According to Claire, the whole family was going to be tested that week to see if any of them would be good bone marrow donors. She promised to call and tell him the results when they found out, and for the first time in many years, Nick found himself praying, actually praying to God that one of her family members would work as a donor. If none of them did, he figured it was unlikely any of her more distant relatives would either, and that would mean waiting for an unrelated donor, which he knew could take a long time. Time that Claire may not have as the leukemia continued taking over her body.
The thought of Claire dying was deeply frightening to Nick. Though they were still new friends, Nick had come to care about her. And in a way, he felt he needed her. In the past few weeks, she had become his rock, his support, his one and only ally in the war against this disease. Recently, she had been there for him and made things easier... and it scared him to think of how much harder dealing with this would become if she was taken away from him. Selfish? Maybe. But that was how he felt.
While the rest of the week had been a living hell, both physically and emotionally, the following Saturday proved to be a good day. The completion of what he hoped would his last round of chemotherapy left Nick in good spirits, relieved to wake up and not feel nauseous, to be able to eat and keep his food down (though the outbreak of canker sores in his mouth once again made eating difficult), and to be able to walk around the house without feeling like passing out from the dizziness and fatigue that always accompanied the nausea.
When the phone rang that afternoon, and Nick saw Claire’s name and number on the caller ID, he reached immediately for the phone, then hesitated. What if the news was bad? What if no one matched? Did he really want to hear that?
Well, he couldn’t just ignore her.
“Hello?” he answered cautiously.
“Hi, Nick,” came her familiar voice, and he tried to read the emotion in it. It was impossible – he couldn’t tell what kind of mood she was in or what kind of news she had for him.
“Hey, Claire,” he replied and waited.
“Well,” she started and sucked in a breath. He listened, impatient for her to continue. “Kyle’s a match,” she exhaled, saying the words all in one breath.
“Kyle? Your brother? He matched?”
“Yeah.”
“Oh thank God. That’s great, Claire! Aren’t you happy?”
“Oh yeah,” she replied, “I am. But, I dunno... I guess I’m just kind of overwhelmed right now. I just got back from the hospital. Dr. Rodrigo had all of us come in for the results of the blood and bone marrow tests, and after she told me that Kyle would be my donor, she filled me in on everything else that was going to happen. God, it’s just...” She trailed off, sounding flustered.
“I’m sorry,” said Nick. “So what exactly does happen? And when?”
“Well, I have a week to think about it and decide whether or not I want to go through with-“
“What’s to decide about? You’re doing it, aren’t you?” Nick interrupted.
“Yeah, I am,” Claire said. “But, you know, they want to give you some time to prepare. So anyway, next Monday, I have to check into the hospital for ‘Phase 1’ of the transplant of the process, which is like where they run tests and crap to make sure I’m really a candidate... then ‘Phase 2’ starts a few days after that, and that’s when I’ll get the actual transplant.”
“I see,” said Nick.
“So you’ll come to see me in the hospital, right?” Claire blurted suddenly, a hint of laughter in her voice. He could tell she was smiling and couldn’t help but smile himself.
“Sure,” he replied. “You know how much I love to hang out at the hospital in my spare time. Oh no, wait, that’s you.”
“Aw, shut up.”
“So, you got any plans for tonight?” Nick asked.
“Not that I know of... why?”
“Well... I thought maybe we should celebrate... you know, celebrate you finding a match,” he suggested.
“Um, okay... what did you have in mind?” she wondered.
“I dunno, nothing big, I just thought we could go out for ice cream or something? That’s about all I can eat at the moment, so...”
“Ice cream sounds great,” said Claire.
“Awesome. You want me to pick you up?”
“Sure, if you want. I haven’t seen any of your sweet rides yet, so that’d be good.”
He laughed at the “sweet ride” comment and replied, “Okay... pick you up at eight?”
“Sounds good. I’ll see ya then.”
“Yup, see ya,” he said, and they hung up.
***
