“One day, when Epimetheus lay sleeping, Pandora stole the key and opened the box.” –Pandora’s Box

“Ring! Ring! Ring!” the phone woke me up from a quite intense nap.

“Mom! The phone!” , then I saw a note that read:


Madeline,



Gone to grocery store! Be back!






Love,







Mom
“Crap!” I said running towards the phone.
“Hello?”
“Um. Yes, this is Doctor Hemmings. Can I please speak to Mrs. Madeline York?”

I was patient number 11 among 20 there. My name was Madeline, just in case you were wondering. I don’t know what made me write this. Maybe, so I could let my feelings out or maybe so someone else could read it. I had given up on trying to make myself look presentable for these weekly or monthly meetings with the place that was supposed to make me “better”. I was tired. I was lonely. I had fought this battle for 2 years now and met here every month. But, when it got bad every week.
“This is she.” I started to get nervous, my head started pounding.
“Oh, okay… I don’t really know how to say this but…”
Oh great, what was it? I now was really nervous and I had a feeling...
“You have relapsed, and you now have lung cancer once again.”
“What a jerk.” Feeling the tears pour out my eyes I hung up the phone. I just didn’t understand why this terrible thing could happen to me and right as I walked to the couch. My mom came in.

“Hello?”
“Mom, I have cancer again.” She dropped all of the groceries that were in her hands, and ran to me hugging me and crying to me.
I had been diagnosed with bronchioloaveolar carcinoma. Or in other words, lung cancer. I was diagnosed with it on June 7th, 2011.
We sat there for a good while with me just crying to her and her comforting me. I didn’t really know what to do or think of the life changing thing that just happened to me.
It was my 12th birthday. For the first year I was depressed but cheerleading helped me get through everything that went wrong. Until, I got weak and couldn’t breathe while in practice. I got depressed again because life just wasn’t the same without cheer. Shortly after that, I had to be taken out of school. I left my friends. At first, they came to visit me then the visits were more spaced out and now nonexistent. I hated cancer.
My mom left me to reach for the phone. I never thought that this would be happening again. I was determined to stay strong throughout it all though. I mean I had too. I had too.

“Out flew every kind of disease and sickness, hate and envy, and all the bad things that people had never experienced before. Pandora slammed the lid closed, but it was too late. All the bad things were already out of the box. They flew away, out into the world.” –Pandora’s Box