"Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live."
‒ Norman Cousins
Olivia Bennett
The darkness slowly crept in as everything surrounding me became unrecognizable and out of focus. I tried turning my head to look around but it wouldn't budge. A low hissing noise sounded from an engine and the smell of smoke and gas filled the air.
"Help," I muttered. My voice was too quiet to be heard if anyone was even around to hear me in the first place.
Only the sound of glass hitting the concrete I lay on and the engine's hiss occupied the silence.
My hand scraped against the rough tar as I reached out, hoping anyone would come to my aid.
Please someone take my hand.
"Oh, my God!" A woman's voice rang out. Her words pierced my ears and echoed throughout my head. "H-hang on, I'll get some help!"
After a few moments of complete silence, I felt pressure on my leg. I couldn't make out what was causing the ache in my limb and when I tried to maneuver, a sharp pain moved all throughout my body.
"Don't move, ma'am!" A man's voice came from behind me.
Although he told me not to, it's all I wanted to do. I couldn't stand laying on this hard surface for another second.
I let out a yelp as another sharp ache flared in my leg. The pain was damn near unbearable.
"Stay still, Liv." A different man was speaking to me and he seemed to know my name. His voice was rough and raspy like he hadn't drunk a sip of water in years.
Liv. My name is Liv. Short for Olivia?
He knew my name but his voice wasn't familiar to me at all.
Thinking about it, nothing was familiar to me at this moment.
A few sets of footsteps kicked through the gravel, approaching me. A man kneeled beside me pushing my hair away from my face.
"Her left wrist is fractured and she has a laceration on her right leg," The man used his finger to lift my eyelid as he shined a bright light into my eye, "her pupils are dilated. No signs of diabetes or HBP."
Listening to him explain my condition, it was clear to me he was a doctor of some sort. As his hands moved around my body, all I could feel was pressure.
Suddenly, his hand stopped on my back and a worrisome sigh fell from his lips.
"She has a lump on her lower back, Anna," A lump? "She needs to be transported to the nearest hospital, now."
"I- they're dispatching EMS now." She sounded like she was in emotional distress. Her voice was far more worrisome than the man.
My eyelids began to feel heavy. I blinked a few times in an attempt to decimate the weight that was coming down on my eyes but it didn't help. My blinks got slower and eventually, my eyes closed for good.
❁
"She was conscious for a few minutes after we found her," the man who inspected my condition explained. "I felt a lump on her lower back and assumed it was renal cell carcinoma."
Renal cell carci-what?
"It's a good thing you recognized that Kavanaugh, you might've just saved this woman's life." A different man stated.
"Thank you, sir."
A hand grazed my head and my body was in motion. I couldn't open my eyes but I knew I was moving. Maybe a stretcher or an ambulance?
My head pounded as bright lights managed to shine through my closed eyelids. Was I in a hospital now?
"She has a minor fracture in her left wrist and a large laceration on her right leg," the man repeated what Kavanaugh had said earlier. "She has a lump on her lower back, potentially RCC. We need a CT scan, stat!" He shouted.
A lump...and a CT scan...renal cell...oh, God.
All of these terms pointed directly at cancer.
Kidney Cancer.
Although I couldn't move or function in my own body, my heart felt like it was beating too quickly, as though it was going to beat right out of my chest and onto the floor.
I have cancer? How could I have cancer? How did I not know? I was a healthy little girl, how could this be?
If I could, I'd be sobbing right now.
The news this stranger had just revealed horrified me in every meaning of the word. Those words were terrifying and I wanted nothing more but for them to stop repeating in my mind.
This isn't fair. I'm only 18 years old, no, 19 years old I corrected myself. My time wasn't up yet, that's impossible. I'd barely lived and now I was going to die...alone.