She Died Too Young Read Online Free PDF

saw the affection in Jillian ‘ s face for her brother and again experienced a twist of envy. How lonely she had been, growing up a sick, only child. For all her health problems, Jillian was lucky to have the kind of family she did.
    When the three of them were alone, Jillian asked, “So, what do you think of my family?”
    “I don’t think I’ve ever met anybody like them,” Katie said with a laugh.
    “They are pretty special, aren’t they?” Jillian motioned for Katie and Chelsea to sit on the bed with her. “I wish I could have been healthy like DJ. It’sbeen awfully hard on him. He’s perfectly fine, and I’m not, even though we have the same parents.”
    “And you were wombmates,” Chelsea added, taken by the idea that Jillian and DJ were twins.
    “Yeah, go figure. Same DNA, but in me, the stuff goes crazy.” A brief, awkward silence fell. Jillian finally cleared her throat and looked to Katie. “So, you’ve had a heart transplant. Tell me about it. I want the truth. Not this medical stuff the doctors keep feeding me. They can quote more dumb statistics, but not
tell
a person one real thing about how things actually are!”
    “I’ll do better than that,” Katie said, glancing around the room to make sure they were alone and that DJ had shut the bedroom door securely behind him. “I’ll show you.”
    Katie pulled her shirttail from her jeans and undid the buttons. Slowly, she parted the material and exposed her chest. A long, straight scar, raised and slightly red, stretched under her bra from the center of her breastbone to her belly button. “Eventually, it’ll get thinner and turn white,” she explained, “but this is proof that they filleted me like a chicken, pulled out all my old stuffing, and put in new.”
    Jillian’s eyes grew wide with wonder. Even Chelsea was moved by the sight, for although she’d spent the entire summer with Katie, she’d never seen the whole scar this way.
    “Can I touch it?” Jillian asked.
    Katie leaned closer, and Jillian gingerly ran her fingers along the ridged skin.
    “Is that what they’re going to do to me and Chelsea?”
    “Yes,” Katie said. “Out with the old. In with the new.”
    “It’s kind of scary.”
    “I know. I was scared too. And the first time I saw this wound, with all the sutures, I freaked out. They had to give me tranquilizers to calm me down. I felt like a Frankenstein monster.”
    “Well, it’s really weird to think someone can trade your heart for another,” Jillian replied. “Like you’re made up of assorted, interchangeable body parts.”
    “Parts is parts,” Katie said with a flip of her hand. “Seriously, it’s no picnic, but it’s worth it. I’m living proof of that.”
    “I wonder what my chances are,” Jillian mused. “I mean, I need lungs too.”
    “They wouldn’t have put you on the beeper if they didn’t think you were a good candidate,” Katie assured her.
    Jillian turned toward Chelsea. “I’m glad you’re waiting with me. I’m glad we’re in the therapy group together and glad you brought Katie to talk to me. It makes me feel less like some medical freak.”
    Chelsea nodded. “We’re in this together, all right.”
    When it was time to eat lunch, Jillian ‘ s dad picked her up and carried her out to a chair at a table overlooking a balcony high above the city. A waiter served food from a cart, and when hestepped aside, DJ raised his glass of cola to the three girls. “Here’s to new hearts. And new friends.”
    Chelsea felt secure about the “friends” part of DJ’s words. She liked Jillian immensely and could tell that Katie liked her too. But the “new hearts” part left her frightened. One day, her beeper would go off, and the doctors would cut out her heart! She could hardly think about it without feeling nauseated. She didn’t want to let the others know. She didn’t want them to see her fear. She smiled broadly because she was afraid she’d faint and they’d realize