As Charles fears for Melinda's life, he also fears for his son Chuckie, who might grow up without a mother. His fears for Melinda and Chuckie are heightened when he sees a rugby player named Big Tony, whose five-year-old daughter is very, very sick with appendicitis.

May of 1990. Angelica Pickles had just turned two years old. Her mother and father were trying to get her to say her first words.

"Come on, sweetie," said Charlotte. "Say 'mommy.'"

And Drew said, "Say 'daddy,' Angelica. 'Daddy.'"

Presently, the couple heard a knock on their door. When Drew opened, it was Chas again. This time, Chas had a sad expression on his face, even though he was holding baby Chuckie in his arms.

"Chas, what's the matter?" asked Drew sympathetically.

After placing Chuckie in the playpen, Chas sighed, "I'm afraid it's my wife. She's extremely ill with leukemia."

"You mean…"

"She might die."

"What? Her? Die? But she's so young."

"I know. I know. You should have seen how much my daddy cried after we were told of Melinda's illness, and he hardly ever cries!"

"I'm so sorry."

"I don't feel bad for myself. I love Melinda, but I'm scared for her life. I'm also afraid for my little Chuckie. He might grow up without a mother. The poor little guy has no idea that he'll lose his mommy this soon in his life."

"Relax, Chas. At least, he'll have some playmates as he gets older: our Angelica, Howard and Betty's twins, and Stu and Didi's upcoming baby."

"But I'm afraid he'll get bullied in school for not having a mother. Remember when you used to pick on Melinda when we were kids?"

Drew's face fell. "You're right. Although I actually picked on Melinda for being a new kid, I now see that what I did was wrong."

"By the way," said Chas, "on the night after I had found out about my wife's illness, I had this strange dream where we were characters from Puccini's La Bohême. We were singing the quartet from Act III. You and Charlotte were arguing with each other as though you weren't even married yet!"

Drew gave him a peculiar look. "You're right. That is a strange dream."

"And I'm still not used to waking up and not finding my Mimi by my side in our bed."

"Well, I hope a cookie will comfort you."

But when Drew showed Chas a plate of cookies, Chas sighed, "I'm not hungry."

Just then, Drew and Charlotte heard Angelica saying something: "Coo-kie… Coo-kie… Coo-kie. Cookie. Cookie! Cookie! Cookie! Cookie! Cookiecookiecookiecookiecookiecookie!"

Both Drew and Charlotte were confused. But Angelica's first word made Chas feel very sad. His eyes brimmed with tears as he thought about how Melinda might not live to hear Chuckie's own first word…

Later, Chas was in the waiting room, hoping to pay Melinda a visit. Seated in the same waiting room were a mother holding her baby, a man with a severe wound on his left side, an old woman clutching her stomach, and a huge, muscular man who looked like a professional football player. It was the last man who caught Chas' eye, for this man seemed to be looking longingly at a photo album.

"You look familiar," said Chas. "You look like someone I know."

The man said, speaking with an English accent, "You look familiar yourself. It's like I've seen you before… Where was it? I was a foreign exchange student there… I was a star player in the high school football team… It's been so long… Was it… Eucaipah High School?"

"Eucaipah High School?" asked Chas. "That's where I went back in the '70's!"

"Yes, and all my friends called me…"

Chas and the burly man said together, "Big Tony!"

"Long time no see!" Chas shouted with joy.

Big Tony replied, "Mine's the pleasure."

"So, what are you, a football player?"

"Actually, a rugby player! There is a difference!"

"So, what are you in here for? Did you injure yourself?"

"What silly questions you Americans ask!" chuckled Big Tony. "It's not for myself, but for my daughter."

Chas was amazed. "You have a daughter?"

"Yes, she's only five, and she's in here because she told me and her mother that she had a tummy ache." Big Tony's face fell as he said, "For the next day, we tried everything to cure it: bland foods, plenty of water, we even tried a few laxatives. Now, I'm concerned that it might be something very serious indeed."

"You know, I suffered from something like that when I was a kid."

"You did?"

"Yeah, when I was diagnosed with appendicitis, you should have seen how terrified my dad was, and he's hardly ever scared."

"Appendicitis?!" cried Big Tony with horror. "You mean to say my poor little girl has appendicitis?!"

"She might…"

"Then I was right to send her to this ER! Oh, I hope they remove her appendix in time! Appendicitis has been known to kill people if the appendix is not removed in time!"

This made Chas very agitated. At least, it was his wife who had leukemia, and not his son, but, sweating bullets, he said to Big Tony, "Oh, I hope my little boy Chuckie doesn't suffer appendicitis!"

Big Tony asked, "You have a son?"

"Yes, he's only a year old, but I fear he may soon lose his mother to leukemia!"

"You don't say. Then, you should consider yourself lucky! I love my wife, but if anyone gave me the cruel choice between seeing her or our daughter suffer, I would prefer to see my wife suffer because she's all grown-up, whereas my daughter is only a child!"

Chas sighed ruefully.

Presently, the nurse stepped up and said, "Mr. Charles Finster, you may visit Mrs. Melinda Finster."

Chas gulped as he got up and said to himself, "I'm a big, brave knight. I'm a big, brave knight. I'm a big, brave knight…"

And he began to make the long walk to Melinda's hospital room. As he walked down the hallways, he was frightened to see what was going on. One doctor was preparing some vaccines to give to the children, while another doctor seemed to be cutting into the belly of a little girl! Chas was sweating so much his clothes soon became wet with his own perspiration! At one point, he needed to use his inhaler just to get a breather!

Finally, Chas and the nurse had reached Melinda's room. There, he saw her, waving her hand as she saw him.

"Hi, Mimi," said Chas.

Melinda smiled and said, "Hello, Charles."

