Giving Thanks
It was a usual hectic day in the County General Hospital. Nurses and doctors bustled back and forth, tending to their patient's needs.
"Carol, there's a thumb wound that needs to be stitched up in exam room one," Dr. Green said passing by the front desk.
He handed the chart to Carol. She looked over the S.O.A.P notes that Mark had written as she walked quickly to exam room one. There, she found a construction worker sitting on the edge of the bed, waiting to be stitched up and released from the hospital.
"Hi," Carol said, slipping on a pair of latex gloves, "I'm Carol."
"Hey." The man said in a deep Brooklyn accent. "I'm Antonio."
"Hi Antonio," Carol smiled as she pushed a stool forward with her foot.
Meanwhile, two detectives, a man and woman, entered the E.R with a young girl in their custody, in attempt to find her Godmother. Her real mother had just been instantly killed in a horrible car accident. Her mother's will indicated that County General Hospital was the place to find her.
"Excuse me," One of the detectives tried to stop Dr. Carter.
"Sorry," Dr. Carter rushed on past them towards the elevator, "Scheduled for emergency surgery."
"Can I help you?" Dr. Green asked.
"Yes," The same detective spoke up, "We're looking for a Doctor Luisa Delgado. Does she work here?"
"No," Mark Green responded, "Doesn't ring a be3ll."
"We're form Social Services," The female agent showed her badge, "We need to find Doctor Luisa Delgado. This young lady's mother died and according to the will, Doctor Luisa is her godmother and we need to find her as soon as possible."
"What's the problem?" Kerry Weaver jumped in.
"Uh," Mark glanced at her and then back at the detectives, "They're looking for a Luisa Delgado."
"Patient?" Kerry asked.
"Doctor," Mark answered.
"There is no Doctor Luisa Delgado here," Kerry said, hobbling behind the front desk.
"Well do you know where we can find her?" The man asked.
"No," Kerry said as she signed a chart and handed it back to a nurse, "but if you tell this young lady the doctor's name, she'll be more than likely be able to help you by making a few phone calls."
"What's her name?" A nurse at the desk asked.
Needless to say, the detectives were in the wrong place. Luisa Delgado was all the way across the country in the state of Pennsylvania. Rittnehouse Hospital was busy as well, taking care of their patients.
"Cindy," Lu said scooting a chair up, "Your labs and x-rays are extremely clear. So, I think the reason why you're not having normal menstrual cycles is because of the amount of stress you're under. So, what I'm gonna do is start ya on some Zoloft and your periods should eventually get back to normal and we're gonna wanna see you again in six months, but if you need to see me before them, feel free to come by okay?"
"Thanks Lu," the patient was relieved to know that nothing serious was wrong.
Lu excused herself from the room and informed Lana of Cindy's need of a Zoloft starter kit, and excused herself to her office in order to do some paper work before seeing her next patient.
"Now you can't just barge in there!" Lana screamed from the outside as the two detectives burst through Lu's office door.
"Dr. Luisa Delgado?" The female detective asked.
"Lu, I tried to stop 'em," Lana assured.
"It's okay," Lu said.
Lana turned and before exiting Lu's office she gave the detectives a nasty look, letting her eyes scan over both of them starting at their feet all the way up to their faces.
"Okay, is there a reason why you both just came barging into my office without even knocking?" Lu asked in a furious manner.
"Do you know this woman?" The man handed Lu a picture.
"Um, yeah," Lu said after a few moments of looking over the photo, "She was my roommate all through college. What's all this about?"
"I'm afraid we have some bad news Doctor Delgado. She passed away last week," He explained, tucking the photo back into his coat.
"Oh," Lu's eyes lowered, "I haven't seen her in years. How'd she die?"
"Car accident," The woman detective answered.
"Look, I'm really sorry to hear that, but I have a patient to see so please excuse me." Lu said starting to push her way in between them in order to get to the door.
"Not so fast," The man said as he blocked the door, "Look out there."
Through the glass window, in the distance Lu saw a girl sitting in a chair in the waiting room with a sketch pad lying in her lap. She had no expression on her face but he eyes followed the pencil that she controlled. Lu turned back to face the detectives.
"I'm sorry. I don't follow," Lu said.
"That's her daughter. She put in her will that if anything ever happened to her that her child should be handed over to you," One detective explained.
"She's in my custody. I have full guardianship over her," Lu explained to Lana a couple of hours later as they ate lunch on the patio area outside of the hospital.
"Good Lord," Lana said, "What are you gonna do?"
