True Love

by Lurlene McDaniel

  Inside, the smell of bubbling spaghetti sauce made Julie’s mouth water. She followed Luke into the kitchen, where his mother was stirring a pot on the stove. “It smells wonderful,” Julie exclaimed.

  Nancy Muldenhower put down her wooden spoon, wiped her hands on a dish towel, and hugged Julie warmly. “I’m glad you could come for supper. Although it won’t be ready for another three hours.” She shot Luke a glance. “He insisted that you had to come this afternoon so that you could drive him somewhere. Why isn’t Luke driving? What’s going on with you two?”

  Her lively brown eyes, so much like Luke’s, caused Julie to grow flustered. “He’s keeping a promise to me,” Julie said hastily.

  “What promise?”

  “We’ll tell you at supper,” Luke interjected, getting Julie off the hook. Looking at Julie, he said, “Let me get some things out of my room and then we’ll split.”

  Julie sat in a yellow kitchen chair to wait. The kitchen table looked scarred, battle-weary from years of service.

  “Luke says you two are planning to stop by tomorrow night before the dance so I can see your dress.”

  “Yes … on our way to pick up Solena and Frank.”

  “It’s nice of your father to lend Luke his car for the evening. Mine’s not much newer than Luke’s.”

  Julie’s dad had made the offer weeks before and Luke had been thrilled over the prospect of driving the sporty auto. Julie would have been just as happy in Luke’s car, but no one had asked her opinion. “Well, you know how Dad feels about Luke.”

  “He’s been very good to my boy, and I’ll always be grateful for the way he’s taken him under his wing. It’s not easy raising a boy without a father—especially in this neighborhood. I’d have moved years ago if I could have afforded it.”

  Julie thought Luke’s mother was attractive, even if she was on the heavy side. Luke had always been protective of her, careful not to cause her worry or problems, which was part of his refusal to keep returning to the doctor for his unremitting flu bug.

  “I like your house,” Julie said. “It’s cozy.”

  “It’s old.” Nancy stirred the sauce again and tapped the wooden spoon on the side of the pot. “We’re putting up our Christmas tree next week. You will come and help decorate it, won’t you?”

  “Of course. How else can we keep Luke from slinging the tinsel on it?”

  The two of them were laughing when Luke came back to the kitchen, ready to leave. “Why do I get the feeling you’re laughing at me?”

  After Nancy and Julie had poked some more good-natured fun at him, Luke promised his mother to return by five and he and Julie left the warm kitchen. Julie drove and Luke stared pensively out the window. “It’s only a follow-up visit to your doctor,” she chided, knowing instinctively how keeping the appointment was bothering him.

  “I think it’s a waste of time and money. I’ve been feeling better, you know.”

  “But you’re not completely well.” She thought he still looked thin, and she could see his gland protruding from beneath his jaw. “Maybe you have mono,” she suggested. “You know—the ‘kissing disease’?”

  He grimaced. “That would be terrible. I’ll have to give up kissing you.”

  “I haven’t caught anything from you yet. If it’s mono, I’ll wear a mask.” She grinned. “Come on, lighten up. This’ll be over in no time. And tomorrow night we go to the dance and I’m going to look so good, it’ll blow your socks off.”

  “Too late—you already blow my socks off.”

  The doctor’s waiting room was crowded with sniffling kids and crying babies. A few adults sat with their heads buried in their hands, looking feverish. “If you’re not sick, you will be by the time you’re done sitting around this place,” Luke grumbled.

  “Stop grousing,” Julie said. “Be a good sport.”

  Julie flipped through magazines while Luke fidgeted and watched the clock. Over thirty minutes passed before he was finally called into one of the waiting rooms. Another forty-five minutes passed and Julie grew restless herself. She imagined Luke forgotten in some cubicle, getting angry while he waited. Forty minutes later, the outer door opened and Luke’s mother hurried inside.

  “Nancy! Why are you here?”

  “The doctor called and told me to come. I didn’t know you were taking Luke to the doctor, Julie. Why didn’t either of you tell me?”

  “Luke didn’t want to worry you.”