But soon, she was seized by a cough, and it wasn't a simple ordinary cough such as might be caused by a cold. This cough sounded much more serious, and it frightened Chas, for Melinda's coughing reminded him of Mimi's coughing in La Bohême! He nearly cried!

As soon as Melinda caught her breath, she said, "Don't worry, Charles. I've been keeping a diary lately on my stay in the hospital. So far, I've written all about my early life, and the time I first met you."

And when she showed him her diary, Chas smiled and said, "Oh beautiful diary. You know, Mimi, I don't think anyone as sweet or as beautiful as you would ever go for a pale or bony guy like me."

Melinda held his hand. "I've always loved you no matter what. I like you for the calm, gentle, patient man you are. You're such a wonderful husband and father."

"And you're such a warm and loving mother, and the best wife I could ever ask for!"

Chas and Melinda then laughed with each other as if it would be the last laugh they would ever share.

After that, Melinda said, "You know, Charles, I wonder if I'll get to meet Stu and Didi's baby… I'll bet he'll be a wonderful little boy…"

"Me, too," sighed Chas. "Just give the couple a few months, and their baby may one day be our Chuckie's best friend." But suddenly, his face fell.

"What's the matter?" asked Melinda.

"I… I'm just afraid of losing you."

"Charles, you're stronger and braver than you think you are. Just believe in yourself…"

Chas gazed at his wife, then he stood up and said, "See you later." And he left the room to go to his own house. Melinda watched and smiled, having thought a lot about her life as she settled in her hospital bed…

Once Chas had left the hospital room, he knew that he wasn't going to like what he would see. But what he was going to see would be worse than he thought!

When he passed by the room with the vaccines, he saw that the mother was trying to get her squirming baby to sit down. The doctor meant to be gentle with the baby, but the poor little boy was fussing so much that the doctor had trouble wiping his upper arm with an antibacterial wipe, and finally, when the doctor gave the baby the shot, the baby cried and cried as the doctor tried to comfort him.

Chas shuddered. "I sure hope my little guy isn't so fussy with the booster shot when it's his turn…"

But what made him feel better was when he was about to leave the waiting room. A doctor came to Big Tony and said, "Big Tony, I have good news! Your daughter's appendix has just been removed!"

"Will she be all right?" asked Big Tony, with more than a hint of apprehension.

"Of course! Her appendix has already ruptured, so we need to drain all the gunk from her system, but she'll be fine by next Monday."

When Big Tony heard this, he laughed out loud. It was a laugh of relief, and before long, he cried out, "Let me see her at once!"

And the doctor led Big Tony to the room where his daughter was resting. Chas furtively followed, and what he saw warmed his heart: Big Tony was shedding tears of joy as he tenderly cradled his daughter, who awakened to return her father's embrace.

But as Chas left the waiting room and approached his car, he still felt very unhappy. He really hated to see his beloved Melinda suffer, but he saw her, suffering from the leukemia that he feared might kill her. Tears were rolling down his face. As he drove all the way home, he still thought about Melinda…

The next day, Chas was discussing what he had seen with Stu and Didi: "I try in vain to hide what really torments me. I love Melinda more than anything in the world, but I'm scared. My Mimi is terribly ill, and she's getting weaker every day. A horrible cough is racking her chest, and her cheeks are flushed. Whenever she laughs and sings, I'm seized with remorse over willingly seeing her suffer from the illness that's killing her. And no, this is not a Disney movie! This is reality, and my love for Melinda is not enough to save her! I've never cried so hard in all my life."

"Sure, you have, Chas," said Stu. "What about the time you got stood up for your senior prom?"

Didi added, "Or the time you and Melinda took us to see Puccini's La Bohême?"

"Or the time you read what you thought was a happy story but it ended with a child dying at the age of ten?"

"Or the time…"

Chas, who had been following Stu and Didi's every move, shouted, "Okay! Okay! I exaggerated! But seeing my Mimi suffer was terrible."

"You know, Chas," said Stu, "maybe we should visit your wife one of these days. You know, pay her a visit sometime."

"Yeah," said Didi. "We should see how she's doing."

"Okay," said Chas. "But you're not gonna like what you'll see…"

Later, in the hospital room, Chas, cradling Chuckie in his arms, took Stu and Didi to see Melinda. Stu shuddered to see Melinda. Seeing his best friend's wife lying there in her hospital bed, weakened by leukemia, reminded him of the time his own mother died. He himself started weeping to see it.

Stu's voice broke as he said, "You're right, Chas! This is terrible!"

Didi placed her hand on Melinda and said, "It really won't be the same without you, Melinda."

"Ah, it won't be that much different," Melinda sighed. "Just think of the time before I moved into the neighborhood."

"Actually, it was all that different," Chas mumbled. "Didi had just graduated kindergarten before we met Melinda."

"I'm six months pregnant, and I still can't believe I'm going to be a mother," said Didi with a smile as she touched her belly. "I mean, I always wanted to be a mother! In fact, I've been reading books by Dr. Lipschitz, plus I've been allowed a maternity leave, and the kids were kind enough to organize a party in my honor."

"Kids?" Melinda asked.

"Didn't you hear? At Eucaipah High School, from which I graduated in 1978, I am now a home economics teacher! Sometimes I wonder what would happen if this kid of mine ended up having me as their teacher…"

"You know, high school can be stressful. It sure was for me and Charles, but who has more stress from it, the students or the teachers?"

"Looking back, I'd say the teachers," snickered Chas, trying to mask his pain from the others.

And Didi said to Melinda, "Maybe one day, our babies could play together."

Melinda glanced, and she smiled to see Stu playing with Chuckie. She laughed a little at Stu's child-like wonder, the result of not having wept until he was fifteen, and she knew that he would be great with kids…