Teen Ink

september 23-29

9.28.12
Odelia keeps her right hand curled up on her stomach as she sleeps. Her mother tells me it’s expected. I nod. She lets a tear slip as she says, we’ve tried everything: chemo, radiation. I say to her, I know, I know. Her mother says, oh, if only operating on the brain stem wasn’t too difficult—I just wish they would do it. She wipes her running mascara with a cloth pulled from her pocket. I tell her, I do too.