A Kiss Can Save The World (Completed)

Chapter 19

Robert Burns was sitting in the living room with a smile on his face, while inside he was falling apart. It had all started to go seriously wrong when he heard the most hated word in any language, CANCER!

What made this a thousand times worse was the recipient of the terrible news, his daughter Carol had leukaemia.

That had started the worst six months of his life, he tried everything to help his daughter but seemed relegated to the role of spectator as Carol gradually lost her battle for life.

Robert could see she was loosing, a blind man could see she was loosing as the cancer and her treatment fought over her body.

His memory of a beautiful, bright, vivacious teenager bore very little resemblance to the frail, frightened waif who was trying to be cheerful for the sake of her family.

Carol sat on the sofa, wearing a baseball cap to hide the fact she had very little hair and wrapped in a blanket to combat the feeling of perpetual cold that nothing could seem to breech. She looked resigned to this being her last Christmas and seemed determined not to miss any of it.

His wife was in denial, her attitude was based on the assumption that she believed a miracle would happen therefore it would. Robert did not share his wife's belief but had never, ever wanted to be proved so wrong in his entire life.

His two sons were next to fall under his reflective gaze, thirteen-year-old Josh was very close to his sister and had been included in all family discussions pertaining to Carol's illness and treatment. Josh was putting on a brave front but his father could tell he was hurting, his son was a walking carbon copy of himself, in personality as well as appearance. Josh was hurting nearly as much as he was.

James was a seven-year old little scamp, his smiling eyes were used like a 'get out of jail free card' whenever the mischievous imp suffered the misfortune of being caught doing something he shouldn't be.

He was blissfully unaware of the impending doom about to decent on all their lives; his only concern seemed to be that Santa had forgot the expensive, must have toy that he changed his mind about last week.

How do you explain to a seven-year-old that money is tight because his sister is ill? The Burns family could never be described as 'well off' but they usually managed a comfortable standard of living. While the National Health Service meant no hospital bills, he still required numerous days off work, travelling to different parts of the country so Carol could receive the best treatment available.

His employers had been very understanding and allowed him any time off required; this had the unfortunate consequence of reducing his income as his expenditure increased.

With his overdraft and credit card maxed, Robert was really between the proverbial 'rock and a hard place' and if things didn't improve soon, their mortgage was going to fall into arrears as well.

Robert felt ashamed at considering finances while his daughter was so ill. He was enough of a realist to understand that even their strong marriage might not be able to weather the multiple hits of loosing their daughter, house and even his job.

There was deep-seated, mutual animosity between him and his wife's parents. The thought of having to live under their roof while trying to recover from the trauma of their loss only added to the feeling of being in an old movie, he was tied to the railway tracks with the express hurtling towards him and there was nothing he could do.