Better Late Than Never

"Please, please hurry. We need to get there before they close." I rushed around the apartment trying to find my sons insurance card, I'm not sure why I took it out of my wallet in the first place. My children were tearing the apartment apart trying to help me, but I think it was only making things harder for us. 

My son, Max, was recently diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. We were finally being transferred to this new office that specifically specialized in rare forms of cancer. It was over an hour away and if I didn't leave within the next five minutes we were certainly going to be late. 

I was always late to everything; parties, classes, dropping my kids off at school... gosh if anything, this was the one time I couldn't be late. Once I was late to my own scheduled labor. The day I was scheduled to have my daughter, Alena, I thought my appointment was at 1:30 in the afternoon... no... it was at 10:30 in the morning. Somehow my brain just misplaced the 0, which don't ask me how that happened because I don't think I could even make up an excuse.

"Mommy, is this it?" Alena waved the white and blue card in the air. 

"Yes! Yes!" I jumped for joy and grabbed it from her hands, shoving it in my pocket. "Let's go, shoes on and out the door!" I did a mental head count, making sure I had all four kids before shoving them out the door and shutting it behind me. We were leaving eight minutes behind schedule, but I wasn't going to let that get ahead of us. 

"JJ, can you please read the email that the office sent to double check the time of our appointment?" I handed him my phone with my email open. JJ was the oldest, only fifteen and practically helping me take care of his siblings. He was the only child I had from my first marriage. His father was an incredibly rich socialite that spent his days in fancy offices and his nights at casinos and extravagant parties. If only alcoholism didn't get the best of him... maybe I wouldn't be a single mother of four right now if I hadn't relied on him so much. 

Just two years after his father died, I met the love of my life, Jackson. With him I had three more kids: Max, Maggie, and Alena. Max and Maggie are twins and just shy of ten-years-old. Jackson died in a car accident, but the autopsy found that he had the same cancer as Max. When we found out that it could be hereditary we tested the twins and Alena. Honestly, if Jackson hadn't died we would've never known that Max had cancer. 

"Six o'clock. Does that sound right?" Jackson locks my phone and slides it into the cup holder. 

"Yup. Off we go..." I sigh a breath of relief as we enter the highway. Only 53 more minutes to go and we will have more answers than we've ever had before. The first three doctors we went to basically told us that they never had even heard of this type of cancer. Another doctor told me that he had one patient and they had died the next week. Not sure why the doctor told me that as if it would help the situation. 

Luckily, Maxy is a fighter. Not because he legitimately wants to fight for his life, but because he is more concerned about the fact that he hasn't even had a girlfriend and "how embarrassing would it be to be single forever". Me too buddy, me too. 

"Mommy, are we gonna make it?" I hear Max shuffle in the backseat. I could feel him kicking the back of my seat, most likely because he was nervous. He probably heard me earlier today when I was speaking to my mother on the phone.

"No mom, I cannot reschedule. It's incredibly hard to get an appointment with them. Not to mention if I reschedule, cancel, or I'm late to too many appointments then they fire you as a patient..." 

"I know, I know... yes, I know I'll be working until late, but I can make it. I promise." 

"Yes bud, we will make it. We only have about 35 more minutes left." I smile at him through the rearview mirror. He nods his head, but I don't think he believes me. At our last appointment with the other doctor I was late. That is also partially why we need a new one. I had been late so many times they told me that they weren't going to continue allowing me to schedule appointments with them. I never told Max that this was the reason why we needed to go to a new doctor that was an hour away from us, but I think he saw the letter sitting on the dining room table that day that I picked the kids up from after school camp. So whether I wanted him to know or not, he most certainly found out on his own anyway. 

"Mom... we are definitely not making it," JJ whispers to me and looks down at my phone. "You said we had 35 minutes left, but it's 5:40." He shines the bright screen in my face. 

"JJ shush, we will be there." I speed up and grip the steering wheel tighter. 

The remainder of the drive was just as tense as the time I was waiting for my first pregnancy test to load: sweaty, anxious, and emotional. Maggie was crying in the backseat because it was 6:09 and she was convinced that if we missed this appointment that her twin brother was going to die. Max was just flat out angry because I was late to something else that was important (He is certainly not going to talk to me after this one). JJ was in the passenger seat repeating the words: " I told ya so" under his breath, most likely thinking that I couldn't hear him. 

"Listen guys, I get it, we're late. It's only 6:09 though so let's just get out of the car and sprint in there!" I shut the car off and lock it as five deranged people run through the parking lot of the office. It was surprisingly very empty and for a moment I wondered something.

It looks like they're closed. 

JJ ran ahead and yanked on the doors, but they weren't budging. "Mom they're locked." I nodded my head no, but could barely get a word out. Once you've had four kids, your track star days are over and any physical activity is enough for you to practically go into cardiac arrest-- and maybe pee a little. 

"Try again JJ..." Just as I said something a woman in a white coat walks out the doors. "Excuse me, we have an appointment, why are the doors locked?" She shuts the door behind her and furrows her brow. 

"Ma'am, we close at 6 o'clock on Friday's, there's no way you have an appointment right now." Maggie starts crying again and Alena pulls her away to calm her down. 

I laugh nervously and search my pockets for my phone. "No no, this email says 6 o'clock... look..." I point to the screen and show her where the email.

"Yes, but 6 o'clock..." she points to the date right below the time. "Thursday, October 17th, today is Friday, October 18th." She walks past me and I drop my phone out of pure shock. 

There is no way I missed this appointment. 

"Wait! What do I do? My son needs to see this doctor. Please help us... I mean look at his sister, she ecstatic." I point to Maggie just absolutely sobbing on the curb. The woman stops walking and turns around to look at me. 

"You will have to reschedule your appointment, however, we are currently closed so you will have to call in a couple days once we reopen on Monday. Besides that, how about you start actually reading your emails, especially since this is so important to you." She rolls her eyes at me and struts away. 

"I will be giving you a horrific review on Google!" I scream at her and stomp my foot on the ground. I feel tears well up in my eyes and my face get hot from pure anger. 

"Can we go to McDonalds? At this point, you owe it to us." I don't think I'll be able to recover from this one.