  “What’s wrong with Luke? He wasn’t sick when he left home.”

  At a loss for words, embarrassed, Julie shrugged.

  An inner door opened and a nurse called them in. Quickly, they followed the woman down a narrow hall and into an office where a doctor sat behind his desk, writing in a file folder. Luke sat stiffly in a side chair. “Luke, are you all right?” His mother rushed toward him. Julie followed, hanging back slightly.

  “I don’t know.” Luke sounded sullen. “Ask him.”

  The doctor stood and nodded. “I’m Dr. Portage.”

  “I’m Julie Ellis, his, uh … friend.”

  “I’m his mother. Where’s Dr. Simms?”

  “He’s taken me on as his assistant.”

  “Tell me what’s wrong.”

  Dr. Portage sat and steepled his fingers together. “I’ve checked Luke over, listened to his symptoms, and done some preliminary blood work. As I told you on the phone, I’m concerned about his elevated white blood count.”

  Julie felt her heart pounding and reached for Luke’s hand. “Luke, he’s scaring me.”

  Luke looked away. His hand felt cold as ice.

  “I don’t mean to alarm any of you,” Dr. Portage said. “But I don’t like what I’m seeing. I suspect Luke has some kind of infection. According to his records, he’s been treated with antibiotics, but he hasn’t responded as he should have.”

  “Are you saying you’ll have to run more tests?” Nancy asked.

  “Yes. And he needs to be in the hospital in order to run them. I’ve got a call in to St. Paul’s Hospital in Chicago.”

  “Why Chicago? What’s wrong with Waterton General?”

  “They don’t have the equipment and staff I want for Luke.”

  Julie and Luke exchanged glances. His dark eyes bored into her, making her even more afraid. “What do you mean?” Julie asked. Her voice quivered.

  Dr. Portage looked directly at Luke. “I want you to go home, pack a bag, and drive straight to St. Paul’s.”

  5

  Luke jumped to his feet. “Right now? You want me go check in right now? No way!”

  “The sooner the better,” the doctor said.

  “Now, Luke, we should do what the doctor says,” his mother added.

  “But the dance is tomorrow night.”

  “I don’t care about the dance,” Julie interjected.

  “Well, I do.”

  The doctor’s phone rang. He spoke quietly into the receiver, hung up, and told Luke, “That was St. Paul’s. It’s all arranged. You’re to check in this afternoon, as soon as possible.”

  The remainder of the afternoon passed in a surrealistic blur for Julie. And while she would not recall later the exact sequence of events, she’d never forget the cold, snakelike fear that clutched at her insides and numbed her soul. She cried when she called her father on the phone from Luke’s house. She found comfort in his absolute refusal to believe that the doctor was anything but “an incompetent fool who’s allowed Luke’s flu to get out of control and now has to cover his mistakes by subjecting Luke to useless testing.”

  “I’m going with them to St. Paul’s, Dad.”

  “Maybe I should drive over too.”

  She knew he was preparing his presentation for the school board about the new stadium. “Why don’t I call you from the hospital once I find out what’s going on.”

  “All right. You stay with Luke’s mom. She’ll need someone.”

  Afterward, Julie watched Luke and his mother pack a duffel bag, her hands stiff with c
oncern, his jerking with pent-up anger. Julie rode with them on the sixty-mile trip from Waterton to Chicago, and once inside the mammoth hospital, she sat with Luke in the patient admitting room, listening to Luke’s mother answer countless questions and watching her fill out long insurance forms.

  Julie took the elevator with Luke, his mom, and a nurse to the sixth floor and accompanied them to the hospital room, where two beds, two bureaus, and two nightstands filled the space. All that separated the beds was a thin, pale green curtain. Luke was the only occupant, but the nurse told them that another patient could be checked in at any time and become Luke’s roommate.

  The nurse chattered cheerfully—Julie assumed to make them feel at ease. She told about the hospital routine, meals, TV, visiting hours. She said lab technicians would come to draw blood and do simple routine procedures. She told them that Dr. Portage would be in later that evening to see Luke and that he’d have a colleague, Dr. Sanchez, with him.

