Boys Don't Cry by Fíona Scarlett

Author:Fíona Scarlett [Fiona Scarlett]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780571365227
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Published: 2021-05-14T16:00:00+00:00

Finn

Dr Kennedy was in today, letting me know the story with my treatment plan. He was the head doctor, apparently, head of my team, but I didn’t really know what to make of him, not much to be fair, because I told him my favourite joke and I don’t think he knew how to laugh. He had the most boring voice ever, and sure I was more than half zoned out, like a zombie, or something that needed no brain. I wondered if he had any kids like me, if he ever had any fun with them, or was it just that being around the cancer zapped you and everyone around you of having fun ever again?

‘Right so Finn, would you like me to discuss your treatment plan with you on your own, or would you prefer that your parents were here too?’ He’d been waffling on at me for ages. I wanted to watch Tipping Point, and it was on in five minutes, and I hoped that he wasn’t going to be still going on about stuff then.

‘Ah on my own is grand, Doctor,’ I said, and hoped that he would just hurry the feck up.

‘Oh. Just great. I find that’s the best usually, it means you can ask the questions you might be afraid to ask if they were here.’ Sure what was he going on about now? Why did he think I’d be afraid to ask questions around Ma and Da?

‘I have already spoken to them both, of course, but sometimes patients want their parents here for this bit too,’ and maybe I should have had them here, maybe I needed them here; I was panicking now, if I’d made the right choice.

‘Is it OK if I begin now, Finn?’ he said, and I started to think that him having a boring voice was not so bad; it made me quiet, and calm, and forget the worry of asking the right questions – well, for now anyway. I nodded my head, not wanting to interrupt him, wanting to listen, and see what he could do about this cancer.

‘OK. Well, AML, the cancer that you have, as you know affects both your blood and your bone marrow. We are going to attack this cancer in two different ways.’ I started to like him, even just a little bit then.

‘Attack?’

‘Yes, Finn. The first thing we want to do is to kill the leukaemia cells that are in your blood and your bone marrow now. Then after that is done, we will attack and try to kill any more that may be hiding, or that may not be too strong yet.’

‘How will you kill them?’ I asked, now getting a bit more curious, warming up to the idea of killing this leukaemia that was taking hold of not just me, but the whole family. I didn’t know that they would be attacked, that they would be killed, that they would be able to do any of that.

‘We’ll do it in a number of ways.

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