One Last Breath

Noah

A week or two had passed by since the day Skylar’s family had gathered together in the cozy cabin, and the home had never really been that full after. I could tell that the gathering of all the family—whether it was only half or the full family—had made my patient happy, even if only for a little while. And happiness like that had a tendency to heal, but she was doing as well as she could at that point.

Anthony made sure that he could come out here as much as possible, showing how much he truly cared about his step-sister. Though he knew the sad truth about her future, the boy didn’t change the way he acted around her. While I watched them, it was hard not to laugh at their immaturity. They were the ideal image of brother and sister, arguing over the silliest things only to forgive each other a moment later. It was strange, but it was the way that they worked.

When Anthony wasn’t there, one of her parents would make a show of coming to see her. Sometimes it would be for a couple of days, but it wasn’t as long as I hope it would be. I could understand having to work, because they still had to pay for the girl’s medical bills, but you would think that they could make a little more time for their dying child.

However, when there was no one there to visit her, Skylar always had me. I was there constantly—excused because I was her doctor and needed to be here for her medication as well as exercise—but I was also here as her moral support. I was here to watch her as she laughed, hold her as her body shook, and catch her when her legs seemed to give up. The way she looked at me made me feel like a super hero. I could only wish I could be super hero that could heal her.

Right now I had her thighs in my lap, massaging her twitching muscles as they jerked under her skin. We had figured that this was the best way to stop the involuntary action, and it was sad that this routine had become regular. Skylar had her head turned towards the TV, a ghost of a smile on her face as the actors amused her with their humor.

After a couple minutes, the twitching had stopped, as did my hands, and Skylar had moved so that she was right next to me. Her head fit snuggly into the crook of my neck, her silky blonde hair tickling under my chin. Her hand rested on my thigh and I heard, as well as felt, her sigh.

“Do you ever find this extremely boring Noah?” she asked me, not moving from under me. All of my attention was on her and I had to stop myself from shaking my head, lest I disturb her.

“Not at all; it’s really relaxing.”

“You don’t miss the busyness of the hospital?”

I wrapped my arm around her shoulder and pulled her closer to my side while I kissed her head gently.

“It’s a nice break, to get away from all that.”

After that, she was quiet again, and I knew her attention wasn’t on the TV anymore; it had me wondering what it was on.

“Will you do something with me?”

I didn’t hesitate in my answer. “Of course.”

My simple and quick answer had her chuckling. Skylar sat up and turned until her blue eyes were staring into my brown ones.

“Come swimming with me.”

Now I wish I had at least waited until I had known what she wanted to do. I was expecting her to want to bask in the sun, cook in the kitchen, or maybe take a nap. Swimming was something I wasn’t sure we could do together, for her sake.

She must have seen the indecision in my eye because she jumped right back on the conversation to deter me from saying no.

“Please Noah! I promise to be super careful. Hell, you can even hold me the entire time. I just want to swim again like a kid. Please?”

How could you said no to a plea like that? Every time she used her childhood against me, I cracked under her weight and had to give in. When I said yes she squealed and jumped up—as well as she could—and was almost running off before I caught her arm.

“We’re staying in shallow water and you’re not leaving far from my side, got that? I don’t need you falling into the water and drowning because I can’t see you in the murky water.”

And in what felt like a second, we were waist deep in water, side by side as we slowly settled into the slightly chilled water. She was in one of two bikini tops that she owned as well as a pair of jean shorts, something she didn’t mind getting wet. I was in a simple pair of shorts, not having expected the need of swim trunks. Just like she said, Skylar was by my side, but she didn’t seem to mind. As long as she was in the water, it didn’t matter the rules.

Her smile was giant now, as bright as the sun shining down on us in the early afternoon and I had to admit that saying yes had been a good thing. Any time that she smiled like that had to be good.

“I remember when my father used to come out here and swim with me. He’d never give me the chance to reach the water by myself; he always threw me over his shoulder before I even touched the water, that way he could throw me in.”

I watched her slosh the water around with her hand as she retold me the event of her childhood here in the home, and couldn’t help but feel sad. Before her dystrophy, everything in her life had been what you could call perfect.

“My father was a doctor, which was the reason I wanted to be one when I grew up,” I spoke up, watching her as she looked at me, “I remember one time when I was sixteen, we saw a serious accident on the road. Without a second thought to the matter, he pulled over and jumped out of the car to check on everyone. He saved the life of the woman with serious injuries, and it was all so amazing to me. At that point I think I really knew I wanted to be a doctor. To help people like my father had.”

Skylar moved to stand in front of me, her eyes smiling as her mouth did. She went in slow to press her lips against mine in an innocent kiss.

When she moved back, her smile was still gentle and had my heart aching with emotion.

“You’re following in his footsteps well.”