, half-closed eyes. 

It was heart-wrenching, this ordeal that this sweet, little kid who'd just begun her life was having to go through. 

Sometimes, Kate wondered, what was God's point actually? Giving some souls so much difficulty from the very beginning of their lives while others are spoiled rotten with joy and comfort throughout their entire journeys. How does heaven confirm what to give whom? There are people born without limbs and sometimes even without a single ounce of love around, while there are also people born with exceeding wealth and power and solace. How does this system actually work? 

A while later, when Kate and Ellie came out of the room, Lara's mother - whose name was Bella, followed them out. They stopped outside the door in the corridor. "She's deteriorating," Bella explained. "Chemo is apparently not working anymore. The doctors said that a bone marrow transplant is the only option left now," she paused and stopped to sigh softly. "Thankfully, my older son turned out to be the perfect match among all our relatives."

Kate recognized the panic in Bella's voice. It was maternal worry at its worst. Kate knew what it was like to lose a child, the fear was palpable, and Kate could relate to it. "All our prayers are with her. Don't worry. Everything will be alright."

Bella blinked away the glossiness from her eyes and nodded with a smile. 

Ellie decided at that moment to thump on Kate's shoulder. "Or if anything decides to go wrong, call for us. We're now quite experienced in scaring the reaper away. As a fantastic example, we've got a resurrection case here, see - in flesh."

"Resurrection case?" Bella looked befuddled, and Kate pressed her lips into a thin line. 

In her attempt to lighten the atmosphere, Kate feared that Ellie would successfully manage to do the absolute otherwise.