“He’s getting bigger every time I see him,” Karima commented, sitting at the table while Mia nursed.
“He is,” Mia agreed, grinning down at the infant. “I swear, he grows a half-inch every day.”
“No wonder he’s constantly hungry,” Karima said, half-laughing. Mia jokingly groaned.
“If I’m not actually nursing him, I’m pumping so that someone else can feed him later,” she said, shaking her head with a smile. “But I wouldn’t give him up for anything.”
“He’s a sweet baby,” Karima told Mia. “Never seems to be upset for anything—at least not for very long.” Mia nodded.
“He’s not a fussy baby, that’s for sure.” Aziz began blinking slowly, and Mia felt his nursing efforts slowing as he began to grow drowsy.
“How’s your mother doing?” Karima asked.
“She’s okay,” Mia said, “but there’s a procedure she could have that would hopefully make her a lot better; we just can’t afford it.”
Karima nodded; she was much more realistic about the family’s new circumstances than his younger siblings. “What’s the procedure?”
Mia explained about the letter she had found, and Karima’s eyes widened at the mention of chemotherapy. “That seems really extreme—they must be hitting the last few things that they can do for her.”
Mia shrugged, gently disengaging Aziz’s mouth from her breast as he fell asleep and settling him once more in the sling.
“If they can do that, her other medications would—hopefully—have more effect.” Mia sighed. “I’m going to try and start contacting some charities to see if anyone can help us. I really want this for her, you know?”
Karima nodded. “I can understand that. If Ma was suffering, I’d do whatever I could to help her.” She paused for a moment before speaking again. “Do you want me to watch Aziz for a little while, so you can work on it? He’s sleeping very peacefully, I’m sure he won’t wake up for an hour at least.”
Mia considered the offer. “I think I’ll hold off,” she said finally. “I feel like I’m not spending as much time with the little stinker as I should. Anyway I’d hate to put you out when I’m home too.”
Karima shrugged. “Well—if you change your mind, you know I’m always happy to watch him,” she reminded Mia. “Even if you just need a nap or something.”
Mia smiled. “I appreciate it,” she said. “I think, as long as he’s asleep, I can manage. I just don’t want to feel like I’m neglecting my baby before he’s even two months old.”
“I don’t think you’re in any danger of that,” Karima said, rising from her chair. “Just let me know.”
Mia nodded and stood carefully, trying not to jostle her son and risk waking him from his contented sleep.
Mia went back into the bedroom that she shared with Rami and considered finding her laptop to start her research. But as she moved towards the desk, her phone buzzed on the bedside table. Mia glanced down to make sure that the noise hadn’t awakened Aziz, and was relieved to find that he was still deep asleep. She hurried to the table, picking up the phone and immediately tapping the ‘accept’ icon. “Hey Mom,” she said quietly. “I’ve got Aziz sleeping in the sling sleeping so I’ll have to be quiet. Are you okay? What’s going on?”
“I just got the strangest call,” Amie Campbell said, sounding confused but, to Mia’s surprise, happy.
“What kind of call?” Mia sat on the edge of the bed, leaning against the pillows. Aziz murmured as he shifted against her, but showed no signs of waking.
“It was from the hospital,” Mia’s mother said. “They called to tell me that a charity had gotten in touch with them.”
Mia’s eyes widened. “A charity? What for?”
“I’d told them a few weeks ago that I wouldn’t schedule the chemo,” Amie explained. “They said that the charity contacted them this morning to say that they’d heard about my case and wanted to fund my treatment.”
Only the presence of her sleeping son prevented Mia from shrieking with joy. “Really? They’re going to be able to give you the treatment? That’s amazing!” Mia almost laughed at the effect of trying to keep her voice low and express how pleased she was at the same time. “But how did the charity even know about you? What’s the name of the organization?”
“They wouldn’t tell me,” Amie replied. “But they said that since they have confirmation of the money coming in, they wanted to schedule the treatment immediately.”
Mia shook her head in amazement, unable to quite wrap her mind around the fact that her mother’s problem had seemingly been solved so quickly and painlessly. The fact that the hospital couldn’t disclose the name of the charity made Mia uncertain, but it was such a neat solution that she didn’t want to try and push for more information. If it’s a mobster, or some company trying to improve their image, I don’t care. It could be a mass-murderer and right now I wouldn’t really care.
“You have to do it, Mom,” Mia said. “Call them back and agree to the earliest opening.”
“Are you sure?” Amie sounded concerned. “What if it’s a scam?”
“A scam? You mean the ever popular scam of giving a hospital money to pay for treatment and never getting anything in return?” Mia rolled her eyes, grinning with relief that her mother might soon be able to get better. “Seriously, Mom. You need to go ahead and do this.”
“Well, now that it’s possible,” Amie said, her voice suddenly sounding less certain, “I’m sort of worried about the side effects.”
“Mom.” Mia swallowed down an angry comment. “You need to have this done. The doctors think it’s the only thing that will really help you, right?”
“That’s true,” her mother said, conceding.
“Then do it. If you suffer with side effects then they can deal with that—it’s an expected part of the process, right? We’ll find a way to deal.”
“I guess.” Amie sighed. “I just…until about twenty minutes ago, I never really thought it was an option.”
“Well, now it is, Momma.” Mia said firmly. “If you don’t do this for yourself, do it for your grandson.”
Amie’s expression hardened. “Fine, fine, I’ll do it,” she said. “I’m relieved, of course, but I’m also just so worried, baby girl. I want so badly for this to work. I’m going to call them back now and schedule.”
Mia hurried her mother off the phone, telling Amie to let her know when the procedure would be happening so that she could be there for support. When she hung up, Mia found herself tempted to take Karima up on her offer of taking Aziz for a little while—not so that she could research charities, but so she could find Rami and celebrate the amazing solution that had appeared out of nowhere. Deciding they had plenty of time to celebrate without leaning on Rami’s sister, she instead continued to sit on the edge of the bed, smiling at her son and whispering to him that Granny would be all better soon.