"I don't know," Lu answered, "I mean there's not much I can do. I guess I'm gonna see if there are any family members that would be willing to take her. I have a court date on Wednesday."
"Boy what a way to start out a Monday," Lana said, chewing a French fry, "You gonna take her home with you until then?"
"Yeah, I mean I guess so. I can't just leave her," Lu said.
The car ride home was quite and the girl continued to etch drawings on the pad of paper with her pencil. Lu wasn't quite sure what to say to her. She figured that the last thing that the girl wanted to talk about would be her mother's death. Lu knew all the general information about her like her age, and her name. The silence was broken once Lu unlocked the door to her apartment.
"Um come on in. Have a seat," Lu softly said.
Without any attitude, any questions, the girl did as Lu said. She was lifeless but still alive. Her eyes were blood shot from a combination of crying, sadness, and being tired. Her honey-blonde hair was pulled up away from her face in a sloppy, half bun, ponytail. She sat on the couch with her hands together in between her knees.
Lu started to excuse herself quietly without a word in order to get some pillows and blankets. She figured that Dawn would sleep in her bed and that she would take the couch.
"I remember you ya know," The girl finally spoke. Lu turned to face her, not saying anything. "I know that seems impossible. The last time you saw me was-"
"When you were four, at your fourth birthday party. The theme was a circus theme," Lu slowly sat down beside her.
"Yep. Twelve years ago," Dawn's voice lowered, followed by a stream of tears, "You got me my first watercolor paint set."
"Yeah," Lu scooted closer, gently extending her hand out to touch Dawn's shoulder. "I know."
Dawn's tears multiplied and she buried her face in her hands. She didn't reject the comforting touch of Lu's hand. Lu held her until she fell asleep and so Lu left her there and slept in her own bed. She was afraid if she moved Dawn that she would wake up and not be able to go back to sleep again.
The next morning, Lu was awakened by the pleasant smell of eggs and bacon. She slowly turned over to look at the clock which read "6:45 A.M." With a whiney moan, Lu drug herself out of bed and into the kitchen.
"Morning Lu," Dawn glanced away from the stove.
"Morning," Lu took a seat at the kitchen table.
"French toast?" Dawn asked.
"Sure," Lu answered.
Dawn took the freshly cooked bacon from the skillet with a pair of silver tongs and placed it onto a plate.
"Don't you have a son?" Dawn asked as she sat the plate of bacon on the table and went back to the stove to watch the scrambling eggs.
"Uh yeah. Yeah. Marc is his name," Lu said.
Dawn moved about with a graceful motion. It seemed that life was starting to slowly breathe back into her. The red veins that surrounded the blue core of her eye the night before had faded. Her hair was pulled back out of her face once gain, only this time it was neatly French braided.
"Morning," Marc entered the room.
"Morning honey," Lu said, running her fingers through her hair.
"Um," Marc stopped dead in his tracks when he noticed a new person standing in the kitchen. "Hi. I don't wanna be rude or anything, but….who are you?"
"I'm Dawn," She answered.
"Marc, you probably don't remember her but…."Lu hesitated, "Well you two use to play together."
"Smells good," Marc sat down at the table.
The three enjoyed their breakfast that Dawn prepared and Marc left for school. Lu had decided to take the day off in order to get to know Dawn a little more, and to try and get her enrolled in school.
"But I don't want to go to Marc's school," Dawn said as she carefully painted purple peddles on an unfinished flower on the pad of paper in front of her.
"How do you know?" Lu asked, "You haven't even checked it out yet."
"Well," Dawn took a deep breath in as she looked at the list of classes. "No dance classes? The only art classes are Introduction to Art and Art 101. I wouldn't learn anything. I already know all that stuff they do in those classes. No, I'm not going."
"So, you wanna go to a performing arts school?" Lu guessed.
"Yes," Dawn said, picking her paintbrush back up. "I wanna dance. I'm use to dancing four hours a day Lu. Competing. That's what I want to do."
"Okay," Lu gave in, "Okay. Boy you drive a hard bargain."
Until Lu was able to find the type of school that Dawn desired, she took Dawn to the clinic everyday. Some days she would hang out in Lu's office, sketching the time away. Other days she would sit at the front desk with Lana.
"Girl, you're good," Lana said as she finished looked through Dawn's sketch book.
"Thanks. I've been taking art lessons since I was six, plus dance lessons and piano lessons," Dawn said taking her book back.
"Good Lord," Lana was amazed.
"Hey Lana, would you tell Peter that there's a woman in exam room one that needs to have a boil removed," Lu asked then looked over at Dawn, "You don' okay?"
