He Missed Our Daughter's Birthday Again novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: The Match

They discharged me on a Wednesday, five days after the surgery, and our son stayed behind.

That was the rule, and I understood it.

I still stood in the NICU doorway in my own clothes, with a paper bag of pads and pills, and couldn't make my feet go to the elevator.

"Go," the nurse said gently. "We'll call if he so much as sneezes."

"He's three pounds."

"He's three pounds and four ounces as of this morning. He's gaining on you."

I laughed, and I cried a little, and I went.

Roderick was waiting at the curb with the car running and a pillow on the passenger seat.

"I'd like you to come to the children's hospital with me," he said. "If you can stand it. The oncologist wants to walk us through Tuesday."

"Because of the terms."

"Because I want you to hear it when I do."

My sister, who was driving us both, said nothing, loudly.

The oncology floor had paper stars taped to every window, one for each child who had gone home.

The oncologist was a tired woman in sneakers, and she laid it out on a single sheet of paper.

"A half match, which is what a sibling gives. Ten years ago we couldn't use it. Now we can."

"What does he have to do?" I asked.

"A few days of tests first. Then he sits in a chair for several hours while we collect cells from his blood. He'll be sore. He'll be tired. He'll be home by dinner."

"And Sammy?"

"Sammy gets the cells the same day, if his counts hold. They are not holding the way I'd like."

Roderick wrote everything down in a notebook.

I watched his hand.

It was steady, and I noticed that, and I was annoyed that I noticed.

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