Hello, Love... Good-Bye, Love...

Hello, Love... Good-Bye, Love...

The bell rang. The third graders ran into the classroom with smiling faces and joyful conversations, which the teacher Ms. Edna tried so hard every afternoon to quiet down. When the students settled in their seats, Ms. Edna greeted them and proceeded with the day's topic:"Good morning class!", she said, "Today, we are going to talk about illnesses and treatment methods. This is something we all need to be aware of in our daily lives, and I hope that what you'll learn today will be very useful throughout your lives. Let us start with simple infections such as cold and flu. Cold and flu are very common among individuals, but can have serious long-term effects if not treated properly. Cold is simply an illness that gives you runny nose, cough, sore throat, and headaches. Flu is very similar to cold, except that it is more serious and usually includes fever. When you have cold, you can treat it with home remedies such as cough syrups and nose drops. But when you have fever, you would be better off seeing a doctor who can prescribe you antibiotics and other sorts of more effective medications. Now, would anybody like to share an experience that they had with the flu?"

. . .

Paul and Lauren arrived home as early as two o'clock in the afternoon. Their jobs didn't require them to stay late in the evening, as they were both self-employed at the largest music store in the city called Crescendo Muzik, a small family business started by Paul's father almost four decades ago, when Paul was just a high school student going into his sophomore year. Having employed Paul and Lauren for many years, Paul's father, Henry, transferred the ownership of the store to his son after finally deciding to retire two years ago at the age of 60. Since Paul took over, the business has been expanding continuously. The 300 square-foot store now employed a total of six people, including Paul and Lauren, and four others who were in charge of various tasks such as logistics, store maintenance, and music lessons. There were two teachers; one was teaching the strings such as violin, viola, violoncello, bass, as well as guitar, while the other was teaching keyboard instruments and drums. Their son Josh had recently started taking piano lessons from his parents' empoyee, Sarah, who was a very patient teacher, and Josh's second favourite after Ms. Edna. Although it had only been four months since nine-year old Josh started learning piano, he excelled at it very quickly and was able to perform the worldly renowned classical pieces from such names as Beethoven and Tchaikovsky. Sarah was admiring Josh's progress and was also content for receiving verbal appraisals from Paul and Lauren. Moreover, as an ethical businessman, Paul paid for Josh's music lessons out of pocket, in addition to the salary that was paid to Sarah from the store's chequing account. Having been successful teaching Josh the basics of piano, Sarah was hopeful that her musical talents would one day lead her to become a real pianist and perform shows all around the world.

Upon arriving home from the music store, Lauren and Paul both went to the kitchen to decide what to cook for Merc, their orphan nephew of Turkish-origin, who was adopted by Lauren’s sister and her husband when he was a newborn, and who was due to arrive at the city and their home the next day to begin one of the city's only three universities. Merc would be living with Paul, Lauren, and Josh over the next few years and thus avoid the on-campus dormitory costs if not the annual tuitions that would cost him a fortune.

Lauren opened to freezer, stared at it for a few second, took out a box of chicken, turned to her husband, and said: "Well, I guess we can cook some chicken. I can also make some pasta and a salad. That should be enough."

Paul nodded, and said, "Sure, whatever you say is good. When we come home tomorrow afternoon, you can cook the pasta and I will cook the chicken."

. . .

To answer Ms. Edna's question, Josh raised his hand excitedly and Ms. Edna nodded, allowing him to share his experience with the flu. "It started with sore throat and a runny nose", Josh said. "Then I got a fever. It lasted for a week and it was probably one of the worst weeks of my life. I was anxious to go see a doctor and get better quickly."

Ms. Edna nodded, and said, "Thank you Josh for sharing your experience. Now I'd like to bring something to your attention, class. Josh just said he was feeling anxious to go see a doctor. Well, in this particular situation, the word 'anxious' refers to hopeful. But, 'anxious', derived from the word 'anxiety', can also be used to address a person who is struggling with a mental disease. Now, we are going to cover mental illnesses and the ways to treat them."

Upon hearing the term "mental disease", some students giggled among themselves, then were quieted down by the serious look on Ms. Edna's face, who was about to tell them that mental illnesses were not something to laugh at.

