Kimber had only been driving a couple of meters when her cell started to ring. She quickly pulled down to the side of the road and pressed the talk button, "hello?"
She only heard a quiet sob at the other side of the line.
"Sarah?" Kimber asked aggravated when she recognised the voice, "what's wrong?"
Kimber listened to Sarah's unclear babbles that her mother had collapsed and was in hospital now.
"Listen, I'm coming to the hospital as quickly as I can!" She promised the young girl.
Kimber ended the call and steered the car back into the lane. While driving towards the hospital she wondered what was going on. When they have last met she had noticed how pale and skinny Gail looked. Maybe she was too drained, Kimber guessed. She was lucky to find a parking space right away in front of Cedars Medical Centre's main building. She stepped in and went to the information desk, "I'd like to see Gail Pollock," she said to the lady at the information, "something happened to her and she was brought in here."
"Room 407, level four, down the left corridor," the lady gave her the directions curtly.
"Thanks," Kimber took the elevator and then she was searching for the room number down the corridor. She hesitated for a moment before stepping into the sick room. She didn't know how Christian's mother would react to seeing her. After she had stressed back then she didn't want any more contact, this encounter could be quite a shock for her. But Kimber told herself she was there for Sarah first of all, to give her some moral support. Kimber inhaled deeply and opened the door. She saw Sarah sitting on a chair next to her mother holding her hand. She had hung her head and was crying quietly. She didn't seem to take in what was going on around her and only reacted when Kimber touched her softly on the shoulder, "Sarah?"
Sarah looked up surprised. Kimber saw her eyes were rather red and swollen from crying.
"I'm so glad you're here!" She said in a choked voice. She pointed to her mother, "she simply lost consciousness. I asked the doctor what was wrong, but he just didn't wanna tell me anything," she started crying again.
Kimber stroked her on the head reassuringly. She looked over to the bed where Gail was still lying comatose. Kimber's stomach tightened at the sight. A breathing tube with oxygen was placed into both her nostrils and a drip was dangling above her head that every couple of seconds supplied her veins with some clear fluid through a thin tube. Kimber suddenly felt like an ice cold hand was grabbing at her heart. Traces of memory crowded her awareness. She's been faced with the same sight once before. Her mother had been lying there the same way in the past shortly before it was all over for her. Kimber relived in her mind's eye as the quiet beeps of the heart monitor changed to a drawn out continuous tone and she remembered how her father collapsing by the bed of his dying wife.
"Why could it be nobody tells me what's wrong with mom?" Sarah interrupted Kimber's thoughts.
"I...I'll talk to the doctor," Kimber said hardly audibly. She hoped that her gut reaction will not be confirmed. She instinctively knew it was more behind Gail's illness than Sarah presumed. Kimber stood with trembling knees, "stay with your mom till then," she said to Sarah, "I'll see outside if I can find a doctor I could talk to," Kimber left the sick room and addressed a nurse just coming along the corridor outside, "I would like to speak to the doctor in charge of Mrs. Pollock's case," she said.
The nurse nodded, "I'll have him paged. Just a minute."
Kimber was awaiting the conversation with the doctor with nervous tension. Finally she saw a tall, middle aged man coming towards her in his white doctor outfit. His dark brown hair was shining grey at many parts and he was wearing glasses.
"I'm Dr. Jeffries, the doctor who treats Mrs. Pollock," he introduced himself and nodded towards Kimber.
"Kimber Henry. I'm Mrs. Pollock's...daughter in law."
"Let's go into my office," Dr. Jeffries suggested and showed Kimber the way.
"You must know about Mrs. Pollock's condition?" Dr. Jeffries asked and pushed his glasses further up on his nose as they sat down opposite each other in the office.
Kimber nodded mutely. In reality she had absolutely no idea, but if she made herself out as a member of the family already, it was rather likely she should've been aware of her mother in law's state of health.
Dr. Jeffries took his glasses off and rubbed his eyes, "I already told her the last time that chemotherapy would be absolutely imperative if we would want to stop the cancer from spreading. But she didn't want to listen to me..."
Kimber suddenly started to react to everything around her as if she would've been in trance. There was only one thought that got through. Gail had cancer! Kimber felt her heart stopping for a moment. So her gut feeling didn't fail her. Gail will share the same destiny as her own mother once. Kimber swallowed her tears that she felt appearing all of a sudden, "how...for how long has she known about it?" She struggled to ask.
Dr. Jeffries put his glasses back up and looked through the patient files, "about six months," he explained, "I have warned her of the risks back then, told her what was gonna happen if she refused chemotherapy," he scratched his head, "but she said there was nobody who could take care of the kids in the meantime."
"I didn't know it was so bad," Kimber said quietly, "will she...die?" She asked stagnantly.
Dr. Jeffries cradled his head thoughtfully, "I'm not God, Miss..."
"Henry, Kimber Henry," Kimber said quickly.
"...Miss Henry," Dr. Jeffries continued, "it doesn't look good at the moment I must admit. I only see a chance for her if we start her on chemotherapy right away. But even then the odds are fifty fifty."
"Then do it please," Kimber said pleadingly.
Dr. Jeffries shook his head, "we can't do anything without the consent of the patient."
"Could I not sign for it?" Kimber looked at the doctor pleadingly, "I'm an adult and a family member. Is that not enough?"
Dr. Jeffries put his glasses in place on his nose and regarded Kimber with a long, thoughtful look.
"Please!" Kimber didn't have any more energy left to fight her tears, "eighteen years ago I had to watch my mother dying from lung cancer," she said with her voice muffled by tears, "I'll not just sit and watch as my mother in law shares the same destiny!"
Dr. Jeffries seemed visibly touched by Kimber's confession, "I'm very sorry!" He hesitated for a moment and Kimber could see from his facial expression that he was struggling with himself innerly, "all right," he said finally, "I'll organise everything that's necessary. We'll start her on the drip right away. It usually works the fastest that way. Sure enough she'll have to stay in hospital for a few days."
"A few days?" Kimber asked grief stricken. She was thinking of her wedding on the coming Sunday.
"Ten days the most," Dr. Jeffries nodded.
Kimber felt her heart sinking. How should Christian step in front of the altar when his mother was fighting death in the hospital?
Dr. Jeffries took the consent form and gave it over to Kimber above the table, "if you could sign here at the bottom please!"
Kimber put her signature down mechanically onto paper after checking through the lines. She asked herself desperately how she should explain to Christian that they couldn't get married at the weekend as planned.
"Is it possible you take care of the young girl till her mother's in hospital?" Dr. Jeffries interrupted Kimber's thoughts.
She closed her eyes. She completely forgot about Sarah. It was clear of course that the sixteen year old couldn't stay at home all by herself. More and more problems began to strike her and she had no idea how she could solve even one of them. She nodded hesitantly.
"All right," Dr. Jeffries smiled all of a sudden, "we'll see each other again tomorrow," he offered his hand as a good bye.
Kimber left the parlour office like doped and went over to Gail's sick room where Sarah was already waiting for her impatiently.
"What's wrong with my mom? Did you talk to one of the doctors?" It bubbled out from Sarah.
Kimber nodded, "she's sleeping now," she said so demonstratively calmly as possible, "the doctors want to keep her here for observation for another couple of days. No worries," she continued as she saw Sarah's shocked expression, "your mom is in the best of hands here."
"Do you know what's wrong with her?" Sarah asked fearfully.
"I'll explain everything to you later. But let's go home first," Kimber avoided the answer.
Sarah nodded. She reluctantly stood up and cast another glance at her sleeping mother before following Kimber.