Chapter 15: Rolf

When the chemotherapy was over, Doctor Brown’s secretary called Rain and told her that he had some news for her.

Of course, we spent most of the night awake, agonizing over what he might need to tell her.

She kept asking herself if it was her time to go, and she kept coming to the same conclusion. “I refuse to give up, no matter what news Doctor Brown has to deliver.”

I kissed her scalp and held her against me. “Everything is going to be okay.”

Whatever doubts I had, I kept them to myself.

Her body was thin and cold. I pressed her against my chest hoping my warmth would somehow sink into her.

“I love you, Rain,” I whispered. “I’m a fucking idiot for not telling you when you was living with me. I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

Finally morning came, and my gaze was drawn to the window. Golden rays streamed into the bedroom.

I gently shook her awake. “It’s sunrise, Rain. Can you see it?” I choked out the words. I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself. I had to stay brave for her. “It’s beautiful, my love.”

I drove her to Doctor Brown’s office. His secretary let us into his private office immediately. We sat down in front of his desk, our eyes fixed on him with anxious stares.

“I have some news for you,” Doctor Brown said.

Rain’s grip tightened on my hand.

“Your blood test results are good,” he informed us, with a smile.

We both let out a loud sigh of relief.

Finally, some good news.

“I have some more good news.” The doctor’s smile turned wider. “We have found a match among your Middletown friends.”

Rain began to cry happy tears. I was crying, too. We both hugged each other and cried. Rain was crying, I was crying, and then we looked into our eyes for a few seconds, and we both laughed aloud.

“Thank you,” Rain said, wiping at her eyes. “Thank you so much. Who is the donor?”

Doctor Brown checked at his papers. “A woman called Janice Cooper. She is young and healthy, and she more than willing to help. It’s not often we find a non-relative match so close by. This means we can do a transfusion and hopefully put you into full remission with a very small chance of recurrence.”

Rain and I hugged again.

“We need to wait a few weeks,” the good doctor continued, “and then we can get started.”

We both nodded.

When we left, it felt as if we were floating.

“It’s almost over,” Rain said.

“That’s it,” I agreed.

As soon as we were in the car, we hugged and kissed and laughed again.

Then, Rain picked up her phone and called Lukas to give him the good news. She put him on speaker.

“Everything’s okay?” Lukas sounded like he was holding his breath.

“Yes. In fact, everything is more than great. The doctor said my blood work looks really good ... the chemo worked.”

“Yay! That’s great news, guys!” Lukas cheered through the speaker.

“He also said that,” she choked on her words, so overwhelmed and teary, “they found a bone-marrow match.”

“Oh, wow! Wow! Rain...” Lukas was sobbing now.

“We feel just so happy, so relieved. We wanted to share the good news with you.”

“I’m so glad for you,” Lukas said in a shaky voice, after a long moment, “so, so glad. We will celebrate when this is over. You and Rolf should come to Austria.”

Rain looked at me and I nodded in approval.

“We will. Thank you, Lukas,” I said. “We still have a long way ahead of us, but it seems we are closer to the light at the end of the tunnel.”

“Of course, Rolf. Thank you for being there for Rain.”

“I wouldn’t want to be anyplace else. I love her and for some crazy reason, it turns out she loves me back.”

“Crazy reasons and Rain walk hand in hand,” Lukas said with a laugh.

Rain giggled at my side.

“It’s great news. It’s really great news. I’ll let you celebrate. Please, keep me updated.”

The second call was to Janice Cooper. I looked for The Gazette number on the internet. She was nice and insisted there was no need to thank her. We both got the impression that she actually felt uncomfortable with the attention, so we kept the call short.

No matter how she felt, she had made two friends for life.