Read Online A Rose for Melinda by Lurlene McDaniel - Free Book Online

Jesse Rose returned to California, she started homebound schooling, and her outpatient chemo treatments began. The protocols are two weeks on (three days a week) and one week off, for the next three months. Once chemo is over, she'll be tested frequently over the next six months and if she remains cancer-free, she'll return for semiannual checkups over the next few years. If the drugs do their part, she should beout of the woods in five years (by the time she's eighteen and heading off to college, this whole ordeal should just be a really bad memory).
    I told her I'll take her to Paris to celebrate when her chemo treatments are over. She said, “Dad, save your money … I'm going with a dance troupe.” What a girl! She never forgets her dreams and goals. Elana and I are so proud of her. Elana has dropped all her outside activities, except tennis, which she says she needs to “vent” and blow off stress. I use golf for the same purpose.
    Thanks again for all your concerns. I'll only post if there's something meaningful to say.
    Lenny and Elana

    MELINDA'S DIARY
    September 20
    Jesse wrote to say he really liked the B-day gift I sent (it's getting harder to think up good things to give him anymore—hey, maybe I'll mail him ME!). I keep thinking about him kissing me. I wish it couldhave been in private, because now I wonder if he did it just to say thanks for the good time, or if he meant it from his heart. I finally told Bailey how it happened and she said it was “really romantic,” because he was almost through security and had to make a special effort to come back to kiss me. I tried to play it down because I know she's been kissed lots of times. And me? Well, who wants to kiss a girl with cancer except for a best friend, like Jesse? (Who may just feel sorry for me.)
    He says he wants to come visit again next summer. I'd like that, IF I'm looking like my regular self and IF I don't have an invitation to dance school again.
    Homebound school isn't too bad. I get the work done easily, but I miss going to school. I miss seeing friends in the halls, the smell of chalk dust and, yes, even the cafeteria food. Bailey (the nut!) took a video camera to school and made a tape for me she calls “A Day in the Life of …” She had that camera running all day. She interviewed our friends, teachers, even the principal. Everyone says they miss me and want me to hurry back. Some of the guys on the soccer team sing to me. Very cute (and very bad singers). I've watched it sooo many times. It makes me laugh. But it also makes me cry because I can't be there.
    Elana's Journal
    September 25
    Now that life has settled more into a routine, I can be reflective of the past few months. What can I say? For so long, I was in “emergency mode”—sheer panic over what was happening to Melinda. Now I feel as if we're treading water. Our lives revolve around her chemo treatments and their aftermath. Some days she's too sick to even sit up. Others, she endures the treatment just fine. There's no predicting. As it drags on and I watch her push herself, I want to insist that she rest and take it easier. But it makes her angry if I meddle. It's dance that drives her.
    Last week, we got caught in traffic and she became tense because she knew she was going to be late for class. (An unpardonable sin most of the time although Mrs. Houston has given Melinda great leeway with the studio “rules.”) Still, Melinda holds herself to a high standard and refuses to “cave,” as she calls it, to bend or break studio protocols. In short, she won't allow herself any special privileges no matter what.
    Anyway, we got caught in traffic after chemo and by the time I pulled into the parking lot, she was extremely upset. She opened the car door and discreetly vomited. It broke my heart to see her heaving, knowing I could do nothing to help her. When she was finished, she dug out a bottle of mouthwash she keeps in her dance duffel bag and rinsed her mouth, took a