The sight of her daughter standing before her nearly broke Frankie's heart.

"Oh Sue!" She went to hug Sue but the moment she wrapped her arms around her daughter, Sue winced in pain.

"Mo-o-om…!" Sue whimpered.

"I-I'm sorry, honey." Frankie said, taking a step back. "I didn't mean to hurt you!"

"I know, but it does hurt, Mom. It hurts a lot!"

Suddenly Frankie remembered. "Damn, the prescription. Here we'd better go to the pharmacy and get this filled. I-."

She stared at Sue, startled by how small she suddenly looked. Sue had always been the strong one, but now she seemed small and vulnerable, despite the bright pink and purple cast wrapped around her arm. Frankie had watched enough Hallmark movies and had read enough self-help books to know that it was always better to remain positive in situations such as this one. She plastered on a smile as her arm moved back to the large cast that covered Sue's arm, almost all the way up to her shoulder. It was held in place by a sling made of cloth; a very expensive sling, no doubt. Nothing in a hospital was ever cheap. But she wasn't going to think about that now.

"Oh wow, look at you! Pretty fancy, huh?"

Sue looked up in surprise. "Huh?"

"Your cast! Wow, I've never seen a pink and purple one before! How cool!" She knew she was overdoing it big time but she really didn't care.

"I guess."

"You know what? Your friends are going to be green… well, pink and purple with envy when they see your arm!"

She expected Sue to smile, but instead her mouth fell open. "You mean they'll wish that they had fallen down in the Frugal Hoosier too?"

"No, honey, I didn't mean that at all. I just meant-Oh you know what, don't worry about them, all right? But wow, pink and purple? Back in my day if someone broke their arm or leg they just got a boring old white cast!"

This made Sue smile. "Really?"

"Oh yeah, absolutely!"

Sue squealed with delight. "Cool!"

"Very! Now let's get this prescription filled and go home. I think we both need to relax.

Sue didn't look convinced. And relaxing, as it turned out, wasn't in the cards.

"Okay ma'am. That will be two twenty five twenty six." The pharmacist flashed a broad smile at her and handed Frankie as small white paper bag.

Frankie's hand froze on her wallet. "That was twenty five twenty six, right?"

"Um, no ma'm. It's two twenty five twenty six."

"Excuse me? Two hundred twenty five.. is that dollars?"

The pharmacist burst out laughing. "Well it ain't cents!"

"Two hundred dollars?" Frankie repeated. "For pain medication? Are you freaking kidding me?"

The pharmacist shrugged. "That's how much it costs. Take it or leave it."

"But that's impossible! I-I showed you my husband's insurance card! And mine! Well, his is much better than mine but surely;y between the two of us… look, can you please run it through with the insurance?"

"Actually that is the price after insurance."

"What?"

"Sorry. Drugs are expensive."

"Can't you cut us a break?" Frankie pleaded. "My daughter is in severe pain and trust me, aren't rich at all. In fact we barely have enough money to send our kids to college… or to eat for that matter. Don't you get it?"

"Sorry ma'am."

"Sorry?" Frankie yelled. "Sorry? That's all you can say? Sorry? Sorry? My daughter is in agonizing pain and all you can say is sorry? Don't you understand? We can''t afford-"

"Mom-."

At the touch of Sue's hand on her arm, Frankie turned around.

"What is it?"

"It's okay."

"What is?"

"I'll just deal with the pain, all right? It's a lot of money and we don't have it, so let's just buy some Frugal Hoosier Aspirin or-."

"No, there is no way we are ever going back into that store! Not after what they did to you!"

"But Mom-."

"Look, we'll

figure something out."

"No, I'll pay for it." Sue said. "I have a credit card, but I can't-." She struggled in a poor attempt to open her purse, but the effort caused her to cringe in pain again.

"Mom, can you take my purse, please?"

Frankie's heart went out to her daughter. Damn, how could she have been so selfish?

"Sue, I-."

"Please?"

Frankie took Sue's purse and held it in her hands. "Now what?"

"There's a credit card in my wallet."

Curious as to where Sue could have possibly gotten a credit card, Frankie opened Sue's purse and found her white wallet with the rainbow stripe across it. Sure enough, there in the front slot was a credit card. She pulled it out and glanced at it, surprised to see the East Indiana State logo on the front.

"Sue-."

"Look, I know that I'm too young to have a credit card and I'm sorry that I didn't tell you about it before. They were offering them at school and I thought I'd give it a try. I never believed they'd actually send me one and I wasn't going to use it at all except in major emergencies, but now-."

As Sue went on and on, Frankie realized that there was nothing more important than her family's health. She pulled out her checkbook and quickly wrote out a check to pay for the medication.

"Mom, you dind't have to do that!" Sue said as they walked out of the pharmacy.

In the hallway, Frankie stopped and hugged her daughter as gently as possible. "Well, I wanted to."

Sue hugged Frankie to the best of her ability. "I love you, Mom."

"I love you too. Now let's go home."