Quiet Cancer:

It is quiet in here. Wait, that;s not exactly true, let me rephrase. It’s quiet enough that I hear the satisfying click of words being typed on this page. So different type of quiet. If I strain enough, I can hear the dog gently snoring in the next room, moving occasionally to get more comfortable. There’s not enough light in my room or life now to brighten my writing area so I have resorted to turning on all the lights in the house yet 500 watts still seems dim. I may never brighten.

Sat and struggled with the final piece for my writing class, and realized the fight was not based on what to write, or how to write but if I should. Bulb went off in my head, and the words materialized below

The room was quiet except for the noise of cancer in our lives. I opened my eyes, and felt strange and unfamiliar until I realized I was staring at the ceiling. I had been sleeping for over 5 hours. My mind had lied to me. My heart pounded for something selfish and non-existent. I had dreamt not of my love but of myself. The smug clock said 7:16 am. Nothing chirped but it felt like it. The bathroom dripped some watery noises as if digesting a bad meal. Darkness was losing its daily battle to the sun, yet still had strong footholds in the distance. I looked upon her not five feet away, surrounded by confident machines on a bed not meant for resting.

Cancer is the body lying to itself. It is perhaps one of the few illnesses where the body will destroy itself by creating so much of itself that the body cannot contain it. Physically, the cancer had grown in her body, but it had infected our lives. I was no longer disoriented, but disillusionment filled our room. I hoped the room would spin again, and perhaps I could enter the darkness and pretend that it was I lying on the bed and not her but dreaming did not make reality.

I gazed at her, willing her to breathe. Breathe away the anger, the past, the arguments, and the many wasted moments regretting what was not to be. Breathe in the love surrounding her. Breathe in thoughts that would remove the enemy in her. I wanted to take control of her body so it could get angry at the unwanted stranger and calmly ask the perversion to leave. I lasered my thoughts on to her, but the quietness of the cancer had already enveloped our lives. Breath.