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Dad gave his life for ours that night, so that Mom could save mine.
No matter how long it took, no matter how much I had to fight, I vowed to make them proud. To become the man my dad imagined I could be, and live a life worth living. I wanted him to know that his sacrifice was not in vain.
If I became half the man my father was, that would be enough.
After one last look in the mirror, I made my way back to my room, halting by the doorway when I saw Old Man Müller waiting for me.
“I’m sorry I woke you,” I whispered, not wanting to disturb anyone else.
“Are you alright?” he asked instead of answering, so I just nodded. “Good. Now go to bed, you need your beauty sleep.”
A small smile reached my mouth, and I wanted to saythank you, but he was making a point not to mention my nightmare, so I let it go. “I need to be at work earlier than usual again tomorrow. I’ll be there the whole day—”
“I’ll walk Suzie to daycare, and pick her up in the afternoon while Rosa is out searching for a job. Don’t worry.”
“Thanks.”
“Any time. She prefers me, anyway.” With a smirk, he returned to his room.
Sitting at the foot of my bed, I rubbed both hands over my face and looked around me. I was wide awake, and there was no way in hell I could fall back asleep after that. With a heavy sigh, I decided to use the time to administer my treatment. It was at least two hours before I had to get up, so that would give me enough time to burn the “high” the transfusion always gave me.
I inserted the key into the lock box and placed everything in the correct order on the mattress, including the catheter, but when I unlocked the small medical refrigerator my heart dropped.
It was empty.
Damn it, with everything going on, I’d forgotten to pass by the blood bank and retrieve my next month worth of transfusions. Sighing, I placed everything back into the box, deciding to wait until the next day when I could get the blood needed for my treatment. Missing one day wouldn’t hurt, but I couldn’t risk anything more than that.
One more thing I had to do tomorrow.
Hopefully Mr. Di Rossi wouldn’t mind me taking off for a couple of hours in the afternoon; this was as important as life or death.
.
