Thomas, it has been an incredibly long time when this happened, and I have a good reason for sharing this story with you. When I'm finished, I have something special for you. It's something that my mom gave to me, and I would really like to give it to you.
Thomas's mom looked directly into his eyes with a steady gaze, and a warm smile spread across her face.
"Mum, what happened next?" Thomas asked.
His mother smiled gently and then coughed. As she was coughing, she used her hands to cover her mouth. She coughed repeatedly, and confusion clouded Thomas's face as he watched her.
"Mum, I'm sorry, what can I do to help? Should I get you some water or anything else you need?" Thomas spoke with concern, his face tense with worry and fear gripping his thoughts.
Thomas's mother was suffering from pneumonia, a disease that affects the lungs and can lead to coughing up blood.
As her hands covered her mouth, she coughed up blood, and the blood stained her palms. She quickly lowered her hands, hiding them from Thomas's view, but his eyes remained fixed on her, reflecting his deep concern.
"Mum, what's that? Is that blood? Are you okay?" Thomas asked.
"It's nothing, Thomas," his mother replied, her lips forming a smile as she tried to reassure him.
She took a deep breath and extended her right hand towards Thomas, holding his hand. Thomas then used his other hand to grasp hers.
At that time, Thomas was only 14 years old, still a teenager.
Suddenly a knock sounded on the door of Sabrina's room.
Thomas's mother stared at the door, she wondered who it could be. "Come in, the door is open," she said.
The door handle cracked open slowly, and a tall, imposing woman entered, dressed in a white dress and carrying a box.
"Good evening, ma'am," the woman said. "I have been sent here by your husband, Lucas, to check up on your condition. I am Nurse Stefeni from the city of Castle Villa. It's a long journey from there to here, though."
"I specialize in treating pneumonia," she continued. "I just hope yours is not serious. I need to check your temperature to figure out the severity of the disease."
"Okay, nurse," Sabrina replied calmly. "Go on. It's your work, and I don't know anything about it, so I will abide by your instructions." She gripped the bedsheet with one hand and Thomas with the other as the nurse knelt beside her to perform the examination.
"Open your mouth, ma'am," the nurse urged. "I need to check something real quick on your tongue to know the severity of the disease."
Thomas, who was beside his mom, looked at the nurse as she gently opened his mother's mouth and inserted a long object looking like a stick, a thin stick. As the object was being inserted into Thomas's mother's mouth.
"Here it goes. Gently and steadily, stay calm; I will be done soon," the nurse said while inserting the object deep inside Sabrina's mouth.
"Wow, it's weird," the nurse said, her face flushed in surprise. "The disease has gone deep inside your body. Okay, now I am going to bring the oral thermometer out. Stay calm as I bring it out, okay?"
The nurse gently brought out the device, the oral thermometer, from Sabrina's mouth, gradually. When it was finally out, the nurse raised the device straight to her eye level and looked at it, examining it for up to three minutes.
"I will give you some drugs to stabilize the progress of the disease, but there is no assurance that you will—" Before the nurse could finish her last statement, Sabrina, Thomas's mother, tapped the nurse on her hand, giving her a signal not to say it out loud in front of Thomas. She didn't want to worry him.
The nurse turned and looked at Sabrina, quickly understanding what she was saying. With a fake smile on her face, the nurse looked at Thomas and said, "Don't worry, kid, she will be okay."
"Ma'am, is this boy your child?" Stefani asked.
"Yes, he is my child, my first and only child."
"Okay, that's interesting," the nurse said. "I could see the resemblance on his face; he looked so much like you compared to Lucas. Lucas has never told me he has a child."
"He only told me that he has a wife, and it was yesterday when he came to me, explaining the situation to me. We worked together in the same hospital in the city. So he begged me to come to check on you and know the present status of the condition."
"He told me that he has been treating you and also called different doctors to come check on you because it wasn't his field of treatment. He doesn't want to take the risk of losing you."
"You are a very beautiful woman, ma'am, stefeni commented. Your husband, Lucas, loves you so much. And he will do anything for you."
"If he loved me, he would be here together with you. Since you guys work in the same place, he could have come with you. It looks like he cares more about his work than his family," Sabrina said angrily as she gazed at Stefani.
"No, it is not like that, ma'am, I didn't tell you this to be angry; I was just trying to tell you how I felt with you and Lucas and how he acted; I can see it in his eyes that he cares and loves you and also his family. And by the way, the main reason he wasn't here was because he had a patient to work on. He can't just leave the patient and come over home. And by the way, it's his duty; he can't just leave his duty and come back home."
"He begged me to come over here because I was off duty; it was my turn to go off to return home. He told me that the condition was so serious that I had to check up on you since I specialize in the field of treatment of that specific sickness. He told me your address and connected me with a man who led me here."
"I had to be here for two days to monitor your condition so I could figure out the exact issue so that I could offer you the exact drug that would work faster. But for now, I am giving you some drugs that will help.
The nurse opened the box she was with, which was kept by her on the ground beside the bed Sabrina was lying down, and then she returned the device she used on Sabrina and gently folded it to the box.
On the other side lie some drugs. She reached towards the direction and brought out some different types of drugs, which came in different colors: green, red, yellow, and more. She picked a specific one, which was green in color.
"Yes, this is it," the nurse said, while holding the green drug in a sealed transparent nylon leather on her hands. "You have to take this now, ma'am," the nurse said.
"This will help reduce the pain you are feeling inside your body, and it will also help in inhaling and exhaling of oxygen. I will need a cup to dilute the drugs inside."
Ooooh okay, Sabrina replied, with a low tone voice. Thomas, please get the nurse a cup; I need to take the medication from her.
"Okay, mum," Thomas replied, and quickly stood up from where he was, close to his mom, and quickly walked out of the room.
"Ooooh God, ma'am, your condition is severe," Stefani said. "If fast action is not taken, you might lose your life. So we have to make a fast attempt towards this issue."
The nurse spoke out quickly as Thomas walked out of the room.
Sabrina laid quietly on her bed as she gazed at the ceiling of her room; she dived into thoughts. "What if I die now? I will leave my husband with my son to do everything on their own. I will miss them a lot. Deep inside, I know that I won't last long. Since the day my husband discovered the exact problem of what was going wrong with me, I started counting my last moments on earth. Is this how I will end, by dying? All my dreams of being an adventurer, to uncover the mysteries my mother was trying to uncover, will just die with me."