:Yeah," Dawn smiled, "Oh and that person you're talking about with the boil, tell them to go home and crack an egg open and soak the boil in the egg white. It'll soon cause the boil to come to a head and she can pop it herself."
"It's true," Peter said as he approached the desk, "It's a home remedy."
"Okay then," Lu agreed, "Run the idea by her and if it doesn't work or she just doesn't want to try it, go ahead and remove it. Lana could I see you in private? And by the way Dawn, I need to talk to you about your school."
"I didn't get in did I? Those people are so stuck up. I can't believe this!" Dawn started to throw a fit.
"You did get in," Lu smiled as she tossed the letter down in front of Dawn and walked away with Lana.
Dawn was shocked, speechless. It was nearly impossible to get into that particular school, especially in the middle of the year. As Dawn read over her acceptance letter, Lana joined Lu for a little walk down the hallway.
"I was just wondering….do you have plans for tomorrow?" Lu asked.
"Saturday?" Lana asked, "Not unless you consider sittin' in front of the television, stuffin' yourself with cookie dough ice cream and watchin' re-runs of Doogie Houser to be plans. Why? Whatcha need?"
"Well," Lu began to explain, "I haven't really had time to spend with Marc since Dawn's been here and since the court date and getting her settled in and all. So, I was wondering if you could maybe have a girl's day out with her or something?"
"Well sure," Lana smiled, "I think that would be fun."
Lana picked Dawn up the next day around 10:00 A.M. Their day consisted of a trip to the mall, lunch, and a movie. Lu and Marc spent the day at a local amusement park. On the car ride home after a day of screaming and laughing, Lu talked with Marc and explained to him that Dawn would be with them for a while and why. Strangely enough Marc was completely understanding of the whole situation.
After Dawn started school, no one at the clinic saw much of her anymore. When she wasn't doing homework or studying, she was dancing. She auditioned for the school's dance team and made it. The dance team was very well known and had been considered to be the second best in the whole country. Rehearsals took place everyday after school until six in the evening and on the weekends the team traveled all over to dance competitions.
Dawn's report card required Lu's signature on it every term. Lu was impressed. Despite Dawn's hectic and time consuming dance schedule she maintained a 3.9 G.P.A. which was not easy considering the level of school work they gave the kids.
But after Christmas break, when school started back, Lu noticed a dramatic decrease in Dawn's energy level. She came in the clinic one day unexpectedly. She went directly to Lu's office and tossed the report card down in front of Lu, dropped her backpack and crashed onto the sofa.
"What are you doing here?" Lu asked as she opened the report card. Dawn didn't answer. The report card informed Lu that Dawn's straight A's dropped to a three C's and a D.
"Lu they need you in the O.R," Lana informed after opening the door.
"Dawn, we're gonna talk about this later." Lu said in a furious manner as she raced out the door.
Later that night after dinner, Dawn cleaned the table off and started rinsing the dishes off in the sink. Lu asked Marc to go to his room so she could have a couple of minutes alone to talk to Dawn. Lu walked over to her bag and got the report card out and sat back down at the kitchen table.
"You wanna tell me what's goin' on Dawn?" Lu asked. Dawn didn't answer. "Come on Dawn. What's up? Talk to me. I mean your grades have fallen, you skipped dance practice today, you've been spending ninety percent of your free time sleeping, you don't do your art work anymore. What's up?"
Dawn rolled her eyes and even though her back was turned towards Lu, Lu sensed the attitude. Dawn continued rinsing the rest of the dishes, hoping that Lu would just forget about the whole thing.
"Come on Dawn!" Lu got up from the table and walked over to where she was, "is it drugs?"
"No!" Dawn shouted, "Do you think I'm stupid? I mean, do drugs when I have to take a drug test every week in order to stay on the dance team?"
"Then what is it?" Lu's asked calmly.
"Nothing," Dawn's voice lowered. "I've just been so tired lately. I can barely stay awake in class after a night of solid sleep."
"Okay. You're not going to school tomorrow. I'm going to run a few tests at the clinic to see what's going on." Lu said.
Dawn didn't argue with Lu. She herself wanted to find out what was wrong. The fact that she wasn't doing well in school bothered her. And the fact that she wasn't able to do her best on the dance team bothered her even more.
Besides a blood test and a general examination, Lu performed a routine breast exam. There were no abnormalities in the tissue of Dawn's left breast. But when Lu started examining the right breast, she noticed a fairly large nodule.
"How long has that looked or felt like that?" Lu asked Dawn.
