Wei Yee’s parents dropped Anna at the hospital and they left for home on Anna’s insistence. Wei Yee had persisted to stay with her to offer comfort and help in any way but Anna preferred to face this situation with family only, at least for now.
She found the caller sitting in the ward’s common area, his gaze fixed on the styrofoam cup he was grasping with both hands. He didn’t blink when the steam arising from the coffee connected with his eyes. ‘Uncle Leon,’ Anna sniffled. ‘Oh Anna,’ he replied while getting up and circling his arms around to give her a tight hug. Her uncle looked drained. His hair was ruffled and his expression pale. ‘Where is Ma? What happened exactly? I tried calling so many times but I can’t get through to you or Ma’ she asked as tears blurred her vision. ‘You must’ve called when I was in the doctor’s room and had my phone turned off. I guess there’s no point trying to hide it from you any longer. Did you notice any change in your mother lately?’ he said. Anna thought for a moment before answering ‘No, not really. Perhaps she has been going to bed earlier nowadays but I thought it’s because her age is catching up’. ‘Yea, she gets fatigued easily and her weight has dropped steadily over the last four months,’ Uncle Leon added. Anna was silent. She felt stupid for not noticing these signs earlier. ‘She’s in pain Anna. For the past couple of months, the pain had gotten worse. Earlier this morning, she was heading out to the market. She wanted to cook your favourite soy sauce chicken tonight but the pain came suddenly. It was so unbearable she collapsed and after a while, she managed to drag herself to the phone and called me. I rushed over and got her admitted,’ he said. Her tears were now streaming down her cheeks as she asked ‘But why? Why is Ma suffering like this?’ ‘The doctors did some tests and they just confirmed it. Your mom has leukaemia,’ he answered her dejectedly. When the words finally sank in, Anna felt her gut being turned inside out. Her head was spinning as if the entire building just crashed on her. ‘I need to go see her now,’ she said.
Claire was warded into a twin sharing room. Because the bed beside her was unoccupied, the lights on that side were switched off casting an overall gloom over the already dimly lit ward. The walls painted with pastel green shows signs on peeling revealing the truer age of the building. A 14 inch tv hung by the top corner of the room with the pieces of its remote held together with lots of scotch tape. The entire place stank of bitter medicine and artificially scented floor detergent.
Anna stood at the doorway starring at her mother. Her mother’s body looked shockingly frail under the bare fluorescents. Her face was ashen and her lips showed a hue of purplish blue. A drip was inserted into Claire’s left hand and Anna could clearly see the swell of her mother’s vein where the needle pierced through the skin and then flesh. Anna couldn’t bear the depressing sight and silently, the tears kept flowing. Claire turned her body slightly and the metal bed creaked fiercely in response. She grimaced before letting out a series of violent coughs. Anna rushed to her mother’s side and rubbed her chest to pacify the irritated lungs. Claire slowly opened her eyes and managed to give her daughter a very tired smile. ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’ Anna said in between sobs, her tears splattering on her mother’s dry cheeks. ‘I didn’t know it’s cancer and wouldn’t want to worry you. I also wanted you to focus on your studies,’ replied Claire weakly before coughing again. Anna turned to her Uncle and asked ‘How come Ma’s condition changed so quickly? She looked fine before I went to camp’. ‘The doctor said with leukaemia, things can turn bad very rapidly,’ Uncle Leon explained. ‘Come Anna, we should let your mother rest. I also need to get you home to pack your mother’s stuff to bring over. We rushed here this morning we didn’t have time to take anything with us’.
Anna bent over to her mother’s ear and whispered ‘Ma, rest well you hear. We’ll be back real soon. Everything is going to be ok’. She gave her mother’s arm a reassuring grip before leaving with her uncle.
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