Joyland
"Mom, why do I feel so weak all the time" Daniel said to his mother, a lioness who could not restrain tears as she told her son, who was not long for this world about the congenital leukemia he had. At times, Marisa would blame herself for her boy's problems or look at her husband, named Jeffrey. This was not natural for a boy the age of 12- constant chemotherapy visits which left him weakened, his hair coming out in clumps, marrow transplants, vomiting and nausea all the time.
To be fair (which as we all know the universe never is) Daniel Jurgensen should have been spending as much time as a boy could playing outside, enjoying life, and having that youthful vigor that only pre-teens can have. And yet within Daniel's immune system, leukocytes or white blood cells were rapidly mutating and attacking the healthy cells of his body and the doctors all said even with all the medicine they had, it would be a medical miracle if he lived to see his 20th birthday. Many times, the lion would wake up with sweat covering his bed and many times he would think of himself as unlucky for being born with bad blood.
The only thing that such a weak and feeble boy could do in life, what with his opportunities in life severely cut short by this insidious and unwanted disease was dream. And in his dreams, which he had told his parents, a working-class factory worker from Philadelphia's grimy southern section and a grammar teacher at a local school (another one of the joys that this terminally-ill child hadn't seen in years) was a place the young lion liked to call Joyland, a land of bright colors and beautiful places and many other children, all healthy and wearing only the brightest outfits. A child psychologist would tell you this belief was wishful thinking on the part of a doomed boy who knew that his time would soon come but Daniel believed everything he saw when he closed his eyes.
"And there are beautiful houses there, colored like candy. And I never have to eat those yucky veggies or medicine and I never have to go for a transfusion or anything," Daniel would talk in his typical cheery fashion to his mother and father who loved him dearly, even though the real world offered him no such hope at all.
"Do you think that there is such a place in real life?" the lion cub would ask inquisitively, wondering if there was a place he too could truly enjoy life and play and frolic with theother children, finally free of that disease which robbed years from his life and life from his years.
"I don't know. But I do know one thing- however many years we have left with you, we will always love you. And if tragedy should happen, we will love you even if you're gone." The whole time Marisa tried to cheer him up by saying the medications and the transfusions and the chemotherapy would do their job and he would return to normal, maybe a few years behind in his schooling but still able to catch up for he would be living a normal life. They just didn't have the heart to tell Daniel how bleak his prognosis was, how unlikely the cub would be to actually see adulthood. And they knew that with the constant prodding and poking by doctors all they were doing was avoiding the inevitable day when that same diseased blood running through his veins cooled and the boy would die.
Many nights, this lioness, a long-suffering woman would be there to hold his paw and lie to him about the doctors and scientists finding a cure for his disease but with the eyes of a child, this lion was able to see right through her lies into her soul. And she felt guilty about it- Jeffrey and Marisa had worked so hard to have a baby and they could still remember the electric atmosphere of that operating room when the boy was born and they became parents for the first time- that same feeling left the room when the tests came back showing that their cub had congenital leukemia, a disease in which the white blood cells begin multiplying rapidly and endangering other cells. And as the lioness paying her entire paycheck on the medicine and procedures that would keep her son alive joined hands with him at his bedside
"When you must someday, the stars will shine again. And the pain will end. And you can be in Joyland for the rest of your days. I want you to spend a long time here on earth, living out a long a nd happy life but if that isn't how God designed it, if He wants you to come home early" Marisa said through tears "then that's how we must accept it."
And as she left her son's room, she tearfully began a prayer to God for her son that the pain he had experienced from an early age would disappear and that he would be healthy. She had wanted so much to become a mother and even after long visits to the fertility clinic and even contemplating adoption, finally God had sent them a child. But at times, this deeply-religious lioness would wonder if God hated them and sent them flawed goods, though they would never admit to it in front of their son. The next day came and she called for her boy to come out of his room to be dressed but there was no response. Next, Marisa would knock on the door and still no response and then the fear gripped her heart and she knew what was going to come next. When she opened the door and placed her paw on her child's, there was no warmth, no pulse, no life. Her cub, the one she loved with all her heart, had gone off to Joyland that very night.