Young Writers Society

Just another bright sunny day in Sydney, Australia. My wife, Anna, and I are heading to Bondi Beach this lovely morning. Driving through all the suburbs, looking out onto the luscious blue water, finding the perfect spot to sit on that golden sand next to my beautiful wife, I just couldn’t wait. While Anna is putting on her yellow polka dot bikini, I am getting the cooler and our towles. When we walk out on the soft sand Anna finds us a spot as far away from a crowded beach that you can get.

We sit there she drinking her chilled pink lemonade, and I my ice cold bud light. I decided to be spontaneous so I set my beer down and scooped her up spilling her lemonade all over the both of us. I sprinted down into the water, and we fall in, both laughing…

Right then, my dad scoops me up and lightly tosses me in the water, I come up smiling and laughing. Then he jumps in after me I was surprised because he was fully clothed, those silly green pants he always wore but I never could understand why, that dark maroon shirt, his dark brown hair with gray spots in it. All the water from his splash lands straight in my smile, I go and wipe my face then I see his smile that always brightened the room. He goes and tackles me under that dark blue water, I felt like it was forever to find my way back to the top. Suddenly I feel my wife pulling me back up…When I finally break surface, I am gasping for air.

Anna is frantic “Honey, what happened? Joe, are you ok? You were under there a long time.”

“I am fine Anna, I just… I just had a flashback of my dad.”

Her expression drops, “Oh… What was it about this time?”

“When we were playing in the pool when I was younger, and I couldn’t seem to catch my breath. It was weird, it was like he was there with me,” I say slowly.

Anna speaks softly but sternly, “Next time this happens we are taking you to the doctor.”

Three days into our vacation, I had another episode. It was while Anna and I were fishing on the beach. We weren’t catching much, but I was only there to see her wonderful smile again. Every time she caught one, her smile would just be booming on her face. The bigger the fish, the brighter that beautiful smile would shine. The flashback was rough, Anna was scared to death, but I hardly remember it…

My dad was laughing at the huge fish I had just caught he was so proud of me. I was 13, I had blue overalls on, my hair was long and brown since I refused to cut it, my Dan Post cowboy boots were deep in the mud trying to reel this huge catfish in. He was coming to help me reel it in when I see my wife walking towards me…

“Joe, are you okay? Did it happen again? Let’s take you to the doctor,” Anna says looking flustered, worried.

“I’m fine. Don’t worry, but maybe we should get things checked out.”

On the road to the hospital it is silent, Anna just has a blank expression written on her face. The silence is deafening, almost unbearable.

Before I know it we are pulling up to Sydney Hospital, the outside of the building is white with red stripes, you could see the bright red fire exit sign right above the back door.

Walking into the ER, I go and sit on the softest chair I find, it was green with little diamond designs on it. While Anne fills out the paperwork, I close my eyes and think about my dad, his loving smile, the great and wonderful times that we had together, most of all the terrible death, and the sad memorial service. Just thinking about him made me cry, but I couldn’t let Anna see the tears.

It was about a half an hour till the doctor called me in, I had Anna stay in the waiting room. The walls were white, they looked amazingly clean, it didn’t look like 1 speck of dirt had ever touched the soft white wall. I sat on the long bed thinking about how this might turn out. Good? Bad? I didn’t know, the thought of dying had scared me half to death.

15 minutes later the doctor stumbled in, he was wearing a white coat that looked cleaner than the walls, his sweaty long brown hair swished in front of his dark blue eyes.

“How are you today, Is there anything we need to talk about,” the doctor says in a humble tone.

“Well doc, I have been seeing these flashbacks about my dad, and the weird part is he died less than a year ago. Also while I have these flashbacks my wife says that I start shaking,” I say lightly.

“Well, this is quite unusual so we will get you tested. Sit tight I will be right back.”

6 hours later, after a lot of blood tests, MRI’s, brain scans, and drug tests the doctor comes back.

“Well, Mr.Robinson , you might just want your wife for this,” the doctor says sadly.

“If it’s bad news I want it now, I’ll tell my wife when I know how to deal with it,” I say sternly.

“Well okay,” the doctor straightens up and clears his throat “ Mr.Robinson…. you have brain cancer stage 4, incurable from this point, you have an estimated time of 1 month till you die. Luckily you got here when you did or it could have gotten worse. When would you like to tell your wife?”

Stunned to hear that terrifying news I respond, “Are you sure that there is no cure this late? There must be! Check everywhere Google, Wikipedia, everywhere! There must be a cure I am willing to try anything!” I felt my heart drop through my body, I hadn’t even had time to blink an eye before he answered.

“We have tried everything Mr.Robinson there is no cure,” The doctor says with a sigh.

