beckoned for us to join her in the hallway.
“My name is Doctor Singh,” she introduced herself, offering a kind smile to each of us. “You are all Mr. Marino’s children, yes?”
We nodded in unison as Jenna asked, “How is he?”
Dr. Singh’s smile shifted to a straight, thin line as she addressed her notes. “Well, at the moment, he appears to be stable. He didn’t experience a heart attack last night but—”
“Oh, thank God,” Jenna breathed, gripping onto Zach’s arