Saving Joey

"...I'm not exactly sure how to explain this..."the doctor mumbled,looking at the floor as he entered the room with a file and some x-rays.

"Try your best,please," Tessa pleaded,holding onto her thirteen year old daughter -Joselyne- tightly for fear she might disappear.

The doctor didn't answer.Instead he put the x-rays up against the light and began to outline around Joselyne's intestines.

"Do you see this inflammation here?"he asked,being sure to point out the main points he wanted everyone to see."This inflammation is caused by your own immune cells called lymphocytes,"he explained.

"What are you saying?That her own immune system is attacking her intestines?"Robert,Joselyne's father asked,coming closer to the x-rays to get a better look.He looked back at the doctor with a grave expression.

"That's exactly what I am saying.Its not a very common disease,it usually doesn't occur in children younger then eighteen.Its called autoimmune disease,"said the doctor.

"Is there a cure?"Tessa asked,silently crying as she pulled her little girl closer to her.

The doctor didn't answer.

"Is there a cure?!"Tessa asked again,her voice growing as she gazed into the doctor's eyes with worried eyes.

"No."

"What do you expect us to do?Sit around and wait for our baby girl to die!?I will not let her die!"Tessa shouted,her voice hoarse and rough with crying.

"We have treatment,but there is no telling what can happen.Autoimmune is very unpredictable and attacks any organ in the body.We can try to help but we aren't sure if that will-"

"Do it!"Tessa screamed,burring her face in Joselyne's hair.

Joselyne wasn't sure what to say.She was dying,there wasn't much one could say about that.

"People do not die for us immediately, but remain bathed in a sort of aura of life which bears no relation to true immortality but through which they continue to occupy our thoughts in the same way as when they were alive. It is as though they were traveling abroad." ~ Marcel Proust