“Okay, can you tell my wife that I am ok, I don’t want her to worry, we are on our vacation.”

“Yes Mr.Robinson, will do,” The doctor sighs.

Walking out of that pure white room, seeing Anna sitting there her beautiful blue eyes about to breakout in tears from the joy of knowing I'm okay, but what she doesn’t know is that I want to tell her. I want to tell her so much. The only reason I can’t is because I can’t see her in all that pain. I would miss that beautiful smile, those dark blue eyes always filled with joy, her small nose that flares when she gets mad, that blonde hair that bounces when she walks, just like it did the day we wed.

“Honey, this is so wonderful! Lets go out to dinner. What would you like to eat?” Anna says with the joyful sound in her voice that I love.

The next day I decided to make my last month a month for her, and me to remember. Over the next 3 weeks we did everything anyone could ever imagine from shopping for everything she will ever need to Sydneys modern art festival, we went to an Australian Garden show, we dined everywhere possible. By the last week we were supposed to be in Sydney I was tired and wore out, but I still had to tell her, somehow, someway.

I decided to tell her on a rainy day, we had just woke up and I took her a pancake house. She had blueberry pancakes with more whipped cream than you could imagine. I had a small chocolate chip waffle, seemingly because I have not been as hungry lately. I told her at the end of our meal.

“Anna I have to tell you something,” I said trying to sound calm.

“Yes, honey what is it?” Anna said sounding confused and worried.

“I… I have cancer. That is what the doctor told me at the hospital. I only have about 3 days left to live, it’s brain cancer stage 4. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner, It is incurable.”

She stared at me her face was pale.

“What? No. It can’t be incurable. Something has to be done, anything. Why didn’t you tell me, I would have liked to know this!”

“I’m sorry it was the best choice at the time, I only had 1 month left with you I couldn’t ruin it.”

We both walk out of the pancake house, but her walk was more of a storm. The car ride home was long and tiring and felt like we were in there forever. It was dead silent the whole way, I didn’t know if that was because she was mad at me or because I had cancer and she was just so stunned that it could ever happen to us. I decide to ask her to talk about it to me or to a therapist. She agreed to the therapist.

Before she went to the therapist she decided to take me somewhere and walked off to get ready. When she had finally come out of the bathroom she was in the most beautiful red dress I had ever seen, there was a split clean up to the hip. She had her amazing blonde hair in curls, and her small tan feet were shoved into the tiniest black high heeled shoes I had ever seen. She had makeup on her face but not to much on her delicate tan skin. All I could do was sit there and stare; I had never saw anything more beautiful in my life. She looked up and smiled at me, her lips covered in red lipstick. She takes my arm and we walk down the hall.

We head outside and slip into a long, black limousine. We sit there not saying a word just our fingers interlocked together. We pull up to a stop 15 minutes into our drive, the driver stops us in front of the gorgeous Sydney Harbor Bridge. She steps out and I follow closely, not wanting to lose her in the crowd.

We stand side by side at the bridge overlooking Sydney Harbor. There’s a slight breeze, and as it blows through her hair I realize that I am the luckiest man in the entire world to have her there with me, even if it won’t be for much longer. She turns to face me, her stunning blue eyes staring into mine, “What is it?” She said in a low voice. I feel myself smiling, “You don’t know how beautiful you are do you?” I see her cheeks turn a rosy pink, as we both lean in for a kiss. Just as her lips are about to touch mine, I feel my knees go weak and I see myself falling. The last thing I remember is her scream, and me fall into the darkness.

I woke up and watched her exit the door in her pajamas, I knew this was going to be hard for her to deal with. The nurse came in after a few hours and said that Anna had went to her therapist appointment and should be back in a hour. I dozed back off.

I hear a knocking on my door but i'm too tired to get up and answer so I just say come in. The nurse whose tag says Brittany walks in and tells me my wife has been hit by a bus and is in critical condition, and that she is paralyzed from the waist down. I break out into tears. In my head im yelling, screaming to the top of my lungs yelling why, why her. Nothing is coming out. After calming myself I ask to see her. Making sure to hold myself together.

“Yes, she is asleep now,” The doctor Brittany silently said.

I walk in she is bandaged up through he whole body, I didn’t know the last time I would see her dressed up, laughing, would be just a few days before all this. I look at her just stunned to see her like this. I slowly, trying not to hurt her, climb on the bed. I close my eyes and see my dad lying before me in his casket, I see all the people around him crying, even me when I was 20. He had died from old age, who knew a man with so much strength would died without a fight…

I lay there dreaming about everything past, present, and what I hope the future will be. Who knew lying there with her would be the last time I saw her.