“Anxiety and depression are two major mental illnesses seen in individuals, particularly in teenagers and young adults. A lot of people believe that they are not illnesses but simply short-lasting sad moods. But the truth is, mental illnesses are another form of clinical diseases that result from the lack of a hormone in the patients’ minds, called serotonin. I will not get into details as to why this hormone doesn’t develop in the bodies of some individuals, as I myself am not an expert. But I want you to be fully aware that such mental illnesses as anxiety and depression need to be treated with medication and in extreme cases, electric shock and institutionalization. You cannot simply ask depressed people to ‘be easy on themselves’. That would just make things worse and lead them to be more worried than they already are. Were there any questions at this point? I know that this is a heavy subject, but it’s important that you be aware of mental health issues seen in our society.”

The bell rang, indicating the end of the day. Students all stood up at once, said good bye to Ms. Edna, and left the classroom. Josh, who resided only five minutes away from the school, put on his helmet, got on his bicycle and starting pedaling home on the sidewalk.

When Josh got home, he was greeted by his parents. As soon as he went inside, he grabbed a glass of warm water and went to his room to do his homework. One hour later, he was summoned to the dining room by his mother. “We have tuna sandwich for dinner tonight”, Lauren said. She knew Josh disliked all kinds of fish, but still occasionally made some to raise a healthy child.

At the dinner table, Paul told Josh that his cousin Merc was due to join them the next day. Josh loved Merc so much. Back when Josh was a toddler, Merc used to play with him all the time. Hide-and-seek, duck-duck-goose, as well as, small toy cars that Lauren and Paul bought for Josh over the years on his birthdays. Merc enjoyed playing with children, and hoped that he would one day have two or three kids of his own. He was still young, but at the age of twenty, Merc was already worrying about his future; a loveless life and ending up lonely.

Upon hearing the news, Josh got really excited. He started singing with happiness. Paul really enjoyed to listen to his son sing. Josh had a wonderful voice, and took music seriously. His piano teacher Sarah had told him that he would soon be ready to start working on new techniques such as improvisation and singing along with the piano.

After dinner, Josh headed back to his room, practiced piano for a little while, and went to bed.

The next day, Josh went to school, and Lauren and Paul went to work. As they discussed the day before, Lauren and Paul left the store early than the usual. Coincidentally, Josh’s school had an early dismissal that day due to a staff meeting. When Josh arrived home, he went to his room right away to practice piano. For two nights, he had been rehearsing on a John Lennon song to perform to his cousin, Merc. Merc was a big fan of Lennon and admired his work. Both Paul and Sarah had told Josh that he was doing a good job. At around 4 p.m., Josh came out of his room, all prepared for the night’s big recital. Paul and Lauren were expecting Merc at 5 p.m., and Paul was going to pick him up from the city’s bus terminal.

When Paul was at the door to leave for the bus terminal, Josh wanted to go with him, but Lauren asked him to help her to set up the dinner table, which Josh consented to after a few minutes of negotiation.

In a few minutes, the dinner table was all set. Just when Lauren grabbed the soda bottles from the kitchen and headed for the dining room, the doorbell rang. Josh ran to the door cheerfully to greet his cousin.

Josh opened the door and saw his cousin’s bright, smiling face before him. “Merc!”, he said, and have him a hug. Due to his short height, he was only able to embrace him around the waist. Merc caressed Josh’s hair. “Hi Josh”, he said. “I missed you so much.” He then kneeled, and hugged Josh back. Lauren was in tears watching the two cousins reunite. She greeted Merc quietly, and showed them all to the dining room.

On the dinner table, Lauren asked Merc: “So, how have you been? We haven’t seen you for a long time.”

“Things have been good. Well, mostly”, Merc said. Then he paused for a few seconds. “High school was actually very stressful for me. Due to the pressure of studying and getting good grades, as well as social anxiety due to a lonely, loveless life, I have kind of been… depressed for a while. I mean, clinically depressed. Diagnosed and everything. I have been on medication for two years, which isn’t really a good experience, you know.”

“It’s a mental illness!”, Josh exclaimed. “It’s something medical. Depression and anxiety are not something the patients can control on their own. They need help in forms of medicines and psychotherapy, and in extreme cases, electric shock therapy.”

Lauren and Paul gave each other questioning looks. Merc, although surprised by Josh’s wisdom, nodded and grinned at Josh.

“Josh!”, Lauren said. “How about you go to your room and grab a few of your toy cars to show Merc. You used to play with them together, remember? I am sure Merc missed playing with you.”

Josh smiled broadly, and went upstairs to his room.

“What was that all about? “, Paul asked. “He is only nine. How does he know about mental illnesses?”

“Probably school”, Merc answered. “These days, primary school curriculums have more useful things to teach than mathematics or geography.”

“Well, that’s just not acceptable. I mean, of course mental illness awareness is definitely more useful than learning how to derive trig functions, or in third grade, how to multiply integers, but Josh is only 9. He is just too young to be taught this stuff.”

“I’d like to let you know of one more thing while Josh isn’t here”, Merc said. My parents and I have been hiding this from everyone but I…Have you been noticed something strange about me?”

“Umm, I think I know what you are talking about, but I didn’t want to bring it up, because I wasn’t sure”, Lauren said.

“What’s going on?”, Paul asked. He was clearly not following.

“My hair… I am wearing a wig because I… I have been diagnosed with testicular cancer. Stage two. It’s been a few months now.”

“You’re not serious, are you?” Lauren asked.

Paul didn’t say anything. He was shocked.

“Why did you hide this from us?”, Lauren asked.

“I didn’t want anyone to worry about me, or feel sorry for me. I am doing fine though. I am even going to attend school despite this trouble.”

In a few minutes, Josh returned from his room holding four small toy cars that were decorated with colourful stickers.

“Now, Josh.”, Lauren said. “Keep in mind that tomorrow is the first day of school for Merc. Don’t keep him too busy. He needs to sleep well tonight.”

“Okay, mom. We’ll only play for a few minutes, I promise.”

Josh and Merc ended their toy car game at 9 p.m., when everyone in the house went to sleep. It was a tiring day for all, and they needed to rest before work school day the next morning.

. . .

Merc arrived at campus one hour earlier than the start time of his first class. The first class was not a lecture, but a tutorial session of social science, which, on the school website, was described as the session where students and the instructor were to discuss current events related to the course, review the previous lecture’s topics in brief details, and ask each other any questions they may have. Since this was the very first class of the year, however, there was no lecture to review. Just for that first day, students were to be told about the course objectives, assignments, and the grading scheme.

In the entrance of the tutorial room, there were a few people standing, staring at the floor and avoiding eye contact with their new classmates.

Few minutes after Merc arrived at the tutorial room, the instructor showed up, asked students to come inside, and started writing on the chalkboard. The room looked astounding with its advanced technological equipment, new furniture that included a round table and chairs, and the fresh paint odour. Merc, coming from a public high school and being used to old, obsolete equipment, was excited to be part of this school that clearly cared about student success and invested in technology.

While many students were busy trying to see what the instructor was writing, Merc was distracted by the different faces in the room. He stared at each student for a few seconds, then at his laps. Few seconds later, some footsteps from outside the room caught his attention. Merc looked towards the door, and his eyes suddenly got wide opened.

Standing at the door, about to enter the room, was a gorgeous Asian girl with hazel eyes and a long, dark brown hair. Merc, realizing that he had been gazing at The Beauty for a few seconds without blinking, coughed and looked at the chalkboard.

Footsteps…

The instructor kept writing on the chalkboard.

Footsteps…

The instructor turned around, walked towards the door, and looked at the hallway to see if anyone else was coming.

The girl was suddenly standing beside Merc’s chair.

“May I sit here?”, she asked Merc with a visible foreign accent, pointing to the chair that was next to the one where Merc was seated.

“S… Sure!”, Merc replied.

“Thanks.”, The Beauty said, and took her seat.

Merc tried really hard to avoid eye contact with The Beauty. He looked at the chalkboard, at the ceiling, at other people in the room, at the instructor’s desk. He repeated this for a few times, until the instructor turned around and said: “Okay guys, let’s get acquainted. I am Stephan Dobbs. I’d like you to call me Stephan, or even Steph would be fine.”

