Jenni pulled herself to her feet, fighting against the sudden trembling of her calf muscles. "Of course, Dr. Zuberi. How...how is he?"
The doctor hesitated before answering, "Let's step into my office." She didn't move, her eyes fixed on his kind face, silently begging for an answer. "It doesn't look good, Ms. Star. But we're not giving up on your son. Now why don't you come with me?" He held out his hand, gesturing towards the open door of his office. Jenni took one faltering step, and then another, all-too-aware of the sudden hammering of her own fragile heart. She finally stepped through his door, and the doctor pulled it shut behind them.
***
Jenni sat at her kitchen table, the Indian print tablecloth buried under a sea of books and papers: medical journals, textbooks, printouts of articles scavenged from the net. The product of hours of research in her high school computer room and library, and then a trip to the Yale library, and then the hospital library. Coke cans were stacked carefully in a pyramid nearby, reaching almost to the tabletop. Jenni's head rested on her arms, eyes closed for just a moment.
"You're wasting your time, girl!" The harsh voice cracked out from the frail figure in the corner, sitting frozen in her rocking chair.
Jenni sighed, and lifted her head again. "You don't know that, mom. Maybe I'll find something the doctors missed. Maybe I can save Chris..."
"Stupid waste of time. You're going to be dead on your feet at the diner. Face it. Your boy's good as dead." She spit the venomed words out, her face twisted in the light of the three candles that lit the barren room. "Better the bastard had never been born."
"Don't you talk that way about my son!" Jenni sprang to her feet, knocking papers onto the floor.
"Don't you tell me how to talk! You always did have too big a mouth. If I had the strength I'd walk right over there and slap it shut. If your father were here..." the voice trailed off, quavering. The old woman fell silent, and Jenni's sudden anger drained away into exhaustion.
"He's not, mom. He's not here, and I don't have the time to go over this with you again. I have to go to work."