“Most of what you are trying to do with your bills, the Democrats are doing now. With Clinton in the White House and the Democrats controlling both houses, they are going to ram through a shitload of favorites. They are already planning a gun control bill of their own.”
“Doesn’t matter. The pendulum is swinging my friend, and it is swinging in our direction. In two years time we are going to own both houses, and it will be our turn to make some changes. Bill is going to be very surprised.”
“We’ll have to see on this,” commented Marty, as he got ready to head home.
“It’s our time, Marty. You need to help me keep the hard liners from going overboard.”
“Fair enough.”
Chapter 115: The Bravest Man I Ever Knew
1993
I was in a pretty good mood when I got home. Newt and the Republican Party would have done the Contract with America whether I had recycled or not, but with me involved we had a chance of toning down the harsher aspects to it. I was already pushing to keep most of the ‘family values’ crap out of it. That was a sideshow that always sidetracked the Party and played into the hands of the Democrats.
My good mood broke when I got home. Bucky was staying with us, and while I really like my namesake, I was curious. “Hey, buddy, what’s up? Where’s the rest of the family?”
He gave me a strange look. “Mom said I was staying with you guys for a few days, maybe until the weekend.”
I shrugged. “That’s cool. Carter here, too?” Maybe Tessa and Tusker were taking a few days off for themselves.
I got that odd look again. “No, they were going somewhere with him.”
“Okay, I’ll talk to your Aunt Marilyn.” I dropped my briefcase in my office and went down the hall to my bedroom and changed out of my suit. I was on the verge of heading back out when Marilyn came into the bedroom. She closed the door behind her, but she didn’t have a playful look in her eyes. I knew she wasn’t planning any fun and games before dinner. “What’s up?” I asked.
“Bucky is going to be spending a few nights with us.”
I nodded. “Yeah, I saw him out in the living room. What’s with that?”
“Tessa and Tusker are taking Carter for testing.”
“What’s wrong with Carter?” The Tusk’s second son was a good boy, and bright. Like his brother, he had his father’s bright red hair, but where Bucky was tall and had Tusker’s looks, Carter was smaller and looked a lot more like his mother.
Marilyn lowered her voice. “They are taking him to the Mayo Clinic. They think he has cancer.”
I just stared at my wife while the blood roared in my ears for a second. She wasn’t smiling, and this wasn’t something people joke about. After a few seconds, I said, “What?! When did this happen?”
Marilyn gave a helpless shrug and sat down on the bed next to me. “He’s been seeing his doctor for a few months now, but they just started putting the pieces together. He gets tired, his knees and elbows are constantly hurting, and he keeps getting bruises that never heal.”
“I saw one of the bruises, over Christmas, and later, when we came back from the Bahamas. I thought it was different.”
My wife shook her head. “It was the same bruise. It should have healed by then.”
“Why aren’t they taking him to Johns Hopkins? That’s just down the road, and it’s one of the best hospitals in the country!”
“They already have. His pediatrician referred him there. That’s where they diagnosed it as cancer. This Mayo Clinic trip is a second opinion.”
“Huh!” I sat there in disbelief for a second. “What kind of cancer?”
“I don’t know. Some type of leukemia or something.”
“How are they getting out there? They’re not flying him through the airports, are they?! Have they left? I can get the Gulfstream…”
Marilyn took my hand and smiled. “I already did that. As soon as I heard I called Taylor and made the arrangements. They dropped Bucky off on their way out to Westminster. They’re probably already there.”
“Oh, sure… okay.” I should have known better. “Why us and not his grandparents?”
“Luck of the draw. His folks are in very poor health themselves, and hers are in Europe on vacation.”
I nodded at that. Tusker was a year older than Tessa, but he was the baby of his family, and she was the oldest child in hers. His parents were at least ten years older than hers. I smiled back at her. “Well, it’s not like he’s never been here before. All we have to do is make sure he and Charlie don’t try to build a moon rocket in the back yard.”
“Launch the pair of them out of here!”
“Maybe they’ll find out it’s something else.”
“Let’s hope!” she agreed.
For the next few days we kept our hopes up and our mouths shut. Bucky didn’t have any idea what was going on. He was a smart kid, and growing up as fast as a weed. He was fourteen now, and would be fifteen in June (as if I would ever forget his birthday!) He was already well over five foot tall and growing fast, and I wasn’t even sure if he had hit his growth spurt yet! Even if he averaged out between his two parents in height, Tusker was taller than I was by several inches, and Tessa was about Marilyn’s height. Bucky would probably be taller than me.
The only odd thing was explaining to the kids why their friend was staying with us during a school week. Marilyn would run him down to school in Cockeysville after loading the kids on the school bus. Otherwise, we had the phone ringing off the hook as girls started calling the house for him. Bucky had figured out that girls weren’t all that gross and yucky! Charlie thought his older friend was crazy in this regard, and Bucky just laughed at him.
The twins were eight, like Carter, and they were pretty curious why Bucky was staying here when Carter wasn’t. They kept picking at us, first me, then their mother, then me again, and finally Marilyn chewed their butts and told them to behave and go to their room. They grumped and whined and I stood up and then they took off with considerable alacrity! It pays to be big! I gave Marilyn a wry smile and we went back to what we had been doing.
The Tusks flew back with Carter Sunday morning, and I could tell by the looks on their faces as they came by to retrieve Bucky that the second opinion was the same as the first. We turned Carter loose upon the other kids, and sat Tessa and Tusker down in the kitchen.
“So, what is it?” I asked.
“Acute lymphocytic leukemia,” answered Tusker. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a pamphlet. “Here, I knew you’d ask, so I picked this up. Thanks for flying us out there. I’ll pay you back somehow…”
I waved it off. “The hell you will. Forget it! What’s this acute… whatever? Leukemia? That’s a blood cancer of some sort, right?”
Tusker looked at Tessa, who answered, “It’s a fairly common childhood cancer, but not normally seen in adults. Your white blood cells go haywire and go into overproduction, but aren’t like normal white blood cells. For what it’s worth, they say we caught it relatively early, so that’s good. It’s the same diagnosis we got at Johns Hopkins. They suggested we continue to have him treated here.”
“Well, that’s good, isn’t it? You’re only half an hour from one of the best hospitals in the country, maybe even the world! There’s a cure, right?” asked Marilyn.
I didn’t know shit about cancer and leukemia, but I did know that childhood leukemia was one of the most treatable cancers. By the time I recycled, it was practically guaranteed curable, at least if you could afford to go to the hospital. Most Americans didn’t have health insurance after about 2020.