A normal day in the cul de sac, everything seemed fine, it was the same as every other day in the month. Of course, not everything is as it seems. The universe works in strange ways, unfortunately, the universe can be quite cruel. The poor boy never saw it coming.
At Peach Creek High, all the children were getting out of their final classes. Three boys, in particular, were avoiding bullies as they ran for the front doors. The Eds' weren't exactly favored in the school, but that never made them worry. Double d, in particular, was the least hated of the group, Eddy always forced him to help with schemes and such, but there really wasn't a good reason to hate the gap-toothed dork.
As the three Eds walked home, Double d felt a strange ache in his right eyebrow, he figured it was a migraine about to hit him. He was of course, correct. Ed and Eddy stopped as Double d winced in pain, holding his head. Eddy then asked, "You okay sock head?"
Then Ed intruded with his own enormous voice, "Oh no! Double d has been implanted with a mind-controlling device! We must get a doctor to dissect his brain to find the baby Darzoocian from the planet Grelod out of his head! Before it EXPLODES!"
Double d sighed then said in a groggy tone "It is just a migraine, Ed….please desist from speaking in such a high volume? Thank you."
Ed then whispered, "Sorry Double d."
After their short conversation, they reached the cul de sac and were about to head off to Ed's house when Kevin sped past them on his motorcycle, the shock forced Double d to fall back. Ed and Eddy helped Double d up. Eddy began to glare at the ginger getting off the motorcycle.
Eddy yelled, "Hey shovel chin!" Kevin barked back, "WHAT?!" Eddy marched over to him and their argument began.
Nat walked up from behind Double d, whispering, "Need some help, Double cutie?"
Double d jumped and gripped his head, groaning. Ed was worried about Double d, but he knew Nat wouldn't do anything to hurt him. Nat held out his hand and Double d took it, Nathan pulled him close and picked him up. Double d feared that if he complained that it would only make the migraine worse so he just clung to Nat.
Nat carried Double d all the way to a familiar house. Double d handed over the key to getting inside, Nat took the key eagerly. As they entered the overly clean house, Double d insisted, "Please, remove your shoes…..and please put on the slippers?"
Double d rolled out of Nat's arms and stood wobbling as he took off his shoes. Nathan removed his own shoes and put on the bunny slippers that had previously sat inside a cardboard box marked "house slippers" in the corner by the door. Double d then made his way to the bathroom to retrieve the Ibuprofen.
After Double d took two Ibuprofen, he walked to the kitchen and called out to Nat, "Would you like something to drink, Nathan?"
Nat walked in and said, "I'm fine, and as I told you before, you can call me Nat."
Double d then apologized, which of course made Nat say, "You don't need to say sorry...let's just get you comfortable. Besides, you promised to help me with my homework."
Double d smiled and said, "This is going to be fun."
After a few hours of studying, Double d was in need of food and sleep and Nat had seemed to be focused more on Double d than his own school work. Double d went to make himself a salad and asked, "Would you like something to eat Nathan?"
Nat sighed then said, "Sure, I'll have whatever you're having."
Double d smiled and fixed up two bowls filled with leafy greens, carrots, cheese, and all topped off with a cranberry vinaigrette. Nat was quite impressed that even with a splitting migraine, Double d is able to make such a beautiful looking dish.
Eddy, of course, decided to walk in to check on Double d, but when he noticed Nat…..let's just say, he was shocked to see the green-haired boy instead of Double d sitting on the couch.
Nat smiled and said cheerfully, "Hello Eddy, don't worry he's feeling much better."
Eddy just frowned at Nat and went back outside, only to run into Kevin. "Watch it, dork!" Said the angry redhead.
Eddy responded with a growl of anger and a low but audible, "Nat's with sock head…why don't you go get him before he starts humping the furniture?"
Kevin then said, "Don't talk about Nat like that, or your ass will be grass, got that?" Eddy held up his middle finger and walked home.
As Double d and Nat were eating their salads, Kevin knocked on the door. Double d set down his bowl and went to answer the ever-growing knocks.
Kevin was standing there with a poker face, Nat waved and said, "Hey, Kev. Did you come to join us?"
Kevin sighed and said, "No dude it's getting late, what are you doing here anyway?"
Nat stood up and said, "Double adorable was having bad migraines so I wanted to stay with him to help him keep calm or to help if the migraines got too bad."
Kevin looked at Double d and said, "You should rest then, double dork…..come on Nat we should go, he needs his rest." Nat whined but agreed.
Double d waved goodbye as they left and felt another migraine hit him like a ton of bricks, he closed the door and stumbled as he tried to walk to the couch and fell onto the cushions.
Later in the night, Double d was still awake, his parents just got home and saw him curled up on the floor, he looked to be in a great amount of pain. His parents took him to where they worked, the hospital.
As Double d's mother held him close, his father drove, it took them fifteen minutes to get him there and another ten minutes to get him CAT scanned. What they found was not what was expected by Double d, although his parents had known that "it" was already a large possibility. Double d's father motioned to his wife to get their son to a room. Double d was scared of what was to become of him.
- WITH THE KANKER SISTERS
Marie was waiting to hear from her favorite Ed of the three, she stared at her phone with a blank expression.
Lee scoffed "He's not gonna call, Marie, so quit hoggin' the phone!"
Marie groaned "He's gotta call…..just a few more minutes, I'm sure he'll call."
May sat next to Marie "It's okay Marie, I'm sure he has a good reason why he's not calling you today."
Lee sighed and sat on the other side of Marie, all three sisters embraced each other in a group hug.
May got a wonderful idea "Why don't you just call him?" The ditsy blonde was quite happy with such an idea, Marie was not.
Lee smacked May on the back of the head "Don't be stupid, he's supposed to call her, it's the principle of the matter. You could call him, Marie, but it wouldn't make up for the fact that he broke his promise of calling you every day."
Marie sighed and said, "I'm getting worried, he's never forgotten to call before."
Lee thought and decided "If Edd doesn't answer then I'll call Eddy to see if something is going on."
Marie nodded and dialed the number she had memorized. No answer from his phone, it went straight to his voicemail that was already full, which was strange because he never let his voicemail have more than at least two or three messages at a time.
Lee snatched the phone and dialed Eddy's number, he answered right away.
"Sock head is that you?!"
Lee barked at him "No, now pipe down, you're giving me a headache. Is the smart Edd with you?"
"No, if he was then I wouldn't have asked if you were him."
The conversation went on for a while and Lee hung up saying "Okay girls, we need to start searching for Double d and fast, he's not home and Eddy doesn't know where he is."
Marie was frantic and also quite overexcited, she was prepared to kill for her best friend if needed.
As the word spread like wildfire to the kids of the cul-de-sac, panic began to build and it only got worse when every place that they searched posed the same result. Edd was nowhere that they could find him, and the morning was coming fast.
When the sun began to rise, the kids all returned to their houses to ask their parents for help. Only one set of parents knew what happened other than the Vincents'. Their neighbor across the street, who would be Kevin's parents.
Kevin found out what happened in great detail and his heart sank, how could he tell the others what was happening, this couldn't be real. But it was and Kevin's world had flipped upside down. He couldn't tell anyone about the truth, but he couldn't NOT tell them. So he took a deep breath and stepped back outside to gather everyone for the hardest conversation he would ever have.
The other cul-de-sac kids stared at him expectantly, though they had grown up quite a lot, none of them were prepared to face adult issues or even handle the bad news of a friend being hurt and worse. So when Kevin opened his mouth, they expected to hear good news, but when his voice cracked with the first words and when his eyes started to water, it was more than anyone could take.
"I know where he is…Edd's been-" he cleared his throat and tugged at his turtle-neck, his eyes on the brink of tears "Double d...he's in the hospital."
Questions began to flood the air, the noise was deafening. Everyone wanting answers.
-WITH EDD EARLIER THAT NIGHT
Edd was scared of what he was about to hear, his heart was pounding and it echoed in his head, bringing on migraines that would make a grown man crumble. His parents were holding themselves together, his mother seemed to have a harder time keeping herself from breaking down and crying in front of him.
They made a call to their neighbors to request they look after their garden and such while they left it unattended. The Barrs' were more than happy to oblige, but after hearing the news of Eddward Vincent and his condition, they were far more interested in making sure the Vincent family was okay.
Edd got frustrated "Mother please, what on earth is happening to me that warrants a hospital visit? I deserve answers."
His mother was a woman to be rivaled with, if she was about to burst into tears then Edd knew it was bad. Everything began to spin when she told him the truth. Her words echoed throughout his head and he wanted to scream.
"Eddward dear, you have an active tumor that could kill you. The scar on your head is from the surgeries trying to remove it...not from a car accident." His mother wasn't able to hold back the tears that flowed. Her face void of emotion otherwise.
Edd knew deep down what was truly happening, he knew what the scar was from. His brain had locked the memories away to spare him the pain, he never wanted to make it real, so his brain decided it wasn't real. Reality caught up with him of course, and now he was face to face with the harshness of his condition and the bitter thoughts of death.
Edd's tumor could inevitably kill him and take him away from everyone he cared about, leaving them all behind to meet his fate.
-IN THE MORNING
Edd was unable to sleep that night, he and his parents were waiting for the results of yet another set of tests and scans. Edd wanted answers, would he be going into another surgery or was he doomed? Edd wanted to know, and he wasn't getting answers now.
