It was dark in the room. The
glowing numbers of the clock read 3:28. Maddie woke with a gasp. She was
shivering from cold but her body was soaked with sweat. The bedsheets were also
wet, evidence that sickened Maddie's stomach. She had been feeling poorly lately
but she'd dismissed it as doing too much and not eating right or getting enough
sleep. She'd been very busy; the dance-intensive video for 'Uninvited' had been
reshot, she had gone to the studios to record a song for a soundtrack and she
had been preparing a show for the MTV Movie Awards. She was in LA to choose
dancers and rehearse for the awards show. She had been out in Burbank the day
before to shoot an episode of The Tonight Show.
But this wasn't the
first time she'd woken up in a cold sweat. Maddie could no longer deny it. She
was going to have to tell her dad and schedule an appointment with her doctor.
Something was very wrong. She'd noticed earlier that a nick from a paper cut
she'd gotten almost a week ago still had not healed. And she had strange bruises
on her legs. Deep down, she knew what it was but refused to bring the thought
into consciousness as if not thinking it would make it go away. What were the
chances of someone beating it twice?
Maddie didn't sleep anymore that
night. The thought weighed too heavily on her mind. She wanted to cry but
couldn't--wouldn't let herself. If she cried, she'd be giving in, admitting that
it might have come back. And she couldn't allow that. She grabbed the spare
blanket from the closet and set up vigilance in the one chair in the room. She
thought about her schedule for the next month. She was booked solid. She
couldn't afford to be sick, she didn't have time for it.
She sighed. It
was such a small word. Six letters, two syllables. But it had the power to
change her life. She sighed again and forced herself to think the worst. What if
it had come back? What would she do then?
'Keep going til I can't
anymore,' she thought with grim determination. 'I beat it once, I can do it
again. And if I can't, I'll go out fighting.' She finally fell into an uneasy
slumber with the word on her mind-cancer.
(The next morning)
(The hotel restaurant)
A tired, scared and bleary-eyed Madison
made her way from the elevators to The Restaurant. 'Only in LA,' she mused, eyes
on the gold embossed sign bearing the restaurant's name. She sighed, swallowed
back the ever-present tears and went to meet Wendy and Romie for breakfast.
She found them hidden away at the very back of the restaurant. Romie had
his head down, inspecting the papers that were spread all over the table. Wendy
was talking into her cell phone. It was a toss-up as to who she was talking
with. The girl was completely boy crazy and always had at least three guys she
was 'talking' to. Although, she had been kind of stuck on Carson for a while, it
had fizzled out. Wendy wasn't the long distance relationship type of person. She
needed someone she could see and kiss and cuddle with everyday.
Maddie
walked up to the table and fell, rather than sat, into a chair. Wendy took one
look at her friend's haggard face and spoke rather abruptly into her phone. "Can
I call you back? Thanks." She closed the phone and turned to Maddie, placing her
hand on top of Maddie's. "What's wrong?"
Romie, head still bent over his
papers, said, "You getting those phone calls again? Or was it more dead roses? I
swear, people these days…" his voice trailed off. He had been on a campaign to
convince Maddie that the harassment she'd been getting lately was nothing more
than the usual fans stalking a celebrity. He never mentioned to her the real
reason they'd recently had a new addition to their entourage. Maddie thought
that Jacob was there because it was standard procedure for all Jive artists to
have bodyguards when, in fact, that was far from the truth. Even Wendy was
conspiring to keep the secret.
Romero looked up when the silence
stretched on and his heart constricted. Maddie looked as bad as he'd ever seen
her. Her hair hung limp and lifeless around a pale face accented by dark circles
under red and bloodshot eyes. "Mami?" his voice was questioning.
Maddie
smiled, or tried to, at them and took a deep breath. "I think I need to go to
the doctor."
Romero, looking a thousand times more calm than he felt,
moved the agreement he'd been reading to the side and took Maddie's other hand.
"Why?"
Maddie looked down at the table and then back up. "Remember when
I told you I was sick when I was little?"
Wendy gasped, already knowing
what Maddie was going to say next. She hadn't been around when Maddie had had
her battle with acute lymphocytic leukemia but she'd been around when Maddie had
celebrated her fifth cancer-free year in 1997. Her grip tightened painfully
around Maddie's hand but Maddie was too distraught to notice.
"So you're
sick again, is that what you're saying?" Romero asked.
Maddie swallowed
thickly. She nodded, afraid to open her mouth; the pressure building up in her
chest screamed for the soothing relief of tears that she refused to shed.
"So, we'll take you to the doctor and get you some antibiotics or
something." Romie looked back and forth between the two girls, not understanding
what the big deal was.
"Antibiotics won't do it," Maddie smiled sadly.
"I had cancer."
Romero sat back in his chair, stunned. He almost forgot
to breathe. He was shocked. Never had he imagined…He looked into Maddie's eyes.
No longer did she seem to be the competent young woman he knew and loved. Now
she was a little girl, afraid and not really knowing why. He would give anything
to get that haunted look out of her eyes. "I'll schedule you an appointment for
today, k?"
"But what about auditions?"
"Don't you worry bout
that. I'll have you home by lunchtime."
Maddie smiled again, a sad
imitation of the radiance of her real smile and the sight made Romie want to
cry.
