Chapter 3 - The Letter
The hospital chapel was empty. I sat in the back row and unfolded the page.
Mom,
If you're reading this, it means something I was hoping for actually happened.
I stopped. What had she been hoping for? I kept reading.
During treatment, I made friends with a girl named Priya. We played cards when we were both too tired to do anything else. She cheats, but we laugh about it.
Priya. Suddenly the secret had a name.
She told me she'd been waiting on a transplant list for almost two years. At first I just thought of her as another kid stuck in the same place as me. Then I started noticing her mom.
My throat tightened.
She sits in waiting rooms exactly like you do. She watches every doctor's face before they even start talking. She brings coffee and forgets to drink it. One day I realized I wasn't just looking at her.
I was looking at us.
I wiped my eyes.
That's when I asked Dad to help me find out if I could directly donate to Priya. He helped me ask the questions, go through the paperwork. Dad told me to tell you.
I closed my eyes.
I said no. It's not because I trusted him more than you. It's because you were still talking about me coming home.
The words blurred in front of me. I remembered every single time I'd told Claire, when you come home, when you're better, and the way she'd smiled gently every time without ever correcting me.
I knew you needed that hope. And I couldn't make you sit next to me while also waiting to find out whether another girl might get to live because I didn't.
I pressed the letter to my chest. That was why she'd kept it from me. Not to shut me out. Because she knew me too well.
Then I got to the lines that broke me completely.
I couldn't go home with you, Mom. But I hoped I could help Priya go home with hers.
I covered my mouth to hold in the sound that came out of me anyway.
At the bottom, she'd written:
Please don't be too angry with Dad. He hated keeping this from you. I made him promise.
May you like
I love you.
Claire
