The Lives They Live

A Father is diagnosed with a stage 4 brain tumor and tries to comfort his son before he dies.

This morning I awoke the world with a gleaming sun. It was the middle of summer and a blue eyed family awoke as they did on any other day. The Martins were a close family, with just as many issues and strengths as any other. I always loved days like this. Sun shining, birds flying, people chattering. I could look down at each city and actually see Life as she implemented smiles on each of their faces. Days like these are what made my job easy, where it seemed like nothing could go wrong.

However, my acquaintance had something different in mind. He was a dark grotesque being. He was similar to his friend Misery, but was even more advanced. He was the last person everyone sees, and was the only thing worse… than the worst situation. His name is Death, and death is what he did best.

Death decided to enter the lives of this family. Not for any reason other than his selfish entertainment.

Brett, a strong man and the father of the family, fought his whole life without a trace of education. He built his own business to support his wife Debbi and their son Cj. Debbi was a misunderstood woman. Although friendly and charismatic, she lacked responsibility which lead her to a heavy addiction in narcotics and alcohol. His son Cj was a curious kid who never seemed to be able to give a straight answer, and always seemed to ask the most difficult of questions.

In mid July Brett was awakened by a scolding headache. That pain that seems to be pulsating through every vessel inside your brain. As if the blood had picked up needles as it traveled through the various tubes, scraping and scratching at every turn. Unable to combat the head pain, he decided to go see a doctor.

He was waiting in the room, sitting upright on one of those faded blue patient beds, with the white paper sheet pulled over it. His feet resting flat on the ground due to his immense height. He patiently waited to get the results of his test. The doctor walked through the front door, looking almost as grim as Death himself.

“How are you feeling” the doctor asked in a rhetorical voice.

“Fine” lied the father.

“So the test results have come back and you have a Glioblastoma stage 4 brain tumor”. Casually said the doctor as if he had recited the line prior to walking into the room.

Although stunned by the doctors brute honesty Brett loaded up questions in his head.

“What does that mean? Cancer? Will I live? How long do I have?”.

Questions fired out faster than the doctor could catch. The doctor, no matter how many times he said this line, never got use to the frantic and demoralized reaction from his patients.

“Most patients don't make it longer than a few weeks. We can try removing it, along with chemo and radiation but the tumor is very advanced. If I were you I would call your family, we start surgery tonight”.

Brett took a second to face his new reality. He always held a hard outer shell, but

cancer was something that very few humans could bare. This was devastating news, but as he regathered his thoughts he faced the reality of telling his family.

The tortured father called his family informing them of this awful news. You can imagine how the conversation went. Tears were shed, questions went unanswered, and lies of hope were twisted into promises of survival.

The son came barging through the hospital door. Squeezing his father so tight as if he could force the tumor out from sheer pressure. I let the world around them stand still for a moment, and made everything outside those four walls seem meaningless. Every thought, emotion, and sound were focused in on the embraced hug of a son and his dying father.

I didn’t promise this family anything, but I would never wish this upon them. This was not fair, and Death has no right to treat these people to this fate. Death was an evil crude being, who only found satisfaction in taking people who didn't want to go. He took what he could get, every suicide, fatal accident, and expired person; but what he truly enjoyed was the unexpected, slow, painful retraction of life through the creation of his tool, which they referred to as “cancer”.

This young man sat outside the door attempting to see through its stainless steel shell, as they performed surgery on his father. I watched him from my pedestal view. I could see thoughts racing through his head like the last few seconds of a horse race. Thoughts of a dark death, thoughts of life without a dad, and thoughts of a miracle recovery and survival darted intermittently throughout him. Each thought surpassing the other and then falling behind as they struggle to hold the front of his mind. He would not blink, not even for a second. He was worried that if he blinked, even for a moment, he would lose his father.

A doctor appeared from the other side of the door.

“Is my Dad okay? Did you remove it?” Choked up the boy as he tried to fight the bump rising in his throat.

“The surgery went well but he is in a lot of pain. He should be awake in a few hours”.

As much as I begged my friend Time, he would not allow the world to move fast. The young man sat next to his dad's bed for what seemed to him like days. His face revealing a deep depression brewing inside. The son waited patiently as these morbid thoughts consumed his head.

“Dad?” Said the young man, finally seeing that his dad's eyelids had begun to struggle open.

“Hey Cj” not being able to really form the words but you could tell the information got across.

“Dad I’m scared” Mumbled the boy as a single tear tracked down his face.

Brett looked at his son. He could see how distraught his son was. The way water had now started to flooded his eyes. His bright blue eyes more vibrant than ever. His son was everything to him. He had waited his whole life to have a family and he was nothing less than proud to have a kid who was so wise. Although strong, the thought of leaving his family triggered an emotion he had hardly ever felt. He became consumed by tears with the thought of what his son’s life would consist of without a father. He composed himself, cleared his throat, and to the best of his power gathered the strength to speak.

“Cj if I die-” started Brett.

“Dad, no” argued Cj

“Cj, if I die, you are going to have to take care of your mother. You are going to have to find a way to be strong and to take care of yourself. You need to continue to grow. Find what life can give you and never stop chasing your passion. You need to learn from every moment and try your best to end every day with a smile”.

The boy was in shambles. To him, this was his dad confessing his death. He wanted to hear words of comfort, but all he got from his dad’s words was that he was going to die. Die and die and nothing else.

“Cj I don’t want you to be sad. Do not worry about me, please”.

“I can’t dad, I don’t want you to die. I can’t be happy when you are in the hospital!”

“Cj if I don’t make it out of here I don’t want my last memory of you to be sad. I want it to be of you smiling and laughing. I want to pass knowing that you can be happy without me, and that you will not stop your life for me or anyone else.”

The young man smiled at his decaying father. It took everything the boy had to force that smile. How could he be happy when he knew that Death himself was creeping toward his dad. He held it for what seemed like an eternity, but he held it long enough so that his father could see him smile.

His dad gathered his might, and raised his head a fraction off the pillow. He glanced at his son, and as his head fell back, a smile was crafted onto his face. He took in a sigh of relief, exhaled, and faded.  

Death had finally completed his torturous task. I confronted him about it later. How he should not have taken that man away from his son. Death didn’t say much but he held an evil grin. He did say one thing though, “I would have taken him sooner but he fought me so he could see one last thing”. Death of course didn’t know that a smile was all he was fighting for.

I wish I could tell you that Brett’s son lived a peaceful life for the remainder of time. He went through many struggles, but from each of those he learned, and at the end of every day, he smiled.

It’s not easy being the Universe. I oversee the world and its inhabitants, along with the actions of every large entity, from the evils of Death, to the variants of Fate, to the joy that Life blesses them with.  I can tell you that for every evil moment there are two beautiful ones. Us higher beings are so little when I look into the hearts of the people. They have so much complexity and within each of them lies greatness. Sometimes it just takes someone like Death to bring it out.