  The nurse gave them more forms and instructions on how to find the nearby Ronald McDonald House, the facility where families of sick children could stay to be near their kids. Luke said, “I’m not a child. And I don’t plan to be here too long.”

  And the nurse replied, “I’m just giving information.”

  “How long will he have to stay?” Nancy asked.

  “That’s up to his doctors.”

  Julie’s head swam with information, jumbled emotions, the foreign smells of antiseptics, floor wax, and antibacterial soaps. She felt like a bird pushed helter-skelter by some strange air current. She felt so sorry for Luke she wanted to cry, and her eyes burned with unshed tears.

  “I’m sorry about the dance,” he said when his mother had gone with the nurse to take care of more details.

  “The dance is nothing. All that matters is you getting well.”

  “There’s nothing wrong with me except that I’m run-down. It’s all some stupid mistake. Dr. Portage just got alarmed because he didn’t cure me the first time.”

  “That’s what Dad says. He wants to come see you.”

  “Not tonight. He’s my coach, Julie. I don’t want him to see me like this.”

  “I won’t be able to keep him away.”

  Luke twisted his bedcovers, wadding them in his large fists. “Will you make sure Mom gets home all right?”

  “I’ll watch out for her. And I’ll come back with her tomorrow.”

  He stared out the lone window. Night had come, and the darkness looked cold and brittle. “I hate this, Julie. I really hate this.”

  “It’ll be over soon.” She wanted so much to cheer him up. “You’ll be back home and it’ll be Christmas and New Year’s and then school will start again. Everything’s going to be okay.”

  She hugged him, locking her arms around his body. They held on to each other until his mother returned. She hugged him too and said she’d be back first thing in the morning. Julie and Luke’s mother walked to the doorway, where they turned and waved. Julie’s gaze lingered longingly on Luke’s face. He smiled and flashed them a thumbs-up.

  His expression was confident, identical to the one he wore during a football game against a superior foe. Julie had seen such bravado in his eyes a hundred times. Yet this time, she saw one more thing in their dark depths. She saw fear.

  “There’s no way I’m not going to spend the week over there with Luke’s mother, Mom.” Julie stood facing her mother defiantly in the middle of the kitchen floor, two days later.

  “But it’s almost Christmas, Julie, and we haven’t even put up our tree.”

  “How can I think about Christmas with Luke going through all those tests in the hospital? Mrs. Muldenhower and I can stay together at the Ronald McDonald House and be with Luke every day. And that’s where I want to be.”

  “Honey, I’m concerned about him too, but it’s not like he’s family.…”

  Julie felt anger, hot and violent, simmering in her blood. She wanted to scream at her mother.

  “Calm down,” she heard her father say. He turned to his wife. “Be rational, Patricia. Of course Julie wants to be with Luke. That hospital is the pits for an active kid like Luke. And the tests they’re fixing to give him could make a grown man cower.”

  Patricia Ellis stamped her foot. “Stop ganging up on me. I know he’s your prized player, Bud. And I know he’s Julie’s boyfriend. But it’s Christmas, for heaven’s sake. Julie should be here with us.”

  “By Christmas Day, Luke will be home,” Julie insisted. “And until he is, I’m packing some things and staying with him. And you can’t stop me!” She spun on her heel, but her father stepped into the doorway, blocking her way.

  “Watch your temper,” he warned. He looked over her head at his wife. “You’re wrong on this, Pat. Julie should be with Luke and his mother. And I’ll be going over most days for visits, so I’ll keep a check on her. Luke’s a fine kid, and he shouldn’t have to go through this by himself.”

  With her father’s help, Julie had won the battle, and when Luke’s mother arrived an hour later, Julie was packed and waiting by the front door. In Chicago, they checked in at the Ronald McDonald House, a modern facility with beautiful sleeping rooms, a huge living room and TV area, a modern, fully stocked kitchen, laundry facilities, and a large playroom for younger brothers and sisters of patients at St. Paul’s.

