A Road to Nowhere? by Texasred13 (ebook pdf reader for pc .TXT) 📕

"Hey, Mom! Are you home?" blond haired Miranda called to her mother from the front door.

"Yep! I'm in the kitchen! How was school today?" her mother replied.

Miranda's mother was tall, red headed, and a hard driven woman.

Miranda slammed the front door and headed towards her mother brillant voice.

"Okay, I guess." Miranda walked into the kitchen and threw her bag on the table. "Can you look at this?" Miranda asked while pointing to the lump on her neck.

"Sure," Miranda's mother said as she inspected her daughter's neck. "What happened?"

"Nothing that I'm aware of. I first noticed it in gym class. I don't know if it appeared before that."

"Does it hurt or itch?" her mother questioned.

"No. My neck actually feels normal except for this thing on it."

"Okay, let me call the doctors."

"Yep. Well, I'm gonna go watch T.V. for a bit I guess."

Then, before she knew it, her mother was on the phone with her doctor. "Her neck has this lump on it. She said that her neck feels normal. Can I possibly bring her in so that somebody can look at it?" There was a pause on her side of the conversation, probably listening to the doctor of the receptionist. "Okay, thank you. We will be there at five o'clock. Bye." Then she hung the phone up on it's black holder. "Well, you have three hours before we have to go to the doctors. Go do your homework, and then we will leave."

"Okay," Miranda dragged out.


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Miranda's mother walked over to the receptionist's desk and checked her in. Not even five minutes later, a short nurse who wore Dora the Explorer scrubs walked into the waiting room. Her name tag said that her name was Savannah.

"Miranda Smith," Savannah called.

She got up and followed her to the door where the nurse had to punch in a series of numbers to get the heavy, wooden door to budge open. Then, they walked up the hallway. The walls were covered in tiny painted hand prints of many bright colors. The floor was a dark navy blue and it looked soft.

"Okay, can I have you take your shoes off? I need to measure you height and weight."

Miranda took off her shoes and stood up tall to the measuring wall. It said that she was only 4'11". She frowned. Everybody else in her class was taller than she was.

After they were done, she followed Savannah into a room that was decorated in an oceanic theme.

"You can sit on the bed right there," she told her as she got out the blood-pressure cuff. She came over and put it around her arm. She pumped it, and it closed tightly around her arm. She finished the rest of the things that they usually did to her while she was there. "Wow, you've gottn big since the last time I've seen you. The last time I saw you, you were six. Now your eleven. You've got glasses and the prettiest poker straight, blond hair I've ever seen. So, what has been wrong?" asked Savannah.

"I have this lump on my neck. My mom said that I had a fever,too. Sometimes, I have pains in my bones," answered Miranda.

"Where have your bones been hurting?" Savannah asked, giving her a wary look.

"Well, it has been my whole body, but especially my left arm."

"Okay. I think I know what might be wrong, but I need a doctor to be sure. I will be right back," Savannah said as she walk through the door.

"Sure."

Miranda lost track of time. She guessed she had been waiting for five to ten minutes before the doctor finally came in.

"Miranda, we are going to do a blood test. We have permission from you mom. I promise that it won't hurt," the female doctor said patiently.

"Okay. Do whatever you need to do to make me feel better."

The doctor walked over to the counter and pulled out a needle, a band-aid, and some alcoholic wiped. She walked over and wet down the inside of Miranda's arm and stuck in the needle. Miranda flinched in pain but didn't say anything. She pulled the needle out, said thank you, put the band-aid on, and then left.

Then she walked in five minutes later. "We are going to have somebody come in and do another test. The doctor is going to put a needle into you hip and remove a small amount of liquid bone marrow for examination. Okay?"

"Yeah, I guess so," Miranda replied.

Then, the other doctor cam in. "Hello, I am Jasmine. I am going to do your testing today. Okay, do you have any questions for me before we start?"

"Nope. Just do whatever you can do to make this go away."

"Okay then. Can you lay on your side and expose your hip for me?"

