Chocolate Umbrella

Chapter 8 - Chocolate Umbrella

CHAPTER 8

April 2005

The season of Spring quietly came and no one seemed to notice. Though Easter bunnies were well stocked in toy stores and supermarkets, they did not bring the spirit of joy and new beginnings as they usually did, at least not to Emile.

It has now been a few months since the first visit with Dr. Chan. The biopsy and MRI results officially announced that Mark was a Stage-4 lung cancer patient, worse than the original guesstimate. Cancer had spread from his lungs, hip joint and to the brain. His days were numbered. Mark's body did not respond well to the series of radiation and chemotherapy. Though his condition was now stabilized at a certain level, he definitely was weaker than a couple of months before.

Since putting Candy to bed, Emile had been working on his laptop in the study. He ran his hand through his hair as he leaned back on the chair, eyes still staring at the laptop screen. "One year!" He said to himself and huffed out a frustrated breath. He was doing his research on the internet, educating himself with whatever information he could find on lung cancer. The more he learnt about the illness, the more hopeless he became. He felt as if death was crouching at the door step, ready to jump onto Mark at anytime. Death would not wait for long. Less than 10% of those patients could ever survive in a 5-year span, while there was only a 50/50 chance that Mark would live beyond a year.

Emile took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. His eyes were so sore and he rubbed them roughly, relaxing the eye muscles quickly. He had not had a good sleep since the first meeting with Dr. Chan, and it was many weeks ago. He was totally exhausted and had never been such a wreck. He always thought he had a happy and worry-free life. He could not recall one goal that he failed to achieve until now. He only wanted his father to live longer, and yet, he knew he would fail miserably in this task.

He returned his eyes to his laptop, minimized the browser and pulled up the Microsoft Calendar. He needed to reschedule a few meetings in the office. Dr. Chan wanted to try a new drug on Mark. She scheduled a few treatment sessions in the next couple of weeks and Emile wanted to be there. The drug was not so new in countries like the United States, but for Canada, hospitals were still not able to freely administer the drug without the patients' and their families' consent.

He looked through the available slots in his calendar. Juggling between the role of a CTO in a fast paced company and a loving son had tired him physically and emotionally. Though Marcus and Ryan knew about his father sickness, they needed him to manoeuvre the technology teams through the series of changes in the company. What he hated the most, was the facade he had to put up in the office. Meetings after meetings, issues after issues, he was so exhausted but yet, he could not show any signs of fatigue and weakness. Thank God he had convinced Marcus and Ryan that Mason could take on Conrad's job. He definitely could not have survived it without Mason's help. Though he was not a perfect fit for the job, with the proper support from the few technical gurus on the team, Mason could make do. For now, his job was saved.

He sent off a few more emails and decided to call it a night. He needed to catch up some sleep. He shut down his laptop and swivelled his chair around, facing Alena who was working feverishly on the last couple projects in her studies.

"Alena? Are you done yet?" Emile stretched his arms up high and yawned a little as he asked Alena.

"Almost. You want to sleep now?" Alena replied without looking away from her work.

"Hmm. Need to catch some sleep. I will go up first." Emile rose to his feet and walked up the stairs to the bedroom. He was just dead tired.

Alena was still very focused on her Business Strategy assignment. She had a group meeting the next morning, right after dropping Candy off at school. She needed to complete her parts before meeting the teammates. She continued to dig up a few more data points to support her proposal. After a few clicks, she finally found the articles she was looking for and quickly jotted down the numbers on her Excel Charts. She wrote a few more paragraphs and decided it would be good enough for the meeting. She saved the documents and shut off her computer. She looked at the clock and it was only eleven o'clock. She walked out to the kitchen and made herself a cup of tea.