“An old man going fishing found her in a field. Her car had a flat tire and a dead battery.” The detective relayed the information to Jeremy and both sets of parents. “An ambulance is taking her to the nearest hospital—it’s just a small community facility. I’ll dispatch the helicopter from here.”
“How is she?” Jessica’s mother’s voice trembled.
Jeremy held his breath, waiting for the answer.
“She’s alive. But not by much.”
Jeremy gazed at Jessica through the window of the intensive care unit, hardly recognizing her. Tubes and wires seemed to be growing out of her body. She was swollen with water weight, and her skin had a ghastly greenish tinge.
“Are you all right, son?”
He turned to see his father, who’d come up beside him. “I’m all right. Dad,” he said pensively, “nobody should have to die of kidney failure. It’s a terrible way to die.”
“I never had an appreciation of dialysis the way I do now. Seeing her like this …” Frank didn’t complete his thought.
“And nobody should have to live their life hooked to a machine if they can get a transplant. That’s why I know I’m doing the right thing by giving her my kidney.”
“I’m still afraid for you.”
“I’m going to be fine.”
“Dr. Witherspoon says the incision on your back to remove your kidney will be about fifteen inches.” He held out his hands to demonstrate the length for Jeremy. “You’ll have a scar there all your life.”
“Jessica will have one too,” Jeremy countered.
“Your recovery won’t be easy.”
“Hers will take longer.”
“Nothing I can say will dissuade you, will it?”
“Nothing.”
His father sighed. “I didn’t think so. You’ve already missed the start of school, you know.”
“It won’t be a problem.” He’d already decided to finish his senior year. The schoolwork was easy for him. It would give him more time to be with Jessica while she recovered and adjusted to her new kidney and antirejection medications.
“I’ll be glad when this is all behind us,” his father commented.
“Me too.”
“Just for the record”—his father gripped his shoulder—”I’m proud to call you my son.”
His father left, and Jeremy turned to gaze once again at Jessica as she slept. He pressed his forehead against the glass partition and said a prayer of thanks to God for sparing her. Then, for the first time since the ordeal had begun, Jeremy allowed himself to cry.
After she left intensive care for a private room, Jessica learned that she’d become a minicelebrity. “You mean I was on national news?”
“Yes,” her mother said. “The mail still hasn’t stopped coming.”
“And your room looks like a florist shop,” her father added.
Jessica felt embarrassed.
“We saved all the newspaper clippings for you to read,” Jeremy added.
“I would have rather become famous some other way,” she admitted. “It was so weird when I was stuck out in that field. I wanted to do something to help myself, but I couldn’t. My brain felt fogged in.”
“It’s just as well,” her father said. “The police said the smartest thing you did was to stay with the car. If you’d tried to walk away and collapsed—”
“Well, it’s over.” She interrupted him. “And now the real work begins.” She looked up at Jeremy. “Dr. Witherspoon told me the transplant is set for day after tomorrow. You sure you don’t want to change your mind?”
“What? And miss my chance to make the national news?” he kidded. “Maybe they’ll want to make a TV minimovie about us.”
She rolled her eyes.
“They could get a hot young star to play me. And who could they pick to play you?” he mused.
“Willy the Whale?”
He chuckled, then sobered. “No matter how this turns out, Jessie, I don’t have any regrets.”
Two days later their beds stood side by side in the preop room as they waited for the transplant teams to assemble. Jeremy would be in one operating room and Jessica in another. One team of surgeons would snip out his healthy kidney and sew him up, and the other team would place the organ in Jessica’s body. The whole procedure would take four to five hours.
Jeremy felt as if he were floating. “This stuff they gave me to relax sure does work,” he told Jessica.
She wore a green cap over her hair and had an IV line attached to the back of her hand. “Do I look as silly as you?” Her speech was slurred.
“You think I look silly? I’m wounded.” But he couldn’t suppress a grin.
“Just as soon as you’re able to move, you come visit me,” she said.
“I’ll be there.”
Two anesthesiologists appeared. “Time to go to sleep.” They injected medications into Jeremy’s and Jessica’s IV lines.
Dr. Witherspoon leaned over their beds and smiled. “Okay, you two. It’s showtime.”
Jeremy felt the medication numbing his body. He turned his head and saw that Jessica was staring at him, her eyelids heavy with the drugs. He reached his hand through the bars of the bed. She laced her fingers through his. “I love you, Jessie.”
Moisture filled her eyes. “Thank you, Jeremy. Thank you for my new life.”
Chapter
20
“You look beautiful.”
Jessica smiled. “Thanks for the compliment, but you’re prejudiced. After all, we share body parts.”
She gazed around the ballroom of the hotel, at the girls in beautiful dresses and gowns, at the boys in formal tuxedos.
“I must admit I feel funny out here,” she whispered in his ear. “I’ll bet I’m the only college freshman at this high-school prom.”
“You missed yours. I thought you should come to mine. Aren’t you glad you’re here with me?”
She slid her arms around him and knew that beneath his tux, along his back, was the scar that attested to his gift to her. There had been a few problems after her transplant, but for the most part it had been trouble-free. She took antirejection medication, and her body appeared to have accepted his kidney.
“One of my friends is having a weekender on his grandfather’s boat after the prom. The boat’s anchored in the harbor at Annapolis,” Jeremy said.
“I hope there’ll be food.”
He grinned. “A crate of lobsters and a mountain of french fries.”
“Count me in.”
Jeremy hugged her tightly. She looked sophisticated in a long black dress that clung to her shapely body. Her thick hair had been swept into a luxurious twist and her eyes sparkled with vitality. Jeremy thought she looked far more elegant than the high-school girls around them on the dance floor.
“I’m so glad that I’ll be going to Georgetown in the fall,” he said.
“I’ve been hoping that would be your choice.”
“Okay, so the fact that you’re there influenced me a tiny bit. I’ve also decided to go into their prelaw program. It’s one of the best.”
“Why doesn’t it surprise me?” she teased.
He shrugged sheepishly. “I’m told I have a flare for it. My dad says, ‘like father like son.’ I have to admit, it’s great to see what’s happened to my parents. The group they joined, Compassionate Friends, has helped them meet other parents whose children have died. They’re happier than I’ve seen them in years.”
“I’m glad you and your family didn’t split apart because of me,” Jessica said slowly.
“Listen, Jake and Fran both passed their bar exams and found jobs.” Jeremy changed the subject quickly. “Jake was like a brother to me.” His voice cracked as he said “brother.”
“Did I tell you what I’m considering? I think I want to major in biology and become a premed.”
Jeremy laughed and kissed her lightly on her mouth. “Wait’ll I tell my mom. She’s always wanted a doctor in the family.”
<
br /> Jessica kissed him back, knowing that no matter what happened their lives were intertwined forever.
Look for Lurlene McDaniel’s next book,
I’ll Be Seeing You
When a chemistry experiment explodes, seventeen-year-old Kyle is left blinded and deeply depressed. As he is recovering in the hospital, he is befriended by Carley, a patient in the room next door. Carley becomes Kyle’s eyes and his cheerleader, giving him hope and a link to the outside world.
Carley has never met a boy as handsome as Kyle. She knows that boys like girls who are pretty—and she is not. Scarred by a facial deformity that no plastic surgeon can fix, she has, over the years, used her sense of humor to cope. But now that she’s become so close to Kyle, she’s worried that once his bandages are removed—if they are removed—and he sees her, it will be the end of their relationship. Carley wants the best for Kyle—but what will that mean for her?
LURLENE McDANIEL began writing inspirational novels about teenagers facing life-altering situations when her son was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes. “I saw firsthand how chronic illness affects every aspect of a person’s life,” she has said. “I want kids to know that while people don’t get to choose what life gives to them, they do get to choose how they respond.”
Lurlene McDaniel’s novels are hard-hitting and realistic, but also leave readers with inspiration and hope. Her books have received acclaim from readers, teachers, parents, and reviewers. Six Months to Live was included in a literary time capsule at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. Lurlene McDaniel lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Her popular Bantam Starfire books include Too Young to Die; Goodbye Doesn’t Mean Forever; Somewhere Between Life and Death; Time to Let Go; Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep; When Happily Ever After Ends; Baby Alicia Is Dying; Don’t Die, My Love; and the One Last Wish novels: A Time to Die; Mourning Song; Mother, Help Me Live; Someone Dies, Someone Lives; Sixteen and Dying; Let Him Live; The Legacy: Making Wishes Come True; Please Don’t Die; She Died Too Young; All the Days of Her Life; and A Season for Goodbye.
Lurlene McDaniel, Saving Jessica
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