“Jiraiya, your nose is bleeding,” Gracen said with an alarmed look on her face.
That’s when I felt the warm trickle slide from my right nostril, coming to rest on my light moustache.
“What?” I put my finger below my nose, quickly feeling the warm blood. Gracen was quick to get a napkin from her ski pants pocket and put it to my nose to staunch the bleeding. After a minute, the blood seemed to have slowed and I tried my best to dispel the worried look on Gracen’s face.
Later that night after I warned Gracen to stop fussing over me, we sat in the big Jacuzzi tub, allowing the warm water to gurgle over our naked bodies, giving that incredible feeling of calmness. The words were silent between us as our eyes remained closed, leaving our legs to do all the talking beneath the lavender foamy suds. Ahh, who knew a bathtub could feel so much like paradise. But when Gracen opened her eyes and her eye met mine, she screamed.
“What the hell, Gracen…” I started to say. Sitting up quickly, I began to feel dizzy.
“Your nose is bleeding again,” she shouted, urgency in her tone.
I felt the blood running down from my nose for the second time in a day, and the moment of peaceful tranquility was ruined.
I grew dizzier by the moment; my body wasn't feeling like its usual self. It was just the strain that I had put my body through earlier that day. I tried desperately not to believe the words in my head, while trying to show no sign of alarm at the fear spreading over Gracen's face. But I lifted my hand again to feel my nose and my arms felt weak. I looked at the worried woman in front of me; slowly my sight started to become blurry. I knew something was wrong. Getting out of the tub was a chore; getting dressed was a herculean task.
Gracen helped me to the nearby clinic on the grounds of the Ski Lodge and sat by my side as the doctors ran their tests. The bleeding from my nose was persistent now; it wouldn't stop. When the doctors got things under control, I had little to no strength left. I watched Gracen as she tried to look strong for me, knowing she was breaking to bits inside. She looked on, somewhere between perplexed and confused. My test results finally came in. I close my mind off the doctor’s words. I don’t hear the doctor as he reads the results...all I see is Gracen's beautiful face as it crumbles...letting loose a flood of tears.
I am that man, the man Gracen dreamed of marrying. The man she loved has just been sentenced to a life of hell. Leukemia!