Stories tagged cancer

Miss Miriam

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Miriam smiled as I entered through the old, creaky metal front door of her home. She sat still, face marked of deep wrinkles, tense with the pain only another cancer patient would understand. In that soft, sweet, melodic voice, she greeted me. '"Hello Ms. Monica, I've been…

Walking To Gibraltar, Chapter 12: In Which Frank Consults A Mirror

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"I need a male friend, and I think I've found one."

Walking to Gibraltar, Chapter 13: In Which Dr. Cowboy Rides Again

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Frank sat next to her on the gurney and squeezed her hand. "You're going to be okay, Astrid. You're going to wake and it's going to be over and you're going to be okay." "You don't know that," she said.

Walking To Gibraltar, Chapter 14: In Which 500 Fucking Words Appear

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This was before the cancer, years before. He did this every day: up at five, before Astrid and Max. Four cups of coffee in the machine. A bowl of granola. Five hundred words. Five hundred words no matter goddamn what. Five hundred words on Sunday and Chri

Walking To Gibraltar, Chapter 15: In Which The Damage Is Contained

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He stood sopping in front of the mirror, dripping onto the limp puddle of clothing on the floor. He needed a haircut. He needed a shave. He needed to get rid of the two-fucking-inch white hair inside the helix of his right ear. He plucked it—and all the h

Walking To Gibraltar, Chapter 16: In Which Frank Learns Six Lessons

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He can't breathe can't breathe can't breathe turns the handle can't breathe falls onto the front porch gasping in the cold night air. And Dad is lying on the smoldering carpet in the parlor. And all the kids are upstairs. And he swallows the air. And ever

The Yellow Room

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...the knives she laid out on the porch before her husband left her, washed and dried, set neatly by copper pennies.

Waiting

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He grew red-faced at her quiet words, "I'm pregnant."

Science Homework

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The difficulty of disabled parenting was predictable, but nothing could prepare me for having to say goodbye to my wife again on problem #7.

Mountain Pose

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Lying in the dewy grass in corpse pose, the stars of heaven above him, it was hard not to let worries take over his breath...

Exquisite Torture

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The baby tee came off first then the cut-off denim shorts. She walked over to the queen-size bed, did a little shimmy dance as she took off her full-coverage bra, rubbed her breasts, her pudgy belly, stepped out of her panties, pulled back the down comfor

I Do Not Want What I Have Got

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I hate that thinking about something I hate to think about makes me think of something hateful.

The Happy Couple

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I explain the treatment. Introduce the four drugs I'm about to administer. What they are. How they work. What are the side effects. “Where's your port?” I ask. The patient opens up the top button of her shirt so that her collarbone is exposed. I place my

Furniture Fights

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It amazes me that with everything this woman has to be depressed about, what really gets her down is an inadequate lounge chair.

Tumorhead at the End of the World

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I’ve always wondered why my sister got all the luck in our family. She was shinier than the rest of us, somehow. Had the sweet smell of “good luck” on her.