"Mr. Alexander, do you smoke?"
"No, he doesn't, doctor. Is something wrong?" Amera asked from the side, her fear starting to creep up.
Today was a regular checkup in the hospital for the whole class and every student was healthy, but why did the doctor suddenly ask this ominous question?
The doctor glanced at all the cheery students who suddenly turned silent and then looked at the frowning Alexander, "Sir, tell me yourself please, do you smoke?"
Alexander was silent for a moment before he said, shaking his head, "I haven't smoked once in my whole life."
"Do you play around with chemicals much?"
"Not above what any average student might come across. What is it doctor, can you get to the point?"
"Look, Mr. Alexander, I am sorry but you...have been tested with Terminal Cancer, your cells are deteriorating and you might not... live very long."
The room turned pin-drop silent, eyes couldn't help but widen and hearts couldn't help but shudder.
"Bu...But he doesn't even smoke!" Amera couldn't help but exclaim while her guts started to wrench. 'No, No, No way!'
She hadn't said it yet, but to her, Teacher Alexander had long since ceased to be a mere teacher. She was long in love with him.
and now?
'Ca...Cancer?!' her heart couldn't take it, she was on the verge of fainting.
"Doctor, isn't there some kind of treatment, some expensive method to treat him? Money is not an issue. We have a lot of it," said a short student from the bunch, his voice stern, even a bit of warning in it.
The doctor shook his head, "The thing is, Mr. Alexander's situation is one of the worst I have seen in my whole career, he seems like someone who had been exposed to severe radiation for years, as if a man who bathed in X-Rays for days on..."
Amera from the side couldn't help her tears falling gently and asked, "Ho...How long will he live?"
Leaning back on his chair, the doctor sighed in regret, such a young teacher, he was not even in his mid-twenties yet, "I can't say for certain how long, but I am sure... it can't be more than two months."
"Bu—"
"Amera, it's enough. Don't act as if it is the doctor's mistake," Alexander said as he rubbed his forehead. Radiation, Radiation exposure... no matter how he thought, only that room with floating objects, the room that he considered a dream came to mind.
Wasn't that too long ago though? Why now?
But...two months...huh... that is certainly a short time to say goodbyes...
He didn't know why, but he didn't feel much sad at the moment, more like this blank, disconnected feeling.
Ting. A small chime of a bell rang and the doctor sighed once more before saying, "You may come in."
A nurse hesitantly opened the door and came in with a file in her hands, moving past Alexander, she briefly glanced at him weirdly and then placed the file on the doctor's table.
All 20 of the students kept their silence and just looked at her. She murmured something in the doctor's ears and then walked back out of the room.
A silence remained inside for a second before the doctor spoke, his voice filled with questions, "Mr. Alexander, please don't mind me questioning you about something, this is not about your cancer but something else... which is equally as troubling as the former."
Alexander spoke with a blank tone, "What might you be speaking about?"
The doctor opened the files and took out an X-ray, "Look at this Image, Mr. Alexander," he placed it on a light emitter and showed it clearly.
All twenty students looked at it with a focused gaze. "Look at the place below its chest, can you see a black mark?"
Alexander looked and found, indeed there was something just below his chest, something round like a pearl or something. "What is that?"
The Doctor frowned and shook his head, "That is something I should be asking you, what did you swallow that got stuck in your body? Don't you feel any pain? It looks like some bead, or gem or something."
Alexander unknowingly touched his chest. "No, I don't feel any pain."
"We might have to operate that out too," the doctor looked at the X-Rays and then said, "It seems to have almost fused into your chest area. That would be extremely hard to remove."
"I see," Alexander licked his molars and stood up from his seat and then turned around, "It must have stayed with me for a while, no reason there to remove it now, let's see whether it can survive another two months."
He then walked towards the door with heavy steps, the students couldn't even follow behind him. They were too rattled at the moment.
Only Amera moved with him, she didn't want to leave him alone now, she herself was at a breaking point but she didn't want to let him be alone.
The doctor spoke, a bit hesitant, "You shouldn't lose hop—"
Alexander chuckled, his voice a bit hoarse, "Don't bother, even you don't have hope."
The doctor couldn't speak anymore.
Opening the door, Alexander left the room and Amera followed, the door closed behind them.
Leaving a heavy silence behind.