How to Climb the Eiffel Tower by Elizabeth Hein

Author:Elizabeth Hein
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: women's fiction, literary fiction, cancer, cervical cancer, friendship, healing, domestic abuse, triathlon, commodities research, romance, starting over, faith, radiation, chemotherapy, hope, love, joy
Publisher: Light Messages Publishing
Published: 2014-10-01T04:00:00+00:00

17

Sand Flies

Jane didn’t say anything as I led her back through the hospital maze to the beast of a parking garage. She slumped in Ruby’s passenger seat and watched the trees go by as I drove through Northwoods and found the house with only a few grunted directions from Jane. I lingered to look around the grounds before walking up to the geometrically carved doors with Jane’s heavy ring of keys. Jane’s fingerprints were all over the house from the sleek roofline to the splashes of chokeberries in the landscaping. I made out the seedpods of poppies amongst the foliage and could picture the big red blossoms nodding beside the walkway. That was what a front walk should look like.

Once inside the house, I found Jane’s cell phone in her bag and left a message for Jane’s son at their office to inform him that I had taken her home. “I’ll wait for your son to get here then go on home.”

“No, please stay for dinner.”

“I couldn’t intrude like that. You’ve just received some awful news. I’m sure Tom will want to talk about it without me being here.”

“Exactly.” Jane left me in the foyer. “Please don’t leave me alone with him.”

“Okay, but just until Tom gets home.” I thought it best that Jane lie down. It seemed like the thing to do in this type of situation. Jane was sick, really sick, far sicker than I was. I followed Jane to a sunken living room at the back of the house and propped her up on the couch. I found some oversized pillows covered in pewter silk to put under her head and pulled a cashmere throw off the back of a side chair to drape over her.

Jane immediately closed her eyes. “Thank you; make yourself at home for a bit,” she whispered dreamily. “I need some time to rest and gather my resolve.”

The entire room was dove grey from the soft carpeting to the low-slung grey linen sofas. A wall of softly pleated drapery was closed against the fading sunlight. As Jane nodded off, my fingers itched to pull back the curtains and see what was outside, until I recalled that first morning in the radiation treatment hallway when I pulled back the curtain and found the impressions of other people’s areas of anguish. The urge passed.

I was thirsty, but I was afraid to move. I didn’t want to disturb Jane’s rest and I didn’t dare leave her side. Not right now. Not today. I was rattled by my diagnosis and the radiation was worse than even I could imagine, but I never really believed I wouldn’t survive. I fantasized about the cancer devouring me from the inside out, yet I always knew, at least on some level, that I was only torturing myself. Both Dr. Lander and Dr. Obatu had been so confident that I would be fine. Had Jane’s doctor been less certain? Had he lied to her? I didn’t think so.

The room slowly darkened as the sun expired behind the drapes.

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