"Yep."

"This might hurt a little, but not a ton." Jasmine stuck the needle into her side after she cleaned and numbed it. She could here the crunching of the bone. She felt like she would throw up any minute.

Miranda closed her eyes and clenched her hands into fists. She could feel a tear prick the inside of her eye. "Are you done yet?" she asked in a shaky voice.

"Yes, I am," she replied as she pulled out the needle. "Would you like your mom to come in here with you?"

"Yes, please. Thank you." Then the doctor walked silently out of the room. In about three minutes, her mother was sitting in a chair across the room.

Then, Jasmine walked into the tiny sea room. She had her head down, looking at the papers. She took a seat. "I regret to tell you that your daughter, Miranda, has Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia."

"What is that?" asked Miranda's mother.

"Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, or A-L-L, is a cancer of the white blood cells, the cells in the body that fight infections. There are two main types of white blood cells-Lymphoid cells and Myeloid cell. ALL affects Lymphoid cells. Leukemia cells are abnormal cells that cannot do what normal cells do. The abnormal cells are immature white blood cells that cannot help the body help infections."

Quietly, so that Miranda couldn't hear, even though she could, hermother asked, tearing up, "How long does she have to live?"

Miranda was shocked by her mother's question. Then a thought hit her. "m I really going to die? Doctor, please don't say that. Please," she begged silently.

"Well, since it has been going on for about three months without being treated, I am going to say she will probably have a month and a half in the hospital. She will probably only have about two weeks outside of the hospital."

At that moment, both of them started to bawl their eyes out. Miranda ran over to her mother and gave her the biggest hug she had ever given anybody.

"I am extremely sorry. If you need anybody to talk to you about treatments you could do, ask the receptionist, okay? I am sorry once again." Then, she left.


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A week passed without any trouble. Earlier in the week, on the ride home from the hospital, her mother, Sarah, had asked her if she wanted to stay at the hospital and get help. The hospital had only one treatment, and Miranda absolutely didn't want to stay there and ago through with the painful treatment. Miranda had told her no, that she wanted to be at home with the people she loved, even though it was only her and her mother. Miranda's father had left them when she was just born.

Miranda was sitting in the living room watching her favorite T.V. show. Then, all of the sudden, she got a really bad feeling. She put her hands over her stomache. "MOM! I don't feel good. I think that I need to go to the hospital! NOW!" she screamed.

"Go get in the car now!" she shouted back from the dinning room.

Miranda ran toward the car with her mother on her heels. She sat in the seat and started to cry with her face in her hands, trying not to upset her mother. She couldn't hold it in any longer. She bawled her eyes out just like the day she found out she had leukemia. Then, she started to sweat, and she got a migraine. She knew that these were probably going to be the last moments of her life.

When they got to the hospital, they put her into a room automatically. It was like they were expecting her to come.

She lied on her bed silently and stared at the ceiling. She thought of all the people she had loved and the people she had disappointed in her short life time. She could think of many.

The beeps on the machines became quicker. Nurese, doctors, and her mother all ran into the room. Then, her eyes started to shut. Her head felt dizzy and heavy. They were all scurrying around the room, saying one thing to another. She knew that it was her time to go. She had no clue where she would go. Maybe she would go down a road to nowhere. A road to nowhere? That wouldn't be so bad would it?

"Thank you everybody for everything," Miranda said weakly. Then she turned her head to her mother. "Thank you for giving me a life that any kid would love to live. I love you and always will. I have to go now. It's my time."

Sarah sobbed hysterically as she held her daughter's hand. She demanded, "Don't say that. Stop saying that. Your wrong, you don't have to go. And I love you, too."

Soon, she heard the machine next to her, the one that beeped every couple of seconds, was just a long high pitched sound. It wasn't stopping. Then, she slipped into the darkness that was pulling her down. Miranda couldn't fight anymore. She had to go. Then, her eyes slipped shut, and she retreated to a deep, dark slumber.

Publication Date: 07-21-2010

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