The doctor would come in and out every hour or so, the nurses were more frequent and a few of them gave Edd a look of pity and he hated it. He hated them for their look because it meant he might not survive this and they would be the first to know and one of those nurses would be coming in to tell him the agonizing truth, that he could die and they would have no way to help.
Edd didn't want false hope, he didn't want sugar-coated bullshit from anyone, he wanted the cold hard bittersweet truth.
If he got good news it wouldn't be good, it would be better than death, it would mean he needed to remove the tumor before it became active or he could live with the tumor and hope it ever became active. Neither were actual good, just better than the possible end result if they were too late.
His mind kept on wandering, keeping him from noticing that his friends had come to visit from the cul-de-sac. Ed and Eddy stood in the doorway with relieved expressions, they seemed to have thought Edd had gotten seriously injured on the body. Neither had even thought of something happening inside his body, even now.
Eddy greeted "Hey Dee, you scared us. What happened to ya'?" Ed stayed by the door, still feeling a bit uneasy.
Eddy's attention was redirected to the woman he knew was Edd's mother only because he resembled her so uncannily. She asked "What is your purpose here, young man? Do you know my son outside of school?"
Eddy smiled nervously "OH um, hi Mrs. V. I'm Eddy McGee, Jessica's son?" He offered his mother's name in hopes she remembered the lady friend she had made when they first moved in.
Edd's mother nodded "Ah yes, Jack and Jessica McGee….so then you know my Eddward personally, I assume. Are you here to simply wish good tidings or to ask questions? Which you are not entitled to just so you know. It is entirely up to Eddward if he would like to tell you."
Eddy gulped and thought of how to answer that "I um….wanted to uh-" he looked at Edd and pulled himself together "I wanted to ask why he was hospitalized."
Edd's mother nodded and looked at her son who was still in his own world, curled up on the bed. She pet his shoulder gently and he looked over, shooting up into a proper sitting position "Eddy!" he proclaimed with surprise to see his friend in front of him.
Ed had inched his way into the room and was behind Eddy a few feet. Edd took notice and acknowledged him as well with a soft nod and a smile.
Eddy asked again "What happened Double D? Why are ya' in the hospital?"
Edd didn't know how to tell him and Ed was looking far too unhappy and nervous for his own taste. So Edd said what he thought would be right "My migraines put me here, Eddy. They were getting very bad, so now I am in the hospital."
Eddy and Ed both looked worried but they did feel better about the situation. Ed even smiled, and that was enough for Edd to be happy.
Edd talked with them both for a bit before the left to give the others the good news, but one of them would still worry and would come to find he cared far more for the beanie clad boy than he ever thought. Kevin needed to think, he needed to find solace in the fact that Edd was still alive but everything and everyone wouldn't be able to blow the clouds of depression from his mind.
Kevin stood in front of the hospital looking at the building, his heart was pounding and his throat caught, breathing was too difficult. The air was like ice but burned like fire in Kevin's lungs. Would Eddward be okay? Would Edd live to see another day? Would Double D ever think about the possibilities of life with death hanging over his head? Kevin had questions and none of them were answered. Did Edd know?
How could Edd not know that he was dying? How could Kevin believe Edd to be a fool? Kevin wanted to talk to Edd like they used too when they snuck away from their friends and just talked about the things that would be useless in life. They would talk about absolutely nothing, standing across from each other with a fence or a bush in between them. Sometimes the had nothing between them but air and would actually see the other as a whole and not just half a body.
What if they no longer had that? Kevin didn't want to think about not being able to ever talk to Edd again, it would be too painful. To never see his smile again, or his goofy run.
Kevin didn't want to lose Edd before he could even have him. There was so much he wanted to do and yet he couldn't move from outside the hospital. And he hoped and prayed that he could find the courage to go in, that he could take a step and not feel like collapsing.
He was scared. Kevin Barr was scared. No one would ever imagine that this guy, quarterback football player with a motorcycle, would be afraid to go into a hospital to visit a person. No one could possibly fathom that.
He took a deep breath and looked back at his parked motorcycle, he wanted to run to it but he didn't. Here is where Kevin's strength lies, keeping him from running away. If only he could use it to move in the opposite direction of his bike, to move forward past the doors and up the elevator.
But no. Kevin Barr was standing in front of the hospital, scared out of his mind of what could happen to the boy inside. All it took was a man brushing past him and pushing him slightly, Kevin was moving forward and he used that to keep his feet going.
After all the formalities he managed to get up to the hospital rooms just in time to overhear the news.
"Mr. Vincent, we'll need to go into surgery soon if we want to catch this before it's too late."
And Edd's voice, heavy and full of nervous sorrow, rang out "When can we begin?"