Page 77 of A Thousand Broken Pieces

“Good,” she said, and then she turned her gaze to me again. My heart stopped when I saw she had green eyes. My bottom lip wobbled, but I took a deep breath and held myself together. “Are you Savannah?” she asked, a slight accent to her voice. It was so beautiful.

“I am,” I said and moved to shake her hand. Tala gripped on tightly to my hand.

“Dr. Dela Cruz told me I would have a visitor today. From America.” An excited smile spread on her lips.

“I’m so honored to meet you, Tala,” I said, making sure my voice was steady.

“You want to be a doctor?” Tala asked.

“That’s right.”

“Why?” she asked, and I felt my blood cool.

I looked up to Susan—Dr. Dela Cruz—and she nodded in encouragement. Then she said to Mia, “Shall we leave the girls to chat for a while?”

Mia glanced at me, and I nodded. Mia and Susan left the room, and Tala patted the edge of the bed. “Please, sit,” she said. “My family are coming soon.” She smiled. “I’m going home today …” She trailed off, and I sat down beside her. I knew why she was going home. For the same reason Poppy had near the end.

Tala never let go of my hand. It was weak yet held so much strength.

“Why do you want to be a doctor?” she asked again. “For cancer patients?” she tacked on.

“Yes,” I said. “Children’s cancer, specifically.” She studied me and waited for the second part of her question to be answered. “I had an older sister …”I said and really fought to keep my voice steady and blinked away tears from my eyes. “She had cancer—Hodgkin lymphoma. Like you.”

Tala’s face grew serious. “Where is she now?” she asked, and my soul cried.

I stared into her forest-green eyes. “In Heaven,” I said, and I let myself believe that with my entire heart.

Tala’s fingers tightened in mine. She looked down at our joined hands. Then she said, “I’m dying too.” Those three words caused an almighty rip in my soul.

“I know,” I whispered and held her hand tighter.

A wash of tears made her green eyes shine. “I try not to be scared. But sometimes …” She swallowed, a single tear falling from her eye and drifting down her cheek. “Sometimes I can’t help it.”

“It’s understandable,” I said and shifted closer to her. “What you are facing is the hardest thing a person can face.”

“Was your sister scared?” she asked, then said, “What was her name?”

“Poppy,” I said. “Her name was Poppy.”

“Poppy,” Tala said, sounding out the name. She smiled. “I like that name.”

She waited for me to answer her previous question. “Poppy wasn’t scared,” I said. “At least, she tried not to be.” I thought of Poppy’s resilience, her smiles and the innate happiness she’d radiated right up until her final breath. “She was so happy. She loved her family, and her boyfriend, fiercely. She lovedlife… right up until the end.”

Tala turned her head and stared at a picture beside her bed. There was a Filipino woman in it, a Caucasian man, and a young boy and girl. And of course, there was Tala, her arms wrapped around them all. “I love my family too,” she said, running a finger over their smiling faces. Turning to me again, she said, “I think I’m most scared of leaving them behind.”

“Poppy was too.” I wrapped both my hands around hers. “But we are okay,” I said and felt something shift inside of me. I was getting better. For the first time in four years, I had hope that I was getting better. That Iwouldbe okay. I smiled. “And I still talk to Poppy,” I said. “At her grave near where we live. And I talk to her in the stars.”

“Stars?” Tala asked.

I gave her a small smile. “I like to think of her shining down upon me, living among the stars.” A tear fell down my cheek. But it was a happy one. I was remembering Poppy withhappiness. “She shone so brightly in this life, I knew she could only shine brighter in the next.”

Tala was smiling, but then it faltered. “I like that,” she said. “What you said about the stars.”

“Then what is it?” I asked, noticing something was on her mind.

“I just feel tired a lot now. So tired.” She lifted her gaze to mine. “I’m not sure I shine as brightly as your sister did. Sometimes I feel like my light is fading. That things are getting dark.”

My heart skipped at her sad words. Leaning down, I squeezed her hands tighter and said, “Stars shine brightest in the dark.”

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