Page 18 of Goodbye To Tomorrow

"Why do you find such a trivial matter as the crowd to be a problem? You're with me and not them," I stated turning her face away from the crowd, so she could look at me.

"True but the Colorado mountains would have been better," Gracen rebutted in a playful tone.

I put on my ski kits which had been a Christmas gift from Gracen, and move to the edge of the chair, ready to go. I push off, knees slightly bent.

Looking at Gracen with a smile, nudging her on, "Let’s just ski, shall we?" I said as I pushed off with my ski poles. I looked back to see Gracen taking off behind me. "Damn it, I live for this shit!" The more dangerous the sport the more alive I felt.

I zoomed past the dips and over the snowy hills like the experienced skier that I am. Gracen moves to my side and I look over at her and grinned. She might be a top model, but she loved the feel of danger and excitement just as much as I did. That's why we clicked so well together. Gracen and I continued down the hill at a fast rate, zigzagging like a pair of ski Olympic champions.

“Wow, that was exhilarating,” I said once I reached the base. I slipped off my goggles so I could get a good view of Gracen as she came to a stop right beside me.

“Jiraiya, your nose is bleeding,” Gracen said with an alarmed look on her face. That was when I felt the warm trickle slide from my right nostril, resting in 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, putting it to my nose to stop the bleeding. After a minute, the blood seemed to slow and I tried my best to dispel the worried look on Gracen’s face with a joke.

*****

I played down Gracen’s worry and talked her into taking a bath with me. We sat in the big bath tub, allowing the warm water to soak into our skins, giving that incredible feeling of calmness. The words were silent… our eyes were closed. Our legs touched underneath the foam. Ahh… knew a bath tub could feel so much like paradise. But when Gracen opened her eyes, she screamed. It was there again...the blood running down my nose. The moment and the mood were ruined as I opened my eyes wide.

I felt alright; it all seemed normal. It was just the strain that I had put on my body. I looked at the worried woman in front of me as, slowly, my sight started to become blurry. And right then I knew something was terribly wrong....

Gracen helped me to the clinic and sat by me as the doctors ran their tests. The bleeding from my nose was persistent, it wouldn’t stop. When we finally got things under control, I had little to no strength left. Gracen looked on, somewhere between perplexed and terrified. My test results finally are in—I don’t hear the doctor. All I see is Gracen's beautiful face as it drowns in 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.

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