Last Chance Saloon - Marian Keyes [88]
‘Negative?’ Tara eventually managed to say. ‘Negative? You mean… you haven’t got Aids.’
‘I haven’t got Aids.’
‘And you’re not going to get Aids?’
‘Not if I can help it.’
‘Oh, my God!’ A bubble of joy whooshed up through Tara’s body. ‘I can’t believe it. I was so sure you were a goner. This is great, great news.’ She jumped up and flung her arms around Fintan. ‘You’re not going to die!’
‘You’ve given us the good news.’ Katherine’s voice was strangled. ‘What’s the bad?’
Everyone turned to look at Fintan.
‘The bad news,’ he said, ‘is that I have an interesting little condition known as Hodgkin’s disease.’
Katherine was chalk-white.
‘What the hell’s that?’ Tara demanded.
‘I know what it is,’ Katherine said.
‘It’s a problem with my lymphatic system,’ Fintan interrupted.
‘It’s cancer,’ Katherine said, faintly.
31
After Katherine spoke, there was a horrible silence.
‘Is it?’ Tara asked, rubbernecking from Katherine to Fintan to Sandro. ‘Is it?’
‘Katherine’s right,’ Fintan confirmed.
For a moment Tara hated Katherine. Why couldn’t she have been wrong, just this once? ‘How can they know without doing a biopsy?’ Tara asked, with forced scorn. She wasn’t quite sure what a biopsy was, but she clutched at anything that might overturn the news.
Fintan chortled. ‘Tara, I’ve had a biopsy. What do you think I was up to last week? What do you think this bandage is doing on my neck?’
‘I thought you’d tried to cut your throat again.’ She smiled weakly. ‘You mean last week you were in hospital having that done and you went through it on your own? That’s the saddest thing I’ve ever heard.’
‘It happened so fast.’ Fintan shrugged. ‘One minute I was talking to the specialist about the kiwi fruit on my neck, the next I’m on my way to theatre to have a biopsy. Before I know it I’m lying on an operating table, fully conscious, while they whip out a lymph gland. Then they sew me back up and send the gland to the lab. A veritable whirlwind, my dears!
‘I think I must have been in shock,’ he added, dazedly. ‘Then I had ten thousand blood tests, was poked and prodded by all sorts. And today they called me back in and told me I’ve cancer!’
Katherine spoke for the first time since her diagnosis. ‘So how bad is it?’ Her voice was deliberately matter-of-fact. ‘How far gone?’
‘I don’t know.’ Fintan lifted and let fall his arms. ‘There’s different kinds of HD…’
‘HD?’ Tara questioned.
‘Hodgkin’s disease.’
Oh, God. Already he was speaking a different, sick-person’s language.
‘… and they know I’ve got it in the glands in my neck, but they’ve to do more tests to see if it’s in other places.’
‘Like where?’ Tara asked.
‘Chest. Bone-marrow. Internal organs. If I’ve only got it in the lymph glands I’m grand, really. Bit of chemo and I’ll be right as rain.’
‘And if you have it in the other places?’ Tara asked, not wanting the answer.
‘It’s treatable,’ Sandro cut in. ‘Wherever it is, it’s definitely treatable.’
‘So you’re not going to die?’ Tara cut to the chase.
‘We’re all going to die.’ Fintan grinned suddenly and Katherine and Tara recoiled from his wild eyes.
‘The doctor was very hopeful,’ Sandro said, in a low voice.
Tara’s heart went out to him. No one had forgotten that Sandro’s last boyfriend had died – this must be torture for him.
As the first shockwave receded, and a strange, toxic normality set in, questions occurred.
‘What exactly is a lymphatic system?’ Tara broached tentatively. ‘The only thing I know is that lymphatic drainage helps with cellulite.’
‘It’s a circulatory system, isn’t it?’ Katherine looked at Fintan for confirmation. ‘Part of the immune system.’
Tara turned to Fintan. ‘So, have I got this right? If you only have the… it in your lymph glands it’s not so bad?’
Fintan nodded.
‘And what if it shows up in your chest or bone-marrow? Or where was the other place?’
‘Internal organs,’ Katherine supplied, stiffly.
‘Not so good if it’s in the chest, even worse if it’s in the bone marrow,’ Fintan said. ‘And if it’s in something like a kidney or the liver, you might as well start