  Julie and Nancy unpacked quickly, then hurried the two blocks to the hospital. They arrived at Luke’s room in time for his return from radiology. “What did they do to you?” Julie asked anxiously.

  “A CT scan,” he said.

  “Did it hurt?”

  “Not a bit. They shoved me inside this huge machine and took an X ray of my entire body. The worst part was having to lie perfectly still while they did it.”

  “What’s the X ray for?”

  “To see my glands on the inside.” He gave her a sidelong glance. “Maybe I’ll start glowing in the dark.”

  “Very funny.”

  His mother kissed his forehead. “One of the nurses said Dr. Sanchez was on the floor. I’m going to find him and talk to him. Be right back.”

  When she’d gone, Luke opened his arms and Julie leaned over the bed to receive his hug. “I’ve missed you,” he whispered against her ear.

  “Oh, Luke, I’ve missed you too. I wish I could take you home with me right now.”

  “Why don’t we make a dash for it? They won’t notice until suppertime.”

  She laughed. At least he was in better spirits.

  “Any feedback about the dance from Solena?” he asked.

  “She and Frank missed us going with them.”

  “You didn’t get to wear your new dress.”

  “I’ll wear it to the next dance for you.”

  “Maybe we can go someplace special New Year’s Eve. Would you like that?”

  “Sure. But before we make any plans maybe we’d better see how all these tests come out.”

  He looked downcast. “I just want my life back.”

  She quickly searched for a way to distract him. “Did Dad tell you that the school board put off their vote on the new stadium until the middle of February?”

  “He mentioned it when he was visiting yesterday. He was mad about it, wasn’t he?”

  “You know my dad,” Julie said. “He doesn’t wait too easily. He wants that stadium and he wants it now!” She banged her closed fist on the bedside table in an imitation of her father. “He says that if the school board doesn’t get cracking, they won’t break ground for it this spring.”

  “It’ll get built,” Luke said.

  “I know. But he has his heart set on you playing in it your senior year.”

  Luke sighed. “Right now, I feel too weak to pick up a football, much less think about playing a game.”

  “You’ll feel better soon.”

  “I hope so.” He held up his hand, which was fastened to an IV line. “They’re pumping me full of antibiotics, but they don’t seem to be helping much. I feel like
a pincushion. Every day the lab takes blood. This is a real drag, Julie.”

  While Julie was trying to think of something to say to cheer him up, Luke’s mother returned. Her face looked calm, yet Julie suspected she was upset. “I cornered that doctor of yours, and he said that they’re going to take you into surgery tomorrow and do a biopsy on the gland in your neck.”

  “Surgery?” Julie felt her knees go weak. “You mean they’re going to operate on Luke?”

  “It’s only a biopsy,” Luke’s mother said, trying to make it sound like a simple routine. “They’ll take out some of the cells and send them to the lab for analysis. And they’ll do a bone marrow biopsy at the same time.”

  “What are they looking for?” Luke asked the question without emotion.

  “I’m not certain,” Nancy said. But Julie could tell by the look in her eyes that she had a suspicion. One that she wasn’t about to reveal. And one that, whatever it was, frightened her very much.

  6

  The biopsy procedure was indeed simple. Luke went down to the surgical floor at seven the next morning and was back in his room by nine. Both Julie’s parents drove to Chicago to wait with Julie and Nancy, and afterward they all trooped in to see Luke as soon as he was brought up from recovery.

  “You don’t seem groggy from the anesthetic,” Julie’s mother observed. “When I had Julie, I was sick for three days from the stuff they gave me to put me to sleep.”

  “The anesthesiologist said that I would come out of it pretty fast, and he was right. I feel pretty good. Except that my neck hurts. And my hip’s sore too.” He touched the large white bandage taped to his neck and patted the covers atop his hips.

  “That’s because of the bone marrow aspiration. They inserted a syringe into your bone marrow and drew some out for testing,” his mother explained. “Do you need some pain medication?”

  Bud Ellis announced cheerily, “Luke’s no wimp. He’s used to taking hard hits on the football field, so a little slice out of his neck and a sore spot on his body won’t set him back much.”