Waiting For This Cough Syrup to Come Down (this version discontinued)

Chapter 6

"It is much more painful to have lost something you thought you had, than never to have had it at all. If feels as if our trust was dashed. We are disappointed and we are angry; but not quite sure at who to direct our anger. Someone, perhaps "the system," perhaps God, should have done better. Most of all we are angry at ourselves - even though we did our best -  and we are afraid." - Jonathan Lockwood Huie.

Saniya's POV

I brisk-walked past the reception desk keeping my eyes glued straight ahead, grabbed my white coat from my locker and replaced my black jacket with it. I saw that the three other doctors were already in the office when I arrived.

"What's going on?" I asked, leaning against the table, observing their postures and body language. 

"We found the tumor," Dr Anderson began. "It's in his lung and it's extended to his heart -"

"Which is why we couldn't spot it on the MRI," I realised. I looked them all in the eye, more aware and interested than the previous thirty seconds. "It's growing along the heart wall?"

"Exactly," he nodded. "The surgeon had to remove Noah's heart, cut the tumor out and replace the damaged heart muscle with bovine patches. At first, we thought that there may not be enough heart muscle, but he pulled through."

"Ok, but wait," I paused them, confused as to why their expressions were so sombre, "you could've told me this over the over the phone, you paged instead: I'm not seeing the problem."

"The problem," Dr. Vayla pitched in, "is that he had a bleed in his eye."

My heart seemed to stop for a millisecond. We'd just come out of one problem and now we ran into another! That - that can't be...I mean it -

I regained myself. "A heart tumor wouldn't have caused that."

"Meaning the tumor was benign," Dr. Anderson nodded. "We figured your input would be useful."

"Harmless? That's not possible," I ran a hand through my hair thoughtfully as the news sunk in.  "I mean, say the tumor is benign, that means it didn't cause the hallucination. You're saying the tumor's a coincidence."

"It could be," Dr. Vayla shrugged.

"No," I shook my head. "It can't be; I said it was there and it was."

"OK," Dr. Rozen finally spoke; for some reason, I was really beginning to hate her for her silences - she should've been participating more than any of us seeing as she was head of our team. "Let's start from the beginning: an eleven year old boy has a coincidental and harmless tumor growing around his heart and a simultanious hallucination. Suggestions - go."

Thank you so much for your input.

"A clot behind the eye causes pressure making it bleed," Dr. Vayla started.

"Doesn't explain the hallucination," I said dully.

"The clot caused the small seizures," Dr. Anderson offered.

"The clot could explain the hallucinations and the bleed but we're forgetting the tumor," Dr. Rozen said, looking rather agitated. "A tumor that big isn't a coincedence!"

I leaned back on the counter, my arms folded and stared at the floor deep in thought. That was when it struck.

"The tumor is an all-powerful bad guy from Ninja Gaidan," I said out loud, thoughtfully. "And the clot is the little creeps that attack you while you fight it."

The silence that lingered was comical; I raised my head and saw that the three other diagnostitions were staring at me as though I had spoken Parseltongue to them. I mentally rolled my eyes, remembering that they were much older than I was, therefore must've never played Ninja Gaidan or any game of that sort.