Page 49 of Goodbye To Tomorrow

“Don’t forget your words, Karine. Don’t forget what you said to me,” he whispered while I was able to feel how hurt he was, how painful all of this was to him.

Money, education, a person’s status in life can’t buy everything, which was the thought passing through my head while we embraced.

“Last night you said…” I started but he didn’t let me finish.

“It’s not important what I said, I need you Karine and I need you now and always,” he confessed.

“I need you too.”

“And I will be here for you as long as I can,” he replied.

“Will you?” I asked tears in my eyes

“Damn it! I need more time. I..,” he started to say.

“Don’t hurt me, Jiraiya. I have had enough hurt in my life."

“I won’t,” he promised, and I just continued to hug him while the seconds turned into minutes, and my love for Jiraiya turned into a promise of forever.

*****

Jiraiya

Since the last flare-up, I haven’t been able to walk a great distance...I’m just too weak. Chemotherapy was taking its toll. Like Bob Marley said, “Money can’t buy you life.”

Karine was always there by my side. The promise she gave me was here, floating around us every time we were together, and I was holding on to that like my life depended on that. Because it did.

Karine was afraid; probably because she had been so close to her father who she lost to illness. Now, she is going through something similar with me, but she was trying to hide the fact from me, not wanting to make me feel bad.

Scared. She was scared, and I understood why. When you're connected with a person who will die soon it’s hard to be rational. You know the future. My future is just a ground around my coffin. My future died the very moment I was diagnosed. She didn't trust in love, but she trusted in me and that was enough.

"Are you cold?" She asked.

"Don’t hover as if I am a child." I replied with a smile on my face.

"You are; you are worse than a child," she replied covering my lap with a soft blanket.

"No, I’m not. And I am not cold. Is this too heavy for you?" I asked.

"No, the chair has wheels," she quipped.

"Okay, Smarty Pants. I have thought through the whole situation concerning your job," I added turning serious.

"I still think that you should find someone who has more experience in this situation," she spoke with brutal honesty.

"Why don't you earn that experience?" I asked her.

"I am one step ahead of you, Sir. Yesterday while you were sleeping, I went to the library. I was reading about leukemia," she said.

"Well, I didn't expect that." I replied, being more than surprised. I was speaking of something along the lines of you going to college.”

"I have been thinking of that too. I will make you a deal, Jiraiya Sampson.”

What kind of deal Karine Banks?”

“When, not if, you beat this thing...I promise to go to college and become a registered nurse.”

“But...”

---