Chapter 13:
"I Love Matt"
Disclaimer: Hoodwinked is an awesome movie, and I adore the Beatles, but they're not mine. Neither is Hello Kitty. Neither is HP. Neither is the real Matthew's story.
A/N: We're halfway to the conclusion, I assume.
Matthew was in a daze for several weeks after Jeremiah's horrific announcement. Harry and Hermione were worried about his sadness, but they knew that his mood would increase if he could just see Jeremiah or the other kids. The bad thing was that because of the holidays, Thursday meetings were postponed for a few weeks. Matthew realized for the first time just how much he valued those meetings.
A few days before the turn of the New Year, the doorbell at the Potter house rang. This was an occurrence in itself, as hardly anybody ever came to visit via the muggle way. Hermione cautiously opened the front door and found Jeremiah on the front doorstep.
"Jeremiah? Hello! Uh, please, come in!"
"Thank you, Mrs. Potter."
"Please, call me Hermione."
Jeremiah grinned sheepishly. "Sorry."
"So what brings you way out here on a day like today?"
He sighed and pressed the bridge of his nose. "I was going to come see if you would possibly let me take Matt with me to go see a movie or something. I think I scared him the last time I saw him, and I just wanted to show him that I'm really sorry."
Hermione smiled, once again impressed at how selfless this young man was. "That sounds like a great idea. He's been a bit down since the party, and he's been really lonely. I think it would do him a lot of good to get out of here and do something fun. Are you sure you want to, though?"
Jeremiah nodded firmly. "Positive." A noise came from the back of the house, and Matthew walked slowly towards his mother.
"Mommy, I'm bored… Jeremiah? What are you doing here?"
"Hey, Matt. How would you like to go see a movie with me?"
"What movie?"
"Have you seen Hoodwinked?"
Matthew shook his head excitedly. "I want to." He turned to Hermione. "Can I go, Mommy? Please?" She smiled and touched his head gently.
"I suppose so, just be good and don't be difficult for Jeremiah." Matthew jumped up and gave a shriek of joy. He ran to the kitchen and grabbed his coat and was ready in ten seconds flat.
Riding in Jeremiah's car was the coolest thing that Matthew had ever done. Jeremiah let him touch and play with everything, answering all his questions about what was what. Jeremiah introduced Matthew to the Beatles and they listened to Yellow Submarine ten times in a row at top volume. They laughed and made up songs to the same rhythm. Too soon, they were at the movie theater. They watched the movie, finding it much funnier in each other's company, much to the displeasure of the others in the audience who were frowning at the loud guffaws that were coming from the two balding people in the back.
When the movie was over and they were heading back to Matt's house, Jeremiah brought up the serious matter of leukemia.
"Matt, about the last time you saw me… I'm so, so sorry. I should never have been so blunt when I told you, I was just really mad that I was having to go through it all again. I know that's no excuse, but will you please forgive me?"
Matthew nodded and smiled. "It's okay. When do you have to start doing chemo again?"
"January 15th."
"Hey, that's when my next chemo is!"
Jeremiah smiled. "Looks like we'll be keeping each other company."
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Jeremiah's first chemo treatment was as lousy as Matthew's. The increased dosage was still making him sick, and Jeremiah's first treatment in so long made him violently ill. Dr. Regina allowed them to be treated in a double bed room. Although both were incredibly sick and weakened, the knowledge that someone was going through the exact same thing they were was comforting. Dr. Regina checked in on them frequently, claiming that if the two of them were together in a hospital for long, disaster would ensue. Both were kept overnight because of abnormal reactions to the chemo, but were released the following day.
Leukemia had finally started treating Matthew poorly. His hair was falling out more frequently and he was almost always tired. Still, his naïve little childish mind kept him hopeful, ensuring him of the promise of miracles. Jeremiah, more boy than teenager, no longer really believed in miracles, but his hope was never diminished, despite the fact that he knew that the hair that was shaved away for Matthew's support would never grow back. After their first treatment together, their treatments coincided once more near the end of January.
The day before their coinciding end of January treatment was Missy Lyn's third birthday. Her grandmother threw a party for her in the meeting room, which all chemo kids happily attended. Missy Lyn looked beautiful in her little red dress, her pale hair pulled back with a huge bow. She smiled the whole time, but refused to speak until Matthew arrived. When he arrived, she ran up to him and hugged him.
"Hi, Matt. I'm finally this many." She extended three fingers. "That's how many you are."
Matthew smiled sweetly and nodded. "Happy Birthday, Missy Lyn."
They all congregated at the big table to let Missy Lyn blow out the sparse candles on her cake. She scrunched her eyes up tightly to make a wish before extinguishing the flames. All during the time that her grandmother cut the cake and passed it around, Missy Lyn's gaze constantly fell on Matthew, who looked nervously at his empty plate as though it was the most amazing thing he had ever seen. Missy Lyn scooted her chair over beside him and smiled shyly. Matthew smiled in return, too nice to destroy her good mood and her trust in him. He knew that he had sworn off girls, but Missy Lyn was nice enough, even if she was of the opposite gender.
