User blog:Forestpaw13/Nothing to do with anything, really

So... I'm so stressed right now, and I've had this little idea buzzing around in my head for a while. It's not related to warriors, so I can't put it in the mainspace, so I'm going to share it here. It's just a part of a story, so there's really going to be no introduction or anything. It's about a boy, Carson, who is six years old; and his mother, Julie. They're at the doctor's office. And... yeah.

We have been waiting for over an hour now. I have exhausted every People magazine I can find except for the one that the woman beside me is reading. Every so often I cast it a look.

When I'm not wishing for another People magazine, I am watching Carson attempt to steal a toy train. I want to stand up and tell him that stealing is wrong, but it will just go right by him. Everything does. His blonde hair is still messy from when I told him to make it look nice this morning.

A nurse appears in the door. She is holding a clipboard. I haven't seen her yet, so I wonder if her shift has just started. Is this just another day for her? What is her life like?

"Carson Piper?" the nurse asks, looking around. "Is Carson Piper here?"

I stand up, relief surging through my veins. "I'm his mother," I say. "Let me go get him."

I wade my way through the small children to my son, who has managed to get the train, and say, "Carson, honey, it's our turn."

"Finally!" he says, jumping up and abandoning the train. "That felt like fifteen minutes, Mom! How smart are these doctor people, anyway?"

I smile at him. "They are very smart," I tell him gently. "The nurse is waiting for us."

Carson sees her behind me. I turn around just as she holds up a lollipop.

My son runs through the kids to get to the lollipop and I follow quickly behind. It is in his tiny hands when I snatch it out. "Let's save it until after the appointment," I say.

"But- Mom-"

"No 'buts.' Follow the nurse, honey, she's leading us to where we'll meet the doctor."

Carson spins around and runs after. I follow, smiling.

The nurse shows us our room and in it I find a surprise: the doctor is already there. I expected to wait another fifteen minutes at most.

"Hello," I say. "I don't recognize you." He isn't the man who gave Carson his tests.

"I was about to introduce myself, Mrs. Piper. Can I call you Julie? I am Doctor Warson." His voice is very formal and clipped. He brushes his hair back out of his face. It looks as if he put absurd amounts of hair gel in it.

"Oh," I say quietly. "Yes, you can call me Julie." I turn to Carson. "Carson, honey, I want you to meet Doctor Warson. He's your doctor today. Can you say 'Hello, Doctor Warson'?"

"Hello, Doctor Warson," Carson says mechanically. He is looking through my purse, trying to find his lollipop, but it is in my pocket.

Doctor Warson looks at me. "If you could please sit down," he tells me.

I tell Carson to sit still and sit down on a chair in the corner.

"I'm not going to beat around the bush," the doctor tells me. "Your son has Chronic Myelomonocytic Leukemia."

There is silence.

Carson breaks it. "What's that?" he asks.

I cannot control it; I burst out crying.

"Julie, I'm so sorry," Doctor Warson begins, "we are able to begin treatments within a week and will try our best to keep his life as stable as possible."

"My son," I sob, "has cancer, and you are telling me that he might die?"

"I'm going to die?" Carson asks. "Cool!"

This makes me sob harder.

Carson comes over and hugs me. This makes me feel infinitely better, so I attempt to stop crying.

"Carson," the doctor asks gently, "do you know anything about cancer?"

My son looks up. His big, blue eyes say everything. "Yeah," he says. "Grandaddy died of it, mommy's brother died of it..." He proceeds to rattle off a list of everybody in my family who has died of cancer. It is perfect.

"You forgot Tina," I say when he is finished. "Tina's dead, too."

"You mean my dead sister Tina? Oh, yeah, I always forget about her."

It all happens too fast. Don't let it happen to you.