Between Friends by Kiernan Kristy

Author:Kiernan, Kristy [Kiernan, Kristy]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: PENGUIN group
Published: 2010-03-10T22:00:00+00:00

CORA

Letty had sounded about seven years old, and my chest actually hurt when I heard her. Ali took off for I-75 like a rocket, and I was reminded of the road trips we’d taken in high school, giggling and singing at the tops of our lungs up the road, waves of heat shimmering before us.

I told Ali everything Letty had said, repeating it several times before she calmed down enough that I wasn’t afraid for our lives as she sped through traffic.

“Okay,” she said, “I’ll drive by and drop you off so she doesn’t see me and run.”

“Okay,” I said, unable to manage a clever retort about rescue missions and undercover ops the way I once might have. Not only was I afraid of the fact that Ali only had half of the information she needed right now, but I was also afraid for Letty. I had thought Ali had been overreacting about Letty, but now I realized that she had been exactly right to panic.

Once we got past Lehigh Acres, Ali reached over and gripped my arm.

“All right,” she said. “Now, let’s talk about this. Start over, okay? I need to know everything.”

I sighed and leaned my head against the window, the glass chilly from the air-conditioning, belying the heat just an eighth of an inch away.

“I have kidney disease,” I said, my voice dull. I could say it no other way. “Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease. PKD. It is irreversible, it has progressed quickly, and tomorrow morning I have to go in and have a tube installed in my arm that they will stick needles in to remove all my blood, clean it, and put it back in, three times a week.”

“But, Cora, are you—are they sure? I mean, have you gotten a second, third, sixth opinion? When did this happen? Why didn’t you tell me? Who else knows?”

I lifted my head off the glass and smiled at her. “They are sure. I’ve had plenty of opinions, and they all say the same thing. It’s a little tough to argue when even I can see the images.”

“Why? What’s on the images?” she asked, fear in her voice. I didn’t blame her. It scared me when I read about it, to picture it, but then seeing it on the ultrasound images, well, it was worse than I had prepared myself for. For about a month I had obsessively researched, and there are images and heartbreaking stories seared into my mind that I will never forget.

I’d stopped the research after that month and started concentrating on living my life until the inevitability of the hemodialysis stopped me.

“It’s, well, it’s really pretty awful, Ali.”

“Are you in pain?” she asked, taking her eyes off the road every few seconds.

“Drive, please,” I said, pointing toward the road in front of us. “Sometimes it’s uncomfortable, yes. It’s hard to be still for long. They, the kidneys, grow larger . . . because of the cysts.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah. You getting a mental image?”

“I think so.”

“Well, try to block it now.

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