‘Alex, you should go to the hospital, just to be safe.’

Alex’s father is usually on business trips, seldom coming home.

Since his mother died when he was nine due to brain cancer, he was used to living alone. But some days ago, his father had returned home from work.

You might think why does someone have to go to the hospital because of a mere cold. But before the day he fainted, Alex had been experiencing minor headaches and vision problems, but he just shrugged it off.

Things got serious after the day he fainted.

He started having balancing problems, memory problems, vomiting, and confusion in addition to the headaches and vision problems.

Coincidentally, his father had come home on the same day he fainted and had been observing him.

Seeing his symptoms, he realized it was no fever Alex had, but something else much more troublesome. He had a hunch what it might be but prayed he was wrong.

Seeing Alex walking so weakly with his hands on the wall for support entering the kitchen had him concerned.

‘Don’t worry dad, I’m fine, it’ll wear off soon.’

‘Alex, just accept it, you don’t have a fever, but something else, and you need to get it diagnosed.’

Alex knew he was right, but having a slight fear of hospital, especially needles, he refused to go.

‘I’m fine-’

‘ALEX!!!’

Alex had collapsed on the floor.

Next thing he knew, he was on a bed in a room brightly lit and had the sharp smell of ammonia. He realized he was in the hospital.

Alex knew his father must have brought him here. Getting up, he looked around to call someone. He saw and signaled a nurse.

The nurse, immediately seeing him, called the doctor and his father.

They both rushed in, his father feeling relieved seeing his son is alright.

Seeing his father in casual home clothes and not in his suit, which he always wears when he goes outside, made Alex wonder what happened.

‘How are you feeling, boy?’

‘Okay, I guess.’

‘You gave your father quite a scare, you know?’

Alex was vaguely trying to remember what happened.

All he could remember was him refusing to go to the hospital, and yet somehow, he was here.

’Well, since you’re here, let’s have you checked, shall we? Your father told us your symptoms, and we suspect something might be wrong, so we’ll have an MRI scan of you.’

‘It doesn’t look like I have a choice, anyway.’

After a while, the MRI scan reports came.

Alex’s father entered the room he was in, clenching the reports in his hands behind his back. His face, pale.

‘So Dad, what did they say?’

Alex was in his usual self. Giving a charismatic aura and smiling a naturally given confident smile.

His father silently sat down chair beside the bed. Alex didn’t notice his father’s expressions.

‘What’s wrong with me, and how long will it take for me to recover?’

Usually, in this case, you console a kid saying, “you’re going to be alright no matter” no matter how severe the case is.

But he couldn’t lie in this situation, regardless of how much he wanted to. If he doesn’t tell him, the doctors will.

Alex finally noticed the painful silence which surrounded his father when he looked into his eyes.

To put it bluntly, Alex was not very lucky or even the least bit lucky, in fact, the complete opposite.

He had brain cancer, the worst you can get, Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM).

Usually, any cancer, be it be brain cancer or any other evolves from stage 1 (least dangerous) to stage 4 (Life-threatening). GBM is different, not only being the deadliest brain cancer there is, it can evolve from stage one Pilocytic Astrocytoma, or it can also develop directly. However, it is rare it can still happen.

It also spreads like no tomorrow. And as cruel as it is, there is no cure.

As it would be fate, this was the very same disease that her mother fell victim to.

It was painful enough for his father to know that his son had cancer but reading the reports and realizing that this was the very disease that took his wife’s life, and there is nothing he could to save him, which was the same with his wife, was torture for him.

With all the medicine money could buy, Alex was given a time period of 15 to 16 months to live, the average life expectancy of someone who has GBM. It was like hearing a death sentence.

Alex took this surprisingly well. The first word which came out of his mouth unthinkingly was,

‘But… I… got school.’

His father grabbed Alex’s hands, fighting back the tears. Impulsively, he said.

‘You don’t need to go to school anymore, let’s go around the world and have fun, we will find a cure and fulfill your every wish, what do you say?’

‘Fulfill…my wish.’

‘Yes, anything.’

Alex was taken back a little. Incidentally, he wasn’t told that there was no cure to his disease, and there were only 16 months for him to live, yet.

Alex figured out on his own that he probably doesn’t have much time left after knowing he had 4th stage brain cancer.

He begged his father to let him carry out his normal life, at least until it was possible. His father agreed but swore to himself that he will save his son.

Six months had passed, Alex was put on intensive medication, but thanks to that he was able to continue his life like nothing was wrong.

Alex never had a wish he wanted to be fulfilled. He was actually very grateful and happy with his life, so he had no final desire except to continue things as they were.