A few days before Valentine's Day, Jeremiah had his third chemo treatment. Since Matthew had to go to the hospital for a check-up, he stopped in to visit Jeremiah while Harry and Hermione talked to Dr. Powers. Jeremiah was in high spirits, although Matthew could tell that the chemo was taking its toll on him. Perhaps he was just weakened from having to go through this for a second time or perhaps it was more, but Matthew could definitely see that Jeremiah was getting weaker and sicker as the weeks went on. While Matthew was visiting him, Jeremiah fell asleep from exhaustion. Matthew snuck off quietly and walked down the quiet corridor. Seeing another room door open, Matthew walked in the room quietly, curious as to who was in this room and why they were listening to what sounded like Hello Kitty. A further step into the room showed that Missy Lyn was lying in this hospital bed, a bundle of papers and crayons on her lap and cartoons blaring from the television set. He walked in silently and sat at the chair beside her bed. He figured that if he visited Jeremiah, he should visit Missy Lyn, too.
"Hi, Missy Lyn." She looked up in surprise and dropped her crayon.
"Hello, Matt. How are you?"
"I'm okay. I was just here for a check-up and I wondered who was watching Hello Kitty."
"Oh," she said as her cheeks turned red with embarrassment. "I'm just coloring." She held up a crayon picture of some people with halos standing together in front of a house.
"Cool. Who are they?"
Missy Lyn sighed and turned her pale eyes away. "They're my family. My Mommy, Daddy, and brother went away last year."
"Went away?"
She nodded sadly. "A drunken driver hit them and they died."
"Oh," Matthew said, sorry he had asked. He had always wondered why Missy Lyn always came with her grandmother. "I'm sorry."
"Thanks. I'm okay, though."
A thick silence settled over the two three year olds. Matthew looked around the room, observing the flowery pictures on the walls. Missy Lyn set about fervently working on another piece of art. As she worked she began to question Matthew.
"Matt, can you read?"
He shrugged. "A little. Not very good, though."
"I can. Grannie taught me. I can write, too. What can you read?"
"I know my letters, and I can read some small things."
"That's cool." Silence fell again. Matthew looked around again and tapped his hand against the armrest of the chair. After what seemed an eternity, Matthew stood up.
"I better go, Missy Lyn. See you around."
"WAIT!" Matthew stopped in his tracks and turned.
"What is it?"
"I have something for you, but you can't read it until you're out of this room." She handed Matthew a small piece of folded paper.
"Um, okay. See you."
She waved and gave him an absentminded look. He walked out of her room and opened the paper. He was surprised to see that it was a homemade valentine. There was a stick boy and a stick girl on a heart. Above the heart in little kid scrawl were the words
I Love Matt
Matthew couldn't read much, but he knew what that meant. Confused, he stuck it in his back pocket and promptly forgot about it.
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Valentine's Day was the scheduled time for Matthew's next treatment. He went to the hospital as usual and sat in his same bed, allowing Dr. Regina to hook him up to the IV once again. Jeremiah was having treatment, too, and he was there waiting to get his treatment also. They waited for the doctor to come in. Fifteen minutes passed, twenty, thirty… Finally Dr. Regina came in, her eyes puffy and her cheeks streaked with tears.
"Aunt Regina, what's wrong?" Jeremiah had sat straight up in his hospital bed, incredibly concerned by his aunt's sorrow. She sniffed and waved her hands in front of her eyes in an attempt to stop crying.
"I'm sorry, boys. I have some bad news." Matthew's heart beat faster from suspense. "Missy Lyn died this morning."
The boys looked at her in stunned silence. "Oh, no," Jeremiah said. "I thought she was doing pretty good!"
"We thought so, too, but her grandmother went into her room this morning, and she was just…gone."
Matthew's whole body seemed numb with realization. A girl who had been his age had just died suddenly even though the doctors had thought she was healthy. It was so unreal to Matthew that he could barely believe it was true.
"They're my family. My Mommy, Daddy, and brother went away last year." Only a few days previously Missy Lyn had said this to him so nonchalantly, while coloring and watching Hello Kitty. And now she was dead, never to have the same girlish fun or grow up to be a beautiful young lady. Even though she was with her family now, her life had been cut short much too soon in Matthew's opinion.
Dr. Regina began to hook both boys up to IV's through her tears. She hooked Jeremiah up first. When he winced with pain when the IV punctured his flesh, Dr. Regina gave a sob and leaned down to hug him close to her. Matthew looked towards his parents, who were sitting near the window with eyes widened in shock at Missy Lyn's death. Dr. Regina came and hooked Matthew up, but he didn't even flinch. When she left them to go check on something else, Harry and Hermione stayed around for a while before they had to go talk to Dr. Powers. Matthew and Jeremiah were left alone. Jeremiah turned and looked at Matthew slowly.
"I can't believe she's gone."
Matthew's hands shook. "I know. It's so wrong." He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a small folded piece of paper. "She loved me, Jeremiah." He tossed the little valentine across the chasm between the beds and Jeremiah caught it deftly between his fingers. He opened it and looked at it for a while before sighing and folding it back up.
"You're right, man. She loved you. You were someone really special to her. Missy Lyn hadn't talked since her family died. Then you came along…" His voice lingered in the air. "Listen, Matt. Never get rid of this thing, okay? Put in a place where you'll always have it, because as your life goes on, it will become more important to you."
Matthew closed his eyes and let Jeremiah's words sink in. "Do you have anything like this that you keep close to you?"
Jeremiah never answered because he was asleep, but Matthew knew that he couldn't have gone to sleep that quickly.
A/N: Bet you didn't see that coming…
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