Three

Mrs Williams turned around with a start and dropped the dish.

" Hi, mom," Rosaleen uttered and stood still for a moment.

She played with her fingers as lines of stress formed on her forehead.

Events that transpired in the morning replayed in her mind.

Her words haunted her.

Her every word read itself out in her head.

Yes, she shouldn't have said them.

" Your father and Meg have gone out to purchase petrol from a nearby station," her mother announced, breaking into her thoughts and breaking the awkward silence that tore Rosaleen apart.

Mrs Williams turned around again to continue her washing.

She felt overwhelmed, nothing more than overwhelmed.

Her lips pursed in suppressed fury, one she didn't want to let out.

" M..M...Mom, I'm sorry for what happened earlier," Rosaleen stuttered.

Now she struggled again with those bubbles in her throat as they also struggled to not let her words come out remorseful.

Her mother's displeasure in her was an understandable reaction.

She watched her mother continue with the washing, but she pressed on.

" Mom, I'm sorry for rejecting the food. I'm sorry for showing ingratitude even though you're working hard for me to live a normal life."

Mrs Williams stood still.

She seemed unmoved by Rosaleen's apology.

Maybe she demanded more, maybe she didn't.

She wanted her daughter to understand what it was like to have a child who is incapable, a child who will always remain a child, a child who could die at any time.

She needed Rosaleen to understand her little worries.

She needed her to understand what growth meant, even though life had made her grow up forcefully.

Life had given her a jolt, a vehement jolt, a jolt capable of shattering whatever piece you had.

Mrs Williams inhaled more air and let it out in a strangled, forceful exhale.

She dropped the dish in the sink and turned around to meet Rosaleen's downcast gaze.

She reluctantly pulled her daughter into a cozy, warm embrace.

Mrs Williams sighed softly, contently as she felt her daughter's warm, petite body.

Rosaleen sniffed and blinked back tears.

This moment was all she needed.

From the moment they found out about her illness, she had felt like an abandoned child.

She had always felt like she had been deprived of their undiluted love for her.

Now, this intimate mother and daughter moment filled in the gap.

Mrs Williams kissed her daughter's forehead and caressed Rosaleen's chocolate brown hair.

" It's all okay, honey. It'd be totally abnormal if you don't get angry and exhausted."

Rosaleen sighed heavily, lost in her mother's arms, lost in the short motherly love, until her mother said something that twisted her on the inside.

" Hospital?" Rosaleen whispered. She held her breath subconsciously and pulled out of the embrace.

The metallic taste in her mouth tasted sour again.

" Mom, I no longer have the attacks," Rosaleen piped in, keeping her voice low.

Mrs Williams ignored her protest and continued to do the dishes.

***************

Rosaleen's nose crinkled as she walked past the hallway.

Her mother trailed behind, waving at patients who cared to drop a greeting.

Rosaleen flinched and gagged as wrinkles formed on the sides and bridge of her nose.

The antiseptic fragrance filled the air.

Rosaleen found herself muttering. There was no way she'd turn out to be a medical doctor or a nurse.

The dead stare of disapproval stayed on her face like plaster as she caught sight of a baby.

The baby had strings of cannula that distributed a liquid substance into the child's body.

This reminded her of death.

She trudged further, trying to catch up with her mother's fast pace.

The hallway led to a particular wing in the hospital.

A masculine — polite voice rose in the midst of all bustling activities to tell them to come in after a knock on the door that had " DR JAKE" written in bold.

The door opened into a frigid office that had diagrams of the human body system on the walls.

Dr Jake sat on the chair, looking dainty and immaculate in his white shirt and blue trousers.

He brandished his guests a smile that showed his approval.

Mrs Williams shut the door behind her and took a seat on the couch.

Rosaleen stared blankly at the doctor she faced.

He offered her a seat opposite him.

He looked different from the previous moments she had seen him.

His smile was so large you could barely see his brown eyes.

Those eyes reminded her of everything brown — the coffee....

Crinkles usually formed underneath and beside his eyes whenever he cackled.

Those crinkles got her thinking if he was older than he looked, because, asides the crinkles, his porcelain skin always shone with youthfulness and vibrance, the kind of vibrance that radiated from a healthy teenager.

" ... want some berries?" Dr Jake offered her a bowl of red berries.

Rosaleen gave a soft, close-tipped smile which the young man couldn't discern if it was an approval.

" I always have them around for your sake, Leen," he emphasized.

She smiled again and accepted the bowl of enticing berries with a glint of a confused emotion in her eyes.

Rosaleen didn't know for how long she had sat there laughing and joining in his contagious cackle, but she for sure knew that they both felt at ease with each other.

It didn't have to matter if he was an adult and she was a minor.

There was more to the doctor-and-patient relationship between them.

She didn't have to put up an act with him, the way she did with others.

Mrs Williams joined in the friendly banter until Rosaleen excused herself.

She rubbed the nape of her neck and her eyes wandered around.

" Do you think it'll go away soon?" she whispered.

Dr Jake sighed softly and put back the papers where they were found.

" In most cases like Rosaleen's, patients don't last long."

Mrs Williams wrung her hands in the air, hope leaving her.

They were in for the worst.