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Meredith said without opening her
eyes.
    Marla left
Meredith in the bedroom and went back to the kitchen. She spent the
next half hour cleaning the dirty dishes, wiping down the granite
countertops, and sweeping the floors. She went back to the bedroom
where Meredith was sound asleep.
    Marla checked
over the entire house, picking up dirty laundry, straightening the
den, cleaning the bathrooms. She didn’t want to leave Meredith
alone. Sean would be home soon, and Marla decided to wait on him. She
sat in the den and watched television mindlessly until she heard Sean
come in the kitchen door.
    She got up from
the couch and went into the kitchen. “Hey,” she said. He looked
surprised to see her.
    “ Meredith is
taking a nap and I didn’t want to leave her alone,” Marla said.
    “ Oh,” Sean
said. “Why is that? Is she okay?”
    “ She’s
fine. I just didn’t want to leave while she was asleep in case she
woke up and I wasn’t here, that’s all. But I think I’ll go now,
if that’s all right with you.”
    “ Sure,” he
said, his tone perplexed.
    Marla left,
knowing that Sean was going to get some more bad news. She hated
that. She had come to see that he was a sensitive person, in spite of
the corporate life he led. In spite of the suits and ties he wore
every day to work. In spite of the public relations work he did all
day long. In spite of all of the things Sean did on the surface, he
was a deep-feeling person, Marla could tell that.

Chapter
Six

    The next morning,
Marla lay in bed staring at the ceiling. She had painted all of the
ceilings in the apartment a smoky blue shortly after she moved in,
and now she stared at it unseeing, thinking about getting up. Lucy
had demanded her food a couple of hours earlier, and Marla had
stumbled out of bed to feed her. But she had gone back to bed, not
ready to face the realities of the day. Lucy was nudged against her
legs. The cell phone rang and Marla reached for it.
    “ He wants me
to do radiation and chemo again,” Meredith said without preamble.
“We were up all night arguing about it. I finally agreed.”
    Marla felt
relief spread through her. “I’m glad,” she said.
    “ I understand
what he’s saying,” Meredith said. “But it nearly killed me the
last time. If I only have a little time left, I don’t want to spend
it like that. Do you understand that?”
    “ Yes,”
Marla said. “I understand that. But I understand how Sean feels
too, because that’s how I feel.”
    Meredith
sighed. “I know. I get it. If the results come back that the tumor
has grown, I’ll do it.”
    And the tumor
had grown. And Meredith had radiation and chemo again. But it didn’t
touch the tumor. The tumor was relentless. The chemo ruled Meredith’s
life, and she was sick all of the time.
    Marla went to
stay with Meredith every afternoon, as she had before. One day when
she walked into the spare bedroom, the sick room, Meredith said, “I’m
done with this. I talked to Sean last night and he has agreed to let
me stop. I was so relieved. But he’s hurting, Marla. He’s really
hurting, and I don’t know how to help him.”
    Marla went to
the side of Meredith’s bed. “I’m sorry, Merrie,” she said
trying not to cry. “I’m sorry.”
    “ Just help me
get my strength back, okay?” Meredith said. “Help me so I can
have some good times before I go.”
    Marla nodded.
She was fighting her tears, but they rolled down her cheeks anyway.
    “ I wish you
didn’t have to go through this, Marla,” Meredith said. “I wish
Sean didn’t have to. I wish Mom and Dad didn’t have to. I just
don’t know how to stop it.”
    Marla sat on
the side of her sister’s bed and held her hand. After a while,
Meredith turned on the television that sat in front of the bed in an
antique armoire. The sisters watched Jerry Springer and laughed and
laughed.
    The week after
stopping chemo, Meredith began to improve slowly. She got out of bed
every day, and by the second week, she was