Discovery

TEXAS - "I found it," she told me, "and I'm scared. I've never felt anything like this and although I know the symptoms say it's probably not cancer, I'm still scared.

I've done the research online and talked to my friends, my family, and friends of my family. They all say shush-shush, no worries, things like that. I'm sure its nothing, they tell me, just go get it checked and you'll see. It's nothing, nothing, nothing!

That's what they say, with their words. But I keep looking at them as they talk, and their eyes say something else. Some panic 'oh-my-gosh-i-wont-know-what-to-say-if-she-gets-sick.' Some are planners, and they've already begun the calendar and schedule for cancer center drivers and food delivery in their head as soon as I said 'lump.'"

"So I'm scared," she tells me. Online. Virtually. Miles and miles and miles away, where I can't hold her hand or hand her a book or teach her how to wear a scarf on her head. Sometimes the world seems quite small, but on days like today, it feels like a vast and open planet. And it's a planet full of people who need comfort.

I'm waiting for her email, and I know it will say that the lump was nothing.