While students took turns introducing themselves, Merc stared at his laps. When it was The Beauty’s turn, The Beauty said: “I am Jane. I am in the fourth year but taking this first-year course to fulfill my missing credit. I will be graduating soon.”

“You what?!”, Merc said in a surprised tone. He was shocked to learn that this young-looking Beauty was three years older than him. Suddenly, he realized that everyone in the room was staring at him questioningly. Pretending that nothing had happened, Merc said, “My name is Merc. I am in the first year.” He then looked at The Beauty in the eye, saluted her with his head, and turned to Stephan.

“Now then”, Stephan said. “Since this is the first day of school, and since we didn’t have any lecture before this tutorial, there isn’t really a lot to do but to talk about the course structure, units to be covered, and assignments to be submitted. I will actually be assigning your first project today, but it will not be due for a few weeks from now. I am only giving it now so that you start reading the textbook, familiarize yourselves with the course and ask me questions in advance.”

The students, except for The Beauty, looked shocked. The Beauty stared at each of them weirdly, not sure why they were too surprised. As she just stated, she was in her final year here and had probably encountered many instructors who assigned projects on the first day.

After Stephan handed out the assignment sheets, he talked about the course topics for half an hour, and dismissed the students early.

The students, except The Beauty and Merc, left the classroom one by one, without talking to each other. Stephan also left the room, saying good-bye to the two and leaving them behind. Merc looked at The Beauty, and saw that she was busy packing her belongings in her fancy Mitchell Korn handbag. Merc’s face crumpled with disgust after noticing her obsession with showiness. But still, he suddenly felt determined to talk to The Beauty.

“Hey”, Merc called, and got The Beauty’s attention. “It was nice meeting you today. I am wondering, would you like to work on this assignment together? It’s supposed to be an individual project but we can most definitely benefit from sharing ideas with each other.”

Throughout his early teen and high school years, Merc was never able to communicate with the opposite sex. His female friends, just-friends, hadalways told him that he was a nice guy. But when it came to spending time with him, they were all hesitant. Not that Merc had asked a lot of girls out back then; only a few. But the fact that the ones whom he asked, as well as his senior year promposal candidate, all rejected him showed that he just wasn’t good enough. Today however, to Merc’s surprise, The Beauty accepted his proposal to become study buddies. Merc was too excited, for he, for some reason, was keeping his hopes high about finding The One in university. After they set up a place and time to work on the project, they parted.

. . .

At 5 p.m. in the afternoon, Lauren and Paul arrived home with Josh. As soon as they entered, Josh ran to the bathroom to wash his hands. After a loud sigh, Lauren asked Paul: “Should we tell him about Merc’s disease?”

Paul hesitated for a moment, and then replied. “Sure”, he said. “I just don’t think we should tell him everything about cancer. Not the fatality or the chemo part, at least. That’ll make him worried sick. He is just a kid, and he loves Merc so much.”

Just when they finished talking, Merc entered the house. He was smiling. “Hi family!”, he said. “Good news. I met someone new. Made a new friend on the first day. Her name is The Beau… Jane. Her name is Jane.”

“Bee Jane?”, Paul asked. “That sounds kind of… rude, you know, assuming that bee is still an abbreviation for bit…”

“PAUL!”, Lauren stopped him, since Josh came out of the bathroom and started sprinting towards them.

“It’s just Jane”, Merc said. “And she seems like a nice person. Definitely not a bee”.

After a silence for a few seconds, Lauren asked everyone to get into home apparel and come to dining room for supper.

At dinner table, Josh asked Merc: “Merc, do you play the piano?”

Merc said: “I took lessons for a while when I was younger, but that was a long time ago. I have probably forgotten everything.”

Josh jumped off his seat, and excitedly said: “I can teach you!”

There was a soft laughter on the table, one that didn’t make fun of Josh’s statement, but appreciated its adorableness.

“Thank you”, Merc said quietly.

“You know you can take lessons for free in our store”, Paul offered.

“Sure, why not? I will think about it”, Merc said, and thanked him.

Right after supper, everyone called it a night to end another extremely tiring day.

. . .

The next day, Merc arrived at the public library at noon. The Beauty and Merc had agreed to meet each other at one o’clock, but Merc was extra cautious and made sure that he wasn’t late; he wanted to make a good impression on his spouse-to-become.

At one p.m., The Beauty showed up. They saluted each other, found an empty desk, and sat down facing one another. Having arrived at the library an hour early, Merc’s hands were already packed with many books. “I came in early and found these books that might be useful”, Merc told The Beauty. The Beauty browsed through the cover pages, and said “Okay, we’ll take a look.”

At two p.m., the two were already tired of studying. The Beauty looked up from her work, towards Merc, and asked: “What was your name by the way? Mind reminding me?”

Upon hearing this question, Merc felt sorrowful. He thought she already knew his name. “It’s Merc”, he said. “But I know your name. You’re Beau… I mean you must be… You’re Jane, right?”

Jane nodded and grinned. They then went back to studying, and stayed in the library until it closed at seven p.m.

While they were studying together, Merc asked: “Just out of curiosity, do you play any musical instruments?”

Jane said: “Well, I used to play piano. But I haven’t touched one for years.”

“You should teach me!”, Merc said. “I’d love to learn piano. I used to play it, too, but then I forgot. You probably remember it more than I do. My aunt and uncle own a music store that offers music lessons, but I’d love to learn it from you”, Merc said, blushing along the way.

Jane smiled, and went back to studying.

After they left the library, Merc and The Beauty had a small, friendly talk and exchanged phone numbers. Merc learned that The Beauty was from Seoul, and he thought it was a good opportunity to try to flirt with her now. “You know”, he said. “I am from Istanbul, Turkey. Everyone says that Koreans and Turks are allies, or friends I should say, because of Turkish army’s aid to South Korea during Korean War.”

Merc knew that it was a terrible flirting attempt. But to his surprise, The Beauty smiled at him, touched his shoulder, and said: “Yes, I know. Koreans are indeed truly thankful to Turkey and many other countries for their support.”

Merc was surprised by The Beauty’s physical contact to him. Without even thinking, he blurted out the words with a shaky voice: “Would you like to go out for coffee sometime? Like a date.” Merc was surprised when he realized what he’d just said. But, he was still looking in The Beauty’s eyes, smiling.

“As much as a nice guy you seem like, I think we should be friends. But I wouldn’t look for anything more with you.”

“Right”, Merc said. “My loss, I am sorry for bothering you. It was a silly question anyway. I should probably get going. See you at school”. He started walking away. After a few steps, he turned back. “Actually”, he said. “Would you tell me why you said no? I am only curious. See, I have never been able to talk to women in my life. And every time I tried, I got rejected. Is there something wrong with me?”, he asked.

“Well”, Jane said. “Every woman has her unique views, but in my case, I am older than you and I am not like those slutty girls who date younger men.

“Slutty, huh?”, Merc asked, surprised.

“I also noticed that you’re wearing a wig. To be honest, it’s kind of weird that you had all your hair cut and decided to wear a wig”, Jane said.

Merc was almost in tears, but he was holding up. “Yeah well, I had to have all my hair cut. It was due to… It was for a school play. I was playing this old man last year back in high school drama class, which was pretty much two months ago. I don’t even know why I am telling you all this. You’ve already made up your mind about me and my wig. I should probably get going. Again, see you at school.”

He started walking away from the library building, leaving Jane standing behind watching him.

. . .

The next day, Merc arrived at campus early, bought himself a cup of black coffee, and made his way to the tutorial room. He was feeling more nervous than usual, because he wasn’t sure how to look at Jane’s face after what had happened the other day.

At the end of class, Jane packed her things quickly and left the room right away. Merc ran after and caught up with her. “Listen”, he said. “I sincerely apologize for what happened yesterday. I don’t know what I was thinking. I should’ve known that I wasn’t good enough for you. I guess I just got caught up in the spur of the moment, my apologies. Are we cool again?”

“Whatever”, Jane said, with a smirk on her face. “Hope to see you later— not. Nice hair by the way.”

Having been unsuccessful in his attempts to gain Jane’s friendship, Merc went home in tears that day. When he arrived, Lauren welcomed him at the door, and told him that she got a phone call from the hospital few hours ago, and that a nurse receptionist gave him an appointment to discuss the results of the MRI scan Merc recently had back home, before moving to his aunt and uncle’s place. The appointment was set up by the hospital for the next evening, outside of school hours.

At the dinner table, Merc was quietly staring at his plate, not eating. Lauren, worried about her nephew, asked: “What’s wrong, Merc? You haven’t eaten anything, and you look sad.”

“Nothing. I’m okay”, Merc said. He excused himself from the table and went to his room.

The next morning, Merc didn’t come down for breakfast. Paul and Lauren had already been worried about him since the night before. Thus, Paul decided to check up on him to see if he was alright. He went upstairs, knocked on the door, and entered. Merc was sitting on the bed, legs pulled, keeping his head between his knees, and sobbing. “Talk to me”, Paul said. “I am family. Your family. I can help.”

Merc thought about it for a second, and decided to tell Paul everything that has happened between him and Jane. When he was finished, Paul’s eyes showed shock and anger. He didn’t know what to say to his nephew. In order to not make him even sadder, he told Merc to let it go and not to think about it. Merc shrugged, and said: “I am not feeling well today. I won’t go to school. I want to rest here all day alone before my appointment this evening. If you don’t mind, could I have some personal time?”

Paul nodded, and left the room. In a few minutes, Lauren, Paul, and Josh left the house for another work and school day. When he heard the door slam, Merc went downstairs to the kitchen, poured himself a glass of warm water, and went up to his room again.

Around 3 p.m., Paul arrived home. “Merc!”, he called from the front door. “I am home.”

Merc came downstairs to greet his uncle. “Welcome”, he said, with a cold voice.

“I left work a little early again. Let’s go out and have a cup of coffee together before your appointment, shall we? It will make you feel better, I promise. Lauren and Josh will meet us at the hospital.”

Merc nodded, went upstairs to his room again, got dressed, and came back to the door within five minutes. The two went to the local coffee shop, and had coffee with chocolate-coated doughnuts. They then left for the hospital.

When they arrived at the hospital, they noticed that Lauren and Josh hadn’t arrived yet. Just before it was time to see the doctor, they came in running. Paul winked at Lauren, and whispered: “You stay here with Josh. Stage two. If there’s any bad news, I don’t want Josh to hear about it.”

Lauren nodded.

. . .

When they entered the doctor’s office, Merc looked around and took note of the surroundings. The rectangular office was as big as a bachelor’s apartment, with walls painted in light blue and decorated with framed doctorate certificates. There was a plastic plant in one corner of the room, and a wide bookcase that was full of thick, black books whose spines were labelled with gibberish words on one side. On the desk, there was a silver pen holder which also served as a name plate that read “Dr. Julianne Parr”.

“Hello, I am Dr. Parr”, the doctor said, when she stood up from her seat to greet her patient and his company. “Hi”, Merc and Paul said simultaneously, and took a seat before Dr. Parr’s desk.

“Well, let’s get to it right away”, Dr. Parr said. “Unfortunately, I have bad news. According to your recent MRI, your cancer has spread from your testicles to your colon and it’s now at stage three. At this point, I regret to tell you that we’ve run out of treatment options. The fact that it has spread means that chemo didn’t work the way we expected. I am sorry.”

Merc kept quiet until Dr. Parr finished talking. He then took a deep breath, and asked: “How long..?”, stopping in the midway of his sentence, believing that what he wanted to asked was clear enough.

“Stop it, Merc!”, Paul interrupted. He then turned to Dr. Parr and said: “There must be a way. You can’t possibly have tried everything. Money isn’t an issue, I’m willing to pay anything. You have to treat my nephew!”, he said, with an extraordinarily loud voice that he produced unintentionally, not out of anger, but out of despair.

“I am sorry”, Dr. Parr said. “Going back to Merc’s question, I’d say… Four to six months or maybe even less. Now, I also have to warn you. You’ll be getting worse each day and you will feel pain. I recommend that you use painkillers. They can help you manage for a while. But after it gets overwhelming, you may come here if you wish to. We can give you morphine and put you to sleep. A lot of patients confuse putting someone to sleep with euthanasia. This is certainly not euthanasia. Morphine doesn’t end someone’s life but only puts them to sleep until the time comes. That way, the patient can experience a painless death.”

Merc stared at Dr. Parr for a while. He then looked toward the bookcase, noticed a book named “Afatinib Dimaleate: Use and Treatment Methods”, and asked: “What does af…afatee-neep-deem-ale-late-tee mean?”

Dr. Parr looked toward her bookcase, then turned to Merc, and said: “It’s a drug type used to treat lung cancer that has spread onto other organs. Why?”

“Just curious”, Merc said. He then stood up, motioned Paul to the door, thanked the doctor, and left the room. When he came out to hallway and saw Josh, he smiled at him, and gave him a hug. “Let’s go home”, he said. “Let’s play with your toy cars.” The two led the way out of the hospital, followed by Lauren and Paul, who were whispering. Walking a few feet away from them, Merc heard Lauren sob. He turned around, looked at them both for a second, and then kept walking with his cousin Josh beside him.

When they arrived home, it was past ten o’clock. Lauren accompanied Josh to his room, made sure that he put on his pajamas and fell asleep. She then went back to the living room, where Paul and Merc were silently seated, staring at the muted TV, avoiding eye contact.

“I will quit college”, Merc said, without moving his eyes away from the television. “I want to live my final few months peacefully, with no stress or interaction with others. I will go to school tomorrow for one last time, explain the situation to my professors and say goodbye to them.” Lauren and Paul watched Merc silently. When he was done talking, they remained quiet.

The next morning, Merc took a very long shower before heading to school. When he exited the bathroom with a bathrobe, with no wig, he ran into Josh, who was about to go downstairs for breakfast. “Merc!”, Josh said. “What happened to your hair?” Merc smiled, and answered his cousin: “I’ve cut it fully. It was a surprise… For you. Just a little fun.”

Josh got really excited, and started sprinting downstairs, calling his parents. “Mom! Dad! Merc got a haircut. He’s got no hair now.”

Paul and Lauren gave each other a concerned look. “We need to talk to you, Josh. Please sit down”, Lauren said after a few seconds. Just at that instant, Merc came down running in his bathrobes. “There’s nothing to talk about”, he said. “It was a surprise for Josh. I just wanted to have some fun.”

Lauren winked at Merc, thanking him for his innocent white lie.

In a few hours, Merc went to school to talk to his professors. He decided to talk to Stephan Dobbs last, because he had more things to tell him other than his cancer.

When he arrived at Stephan’s office, Merc asked him if he could sit down. He then started explaining his situation to his professor, watching him form a sad expression as he spoke. After he was finished talking about his cancer, he said: “I’d like you to explain my case to our class, but please find a way to do so without letting Jane learn about it. I really don’t want her to know.”

Stephan Dobbs raised one eyebrow to show surprise, but then nodded in agreement, not questioning the reason behind this strange request.

After they were done talking, Merc stood up, shook his professor’s hand, and headed for the door.

When Merc got home from school, he suddenly felt nauseous and ran to the bathroom. He assumed he got sick not only because of the side effects of chemo that had recently ended, but also because he was having another anxiety attack for leaving the world as a lonely young man who failed to have anyone in his worthless life who loved him romantically.

Stephan Dobbs had a tutorial class that day, to which Jane attended. Unable to hide it from Jane, he told the entire class about Merc’s situation. There were tears, expressions of surprise, and a few uncaring looks among students. Stephan noticed that Jane was in tears. After class, he approached her, told her about Merc’s request, and asked her what the request was for. “That’s what the wig was for!”, Jane whispered to herself, and started telling Stephan about what had happened between them. Stephan felt sorry for Jane, and said: “Well, I think I can help you. What I am about to do is against the school policy, but it definitely won’t get me fired. I can check the school records and find Merc’s phone number and home address for you. You should pay him a visit before he…” He couldn’t complete his sentence.

“I already have his phone number”, Jane said. “I can call him and get his address. I just need some time, maybe even a couple of weeks, to really think about whether or not I should go. After all, I treated him so terribly”

. . .

Two weeks after Merc visited his professors to say farewell, he started feeling much worse. He was conscious, but didn’t have the energy to get out of his bed in the morning. It was a Sunday, and Lauren, having seen Merc’s situation, brought breakfast to his bed, which Merc attempted to consume but vomited right away.

Lauren went up to Paul and said they had to explain Merc’s situation to Josh, and prepare him for anything bad that might be occurring any minute. Paul nodded, summoned Josh from his room, and told him everything very slowly, choosing his words wisely for a nine-year-old to understand.

Josh cried.

When Paul finished talking to Josh, Merc’s phone rang in the living room. Paul read the caller ID: “Jane”.

“Oh, this should be fun”, he said, in a sarcastic tone, and he answered it. “Hello?”

“Hello, I am Jane. I was… am a friend of Merc’s. I’ve recently learned about his illness and I’d like to visit him. Is he at home? What’s your home address?”

Paul hesitated for a moment, then gave her the address. Unsure of what Merc’s reaction would be when he saw Jane, he was excited for finally getting to meet this evil woman who turned his nephew’s life into hell in the past few months.

In less than an hour, the doorbell rang. Lauren answered it, with Paul standing beside her. “Hi, you must be Jane”, Lauren said. “Please come in.”

“Hi, you must be Merc’s parents”, Jane said, putting her hand forward to shake theirs.

“No. We’re his uncle and aunt. Merc’s parents died right after he was born. He is an orphan adopted by my wife’s sister and her husband”, Paul said angrily.

Jane nodded shyly. Paul continued speaking angrily, trying hard to calm down: “Tell me, how did you have the guts to come in here after what you’ve said to Merc.” He then turned to Lauren and Josh. “You guys don’t know, but Jane made fun of Merc for wearing a wig. Merc was attracted to her, but she rejected him because he wore a wig. Can you imagine that?”

“I am sorry!”, Jane yelled, interrupting Paul. Trying to ignore the shocked looks on Lauren’s face, and confused looks on Josh’s, she asked if she could go upstairs and see Merc.

“Make yourself at home”, Paul said. “He’s in the second room to the right.”

Jane politely stood up, made her way upstairs, and knocked on the door. “Come in.”, said a faint voice. She entered. Merc’s wig was off. As soon as she saw her friend, she burst into tears, ran towards him, and embraced him tightly. “I am sorry”, she sobbed. “Please forgive me. I’ve been terrible to you. I am sorry. I am sorry. I hope we can be friends again.”

Merc tried to gather the energy to speak. He took a deep breath, and said: “As much as I would love to be your friend, I don’t have much time left.”

“I believe in miracles”, Jane said. “I believe that you will get better. You’ll beat this shitty disease. I have faith in you. Just don’t lose hope. Believe that you can beat cancer. And I promise I will be your very good friend and I will always be there for you.”

She then leaned in, and kissed Merc on the cheek. “You are a good person”, she said. “But I just didn’t want to be in love with a younger man.”

Merc grinned. “That’d have made you a slut, huh?”, he said jokingly.

“That’s what I used to think”, Jane said. ‘But people change, you know. I do actually know many couples where the woman is older than the man. Age is just a number, and when I think about it, three years is not much of a difference. After thinking about it for a few days, I realized that I loved you.”

“So, you sure you still don’t want to teach me piano?”, Merc asked, smiling.

Jane smiled back. She closed her eyes, leaned in, and kissed Merc again, this time on the lips.

“Here is the first kiss of my life at the age of 20”, Merc said. “And probably the last one.” He then stopped for a few seconds, and said: “I will always love you. That’s why I want you to promise me one thing.”

“Anything”, Jane said.

“After I am gone, you are going to move on and not think about me. I want you to fall in love and be happy.”

At that moment, Jane began sobbing again. “You are going to recover”, she said.

She then got in the bed, lay beside Merc, and hugged him. They chatted about random things for hours; about the weather, the current TV shows, school, books, politics, and sports, until they both fell asleep.