If I Should Die Before I Wake Read Online Free PDF Page B

girls to help out in the rec area. Some of the younger kids have a lot of pain, and it helps to be distracted with games and such. Some of the older kids just need someone their own age to talk with. You know what I mean?” Renee asked.
    Deanne and Susan nodded. Deanne wished she could be down in the cafeteria, eating lunch with Kathy and Chris. She really didn’t want to be on the oncology floor.
    Renee led them into the rec room. She chatted all the way, giving them some details about the kids’ schedules. “Larry has to be taken down to radiology at one o’clock. He’s in room 404, bed C. Kyla needs a chemotherapy session at two o’clock. She’s in room 416, bed B. And we need someone to help write letters for Karen, room 423, bed A. She’s just had an operation on her eyes and the bandages are still in place.
    Deanne listened. Every kid on the floor had some form of cancer. It was hard to believe and she felt nervous. When they reached the rec room, they went inside. It looked a lot like the rec rooms on the other floors. Three video games lined one wall. Patients stood and worked the controls. They seemed unaware of everyone else. Some were dressed in pajamas and robes, some in T-shirts and jeans. Most were between ten and fifteen years old.
    Some were bald. Deanne knew that their hair loss had been caused by the treatments they were receiving. She swallowed hard and walked over to one tall boy bent over a video game.
    She watched him move the controls and stare intensely at the video screen. “Hi,” she said casually as soon as one of the video ghosts ate his electronic player.
    He turned to her. She found herself looking into two beautiful blue eyes. They were set in a thin, pale face that was framed by a mass of thick brown hair. Somehow, he looked very familiar. “I’m Deanne,” she said nervously.
    “I’m Matt,” he answered.
    Suddenly, she knew where she had seen him before—in the lobby last spring! His whole family had been standing around his wheelchair! That had been several months before and he was still here! She felt her voice catch in her throat.
    “You want to play this?” he asked.
    “Against you?” she asked.
    “Why not?” he shrugged his thin shoulders and pushed the button for playing doubles.
    She watched him as he took his turn. Deanne felt a little shaken. He was a very good-looking guy. He was tall and she guessed he was about sixteen. It was hard to believe he’d been sick in the hospital for so long. She wanted to know more about him.
    “Your turn,” he said.
    She took the controls and concentrated on the game.

Six
    “Y ou seem a million miles away,” Susan
said. Deanne glanced over at her
friend and stopped twirling the straw in her
soda.
    “Oh, I don’t know. . .” Deanne’s voice trailed off.
    “Those cancer kids really got to you, huh?” Susan asked.
    Deanne dropped her eyes and shrugged her shoulders. “It’s such a bummer, you know? Getting cancer when you’re just a kid.”
    “Are you going to tell Mrs. Sanders you want off the floor?”
    Deanne shook her head. “No. I don’t think so. Even though I hate the way she ‘volunteered’ me, I think I’m going to hang around up there.”
    “That Matt is pretty cute, huh?” Susan asked, leaning over the table in the hospital cafeteria.
    “He sure is,” Deanne smiled. “I wonder what’s wrong with him? You know, what kind of cancer does he have?”
    “I don’t know,” Susan shrugged. “What’s your plan for the rest of the day?”
    Deanne looked at the clock. It was already four o’clock. “Dad usually leaves around six o’clock if he’s not tied up. I think I’ll just wait for him.”
    “I’ve got to catch the bus for home in twenty minutes,” Susan said.
    “Well,” Deanne said as she stood up. “I think I’ll go back up to oncology. Maybe I can talk to Matt again.”
    “Have fun,” Susan urged. Then she added, “See ya tomorrow.”
    Deanne went up to the fourth floor and began