"A while I guess. I mean I haven't really paid much attention to it." Dawn answered.
As Lu pressed her fingers around it, she noticed that the knot was as hard as a baseball and was solid. The skin was discolored and throbbing. That particular spot was hot, warmer than the rest of Dawn's body. Lu excused herself from the exam room with Dawn's chart.
Lu met with Doctor Campbell for a few moments to ask her opinion whether or not a mammogram should be preformed on someone as young as Dawn.
"Nausea, back pain, weight loss, fatigue," Dr. Campbell read down Dawn's list of symptoms," It sounds like cancer. I know she's fairly young, but that's what it sounds like. Do an ultra-sound then a mammogram if necessary."
Lu conducted both, and neither of them lied about anything. The rest of the tests proved what was wrong.
"Inflammatory cancer," Lu told Dr. Campbell in the privacy of her own office.
"Oh my gosh," Dr. Campbell said, "She's only sixteen-"
"The test results from her tissue biopsy came back. It's absolutely positive that it's inflammatory." Lu answered.
"Did you catch it in time?" Dr. Campbell asked.
"No," Lu hesitated, "She's got maybe a month to live, if she's lucky. She could take the treatment of chemotherapy and radiation, but that would only buy her a few more months to live. And even those months would be spent living in pain."
Lu explained just that to Dawn and she gave Dawn the choice of whether or not to take the treatments, which she rejected. She didn't want to live the last of her life in pain.
"If we would've caught it in time," Lu explained, "then there would've been a sixty percent chance for you to live. But we didn't. Inflammatory cancer is an extremely rare type of cancer. It's like trying to put out an underground fire. You never know where it's going to pop up next. In your case, it's all over now. It's a very violent, rapid type of cancer. I'm sorry Dawn."
Dawn's maturity level was above a sixteen year old's, and so it affected the way she took the news. Lu was basically telling her that she was dying and nothing could be done about it.
Two weeks later, Dawn's condition had become too severe for her to stay at Lu's and she was hospitalized. She wasn't eating and her kidneys had nearly shut down. Her healthy toned skin had faded into a pasty white and dark brown circles surrounded her eyes.
One day Marc stopped in to see her on the way to school and she was resting so he didn't wake her. He stayed for as long as he could without being late to class.
Lu had been monitoring her since she had been admitted and she knew deep down in her heart that there was no hope. Before lunch that same day that Marc had stopped in, Lu stepped in to check on her and even since that morning, Dawn's condition had worsened.
"Hey," Lu said softly.
"Lu," Dawn reached out for Lu's hand, "come sit with me for a minute."
Lu took a seat beside her bed and held her hand. It took everything she had to not burst out into tears.
"Lu, I wanted you to know," Dawn said, "I…I appreciate the fact that you didn't push me off to some foster family. You took me in, and I'm thankful for that. Thank you for making me feel loved and welcomed….but, God needs me now and I have to go. You're a great person Lu. Marc's a great kid. And because of….of that…both of you will always be…be blessed with love."
"Dawn, I-" Tears streamed down Lu's face, "I'm sorry that I couldn't find a cure. I'm sorry there wasn't one."
"Lu, don't feel sorry. You did what you could," Dawn struggled to breath, even with an oxygen supply, "I'm going to be with Mom now. It's a blessing in a way. Love will always be on your side. Love will always be with you. Now, take care of yourself and take care of Marc. I'm going to rest my eyes."
Dawn's eyes closed and Lu felt something warm go through her, starting form her back and going through her body and out through fingertips and into Dawn and she knew it was the angel of death. She cried as she watched Dawn take her last breath.
"It's never easy to let someone go," The preacher stated, "Especially when they've touched your life."
Lu listened to the words that were suppose to be of comfort. But she felt nothing but sadness. This girl had just come into her life, and she thought about how amazing it was that you could become attached to someone so easily and quickly. She was angry, because this child had so much to look forward to. College, boyfriends, wonderful opportunities involving dance, prom, and even graduation. As she got lost in these thoughts, she felt a soft wind blow through her hair. She looked around and noticed that the breeze only blew through her hair and no one else's. And in the distance, way behind the casket and the pastor, amongst the trees, she saw Dawn's spirit, along with her Mother's. Her Mother smiled and waved, and then put her arm around her daughter.
"Thank you," the woman mouthed as she put her arm around Dawn.
Lu blinked, thinking that it was just her imagination, but she realized it wasn't. And somehow that incident gave Lu some comfort. Dawn and her mother waved and turned and walked away, and as they did, they both faded into the air.