Ste. Vivienne's Clinic: "A visit during chemotherapy"
Note: This fictional story is intended only to entertain adult readers. If you aren't legally old enough to do so, please do not read it. This story contains offensive language and a brief scene of lesbian sex.
^V^V^
Marissa wasn't home. I knew exactly where she was. She was at Ste. Vivienne's Clinic, keeping Sosette company.
I felt bad for Sosette. I did. But she was a girl with issues. Partly because of that, I didn't want my daughter near her except during school and at home. Marissa knew this, of course, but she went to see Sosette every chance she got.
Sosette had been diagnosed with a carcinoma on her lower colon at 14. She'd gotten chemo, surgery, and radiation and the cancer had gone into remission. Later, she'd been pronounced cancer-free. During that time, my daughter had been a 13-and-a-half-year-old volunteering at the children's hospital. Marissa had met Sosette and the two of them had become friends.
Since Sosette had missed a year of school, she'd returned in the same grade as my Marissa. From that point, the two had begun taking classes together, picking the same extra-curricular activities, going on double-dates...heck, everything.
Three months after she'd turned 18, Sosette had been diagnosed with cancer again. The doctors had caught it early, but it meant more time in hospitals and clinics for the poor girl. She'd had successful surgery right away, but there was chemo ahead.
Then I'd learned from Marissa how dramatic Sosette's home life was. Her mom and step-dad fought a lot, occasionally to the point of punching, kicking, biting, and scratching. Her older brother often drank and got high on whatever he could find and/or steal. He wasn't often at Sosette's house, but when he was, he brought two or three of his friends. Sosette didn't feel safe then. At least a couple of times, she'd seen one of them brandishing a gun.
When I'd invited Sosette to stay at our apartment, she and Marissa had jumped at the opportunity. The day before she'd turned 19, she'd said good-bye to her mom and come to live with us. (We threw her a nice little birthday party. She and Marissa had looked so happy and content!) Luckily, she was still covered by her mother's medical insurance; her chemo wasn't quite complete yet.
One night after dinner, I'd seen Sosette washing the dishes and Marissa drying them. That had been when I'd noticed the just-healing cuts on Sosette's forearms.
Less than a month later, I'd gotten out of bed very late when my phone had begun vibrating noisily on the top of my dresser. Since I was up anyway, I'd gone to the bathroom for a glass of water and heard a sound I'd recognized immediately. Sosette and Marissa were both in Marissa's room, having "intimate relations."
A lesbian was sticking her fingers inside my sweet little girl; I wasn't happy with this development! I waited until the weekend to talk to Marissa alone. I had told her that I knew she and Sosette had had sex and that I didn't want them doing so under my roof. I also told Marissa that because she saw Sosette in school and at home, she shouldn't visit Sosette unless I was with her and she shouldn't stay in after-school activities with Sosette once Sosette got well and returned to school.
To put it very mildly, Marissa opposed these actions.
I'd never had an argument like that in my life, not even with my ex-husband. The shouting match had ended with her running out the front door, slamming it, and driving away--probably to the clothing store in the mall where Sosette worked.
^V^V^
Here I stood in my empty house. I wondered so many things. Would Sosette react to my objections to her infatuation with Marissa the way Marissa had? Sosette had always been respectful and soft-spoken around me. But a cancer survivor must have a will of steel under it all. Honestly, her environment must have warped her quite a bit, even if it didn't show on the outside.
Staying here and thinking wasn't going to help our little family. I had to go to the clinic and see Sosette--and Marissa.
^V^V^
The clinic staff know me by sight, just as they know Marissa and Sosette. The guy working reception at the moment smiled at me when he saw me approaching. "Room 2106, Mrs. Pearson," he said.
"Thank you, Anthony," I replied. I went right for the stairs, to the second floor, then turned right and proceeded up the very wide corridor.
When I got to the room, the curtains that separated half the room from the other half were drawn, so that only a sliver of the room's other side could be seen--and even that wouldn't be seen unless the observer got really close to the curtains. However, I noticed the very bottoms of my daughter's shoes and the legs of the chair in which she sat.
As I was entering, two clinic staff workers were in the vacant half of the room, busy with a piece of equipment that records vital signs. (I'd heard a P.A. call it a "robo-nurse" before.) The machinery rattled a bit and one of the casters squeaked. There was quite a racket for about a minute. Eventually, they wheeled the machine out the door.
"Wow, that was noisy," said Sosette. "Well, like I was saying, I've been writing that essay for the scholarship panel in the meantime. It's almost done."
"And you've been bored to tears," said Marissa. "I'm sorry I couldn't get here sooner."
"It's been fine. Really! Don't worry about me. I have to get this done and I make more progress when I'm by myself."
The girls hadn't noticed that I was here. I supposed that I should announce myself and go in to talk with them--but I wanted to hear what they would talk about when they were alone. Eavesdropping isn't usually my thing, but would I ever get a chance this good again?
"...college next year," Marissa was saying. "I've talked to a couple of friends who're living there now. They say it'll be no problem at all to get housing together."
So Marissa planned to live with Sosette in college, did she? She hadn't said a word, knowing I'd be against it. This was something else to talk about.
