She opens her eyes again. “For real?”
I nod. “Yeah.”
“Okay, like…I’m not going to die?”
I nod again. “They…they scanned you like a dozen times. Recalibrated the machine. I think they even sent you to a different hospital and a different machine, at some point.” I swallow hard. “It’s gone.”
She just stares at me. “Say—” she swallows hard. “Say that again.”
“Your leukemia is gone, Jo.”
“Gone?”
“Gone.”
“How?”
I shrug. “No one knows.” I smile. “Your grandma may, though.”
She closes her eyes. “Yeah, I bet she does.”
“I prayed for you…at least, I think it was praying. I don’t know.”
She squeezes my hand in reply. Then, with obvious effort, she opens her eyes. “I love you, Westley.”
“Good. Because you’re stuck with me.”
“Good.” Her eyes search me, green and fiery with love. “I want to be Jolene Britton. I want to be your wife.”
I have the ring in my hip pocket. I pull it out. Hold the tiny warm circle on my palm.
When she sees it, her eyes widen. She recognizes it immediately. “Grandma’s ring?”
I nod. Hold the circle between finger and thumb. “Jolene, I love you. Marry me. As soon as you can leave this hospital, marry me. Please.”
She chokes a sob, nodding. Holds her left hand out to me. “Hey, I asked you first.”
“Yeah,” I whisper, throat thick, eyes burning. “Yeah, you did.”
Her eyes slide closed. “Staying awake is…hard.” She manages to open one eye. “Can I see my mom? And the others?”
“Yeah, of course.”
I move to get up, and she clutches my hand harder than I would have thought her capable of. “Don’t leave.”
So, I press the call button.
The nurse comes in, and I ask her to get the rest of Jo’s family.
Alone again, Jo just gazes at me through narrow, heavy eyelids. “Before they get here…” She smiles at me, lopsided. “Kiss me.”
I bend over her and touch my lips to hers. “I love you. It’s crazy, but I do.”
“Not crazy.” She clutches my hand. Her lips brush mine. Her eyes meet mine. Footsteps echo in the hall.
“We have forever together, now,” she whispers to me. Smiles.
“Forever together,” I murmur back. “I like the sound of that.”
Homecoming
Jolene
I’m in the hospital for another month, recovering. I’m transported to two other hospitals that have MRI machines capable of detecting even the most granular of cancer cells, where I undergo more tests than ever.
Miraculously, each one comes back negative.
I’m still weak. My body had fought harder than could be fathomed, and I nearly died. How, no one can explain with anything like medical or scientific certainty, but at some point when no one was looking, the cancer just…vanished.
In that month I spend recovering, Westley finishes principal filming; once he’s reassured the miracle is here to stay, he allows me to force him out of the hospital and back to work.
The embarrassing thing is, I discover, while browsing on my phone, that the video of me on the set of Singin’ in the Rain, alone at first and then with Wes, has beaten my own record for most views in some specific time period. Everyone everywhere is talking about it.
Also, there’s a TikTok trend going viral, featuring the song I wrote and performed for Wes, in the studio. The trend is for people to share their own heartbreak, their own trauma and tragedy, followed by their recovery and restoration. Some of the stories are truly heartbreaking, others have happy endings, some are still up in the air. Still others flip the trend upside down and post funny stories in juxtaposition to the soul of the song.
What I can’t figure out is how that song got out into the world. Last I knew, Wes was the only one who’d heard it.
I search my own name, and get a result: an EP published by BritPark Music, LLC. Captured Voices: Jolene Park & Westley Britton in the Studio. Published…while I was dying.
He published it?
I listen to it from start to finish, and I realize why.
It’s a microcosm of us, of our love and our journey. And honestly, my song really is the culmination of the whole thing.
But still, he didn’t tell me?
I’m not sure if I’m mad, confused, proud, grateful, or some weird mix of each.
Later in the evening, Westley returns from the last day of filming, and perches on the edge of my bed—and god, am I eager to be out of this damned hospital bed.
“Hi,” he says, looking tired but pleased.
He leans in for a kiss, and even though my emotions are a riotous tumult, I kiss him back. He can sense my unease, however.
“You okay?” he asks.
I hold his gaze, unspeaking, and play the most viewed TikTok in the #StartAgain trend, featuring my song. Then, I switch the music app and show him the EP, with the photo of us as the album artwork.
His eyes widen. “Holy shit, Jo. I never told you.”
“Yeah, no you didn’t.”
He grins sheepishly. “Um, so. Jolene. I, um, sort of mastered and released the music we recorded.”
“I honestly am so confused, Wes. Like, I’m super pissed you did that without asking, without telling me. It’s been out there a month and it’s been downloaded who knows how many times, and I’m just now finding out about it.” I rub my face. I’m antsy to get up, to walk around, but my doctors still want me to ease into activity. “I’m also amazed. Because, it’s…it’s amazing. It’s honestly a really, really good EP. We sound amazing together.” I play the opening to my song, then pause it again. “But I’m also kind of mad, because this one was…it’s really, really personal, Wes. I only shared it with you because I love you and I trust you, and it was a super vulnerable moment. It’s like having my journal published, or something.”
He wipes his face. “Jo, I’m sorry. I should have asked you, first. I just…this was when they…when they weren’t sure what was going on, if you…if you…” His shoulders shake, and he buries his face in his hands for a moment, before meeting my eyes again. “If you were going to make it, or if the MRI machine was wrong, or…or what. And I had my laptop, somehow, and it was on there, and I needed to hear your voice. I needed to feel you. So I just…I worked on it. And the more I worked on it, the more I realized it was really, really incredible and special, and with how people were responding to the video of you on stage, and the proposal before it, I just knew the world needed to hear it. Needed to hear you. Your voice, your song. Us together, and I’m on it, but really, that last piece, the one you wrote, it’s the centerpiece of the whole thing.”
I sigh. “I just don’t understand how you forgot to tell me.”
He shakes his head. “I have no excuse for that. You got better, and then filming…I’m sorry. You shouldn’t have found out the way you did, and I apologize.”