Big Brother

                                                         

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"I'm gonna be a big brother!", Jacob grinned, his dimples even more pronounced than usual.

"You sure are! Are you excited?", his mom Stephanie asked, rubbing her hand playfully over the top of the baseball cap that fit all too loosely anymore.

"Mom?" Jake said, the quiver in his voice betraying the brave face he tried to put forth. Stephanie reached for her son's hand, a hand that was marked and bruised by the numerous IVs that had brutalized his little six year old vessels.

"Yes baby?", she asked, gently tilting his chin and bringing his deeply circled blue eyes, so much like his daddy's, to meet hers.

"You'll...you'll tell her about me, won't you? You'll show her the scrapbooks and the pictures I drew for her, right?" Stephanie pulled her son against her so tightly that she could feel his collarbone digging sharply into her chest, his thin shoulder blades nearly cutting off circulation in her forearms as she held on for dear life - for her son's dear, precious life.

As they held each other, sobbing as though their hearts would break, her baby daughter moved in the womb, wedging herself between her mother and brother, sharing in their grief.

Four months later, Stephanie stands by her son's graveside, the cancer he fought so bravely finally winning the war. She holds her newborn baby girl, Allyssa, tightly in her arms as her husband Richard pulls them closer to him as they walk back to the car.

Stephanie snuggles her nose against Allyssa's sweet face and whispers "Let me tell you about your big brother."