Cancer

[b]Cancer.[/b]

The word had never held a special meaning to me before, it was just something that happened to other people, their fight, their problem, never mine.

But when the small wormy man in a white coat claiming to be a doctor said it, everything changed.

[b]Cancer.[/b]

Fear rushed though every inch of my body, so much fear I thought it might just scare that piece of death right out of me. Then the tingling came, all over, every inch of me tingling.

“Are you sure” I asked in a quivering voice, are you sure it’s…

[b]Cancer.[/b]

“Yes” came the swift answer, his voice sounded grim “but there is [i]hope[i], we caught it early enough”

“[i]Hope[/i]”, the word seemed distant and far off, compared to the other one that was looming with a dark cloud right in front of me.

[b]Cancer.[/b]

“What good is [i]hope[/i]?” I thought, “What will [i]hope[/i] do for me?” It was going to get me if I had “[i]hope[/i]” or not.

“Alright” I said to the man in the white coat, do what you can, get it out of me.

[b]Cancer.[/b]

And so they tried, pumping radiation though me, cutting me open, whatever they thought might get it.

But there was always more, hidden away, creeping back at the last second, always more, always there.

[b]Cancer.[/b]

In the end it got me, just as I knew it would.

Lying on the small bed rasping for air I wondered why they never got it all, why it always came back. Was I destined to go this way, or was it the lack of…

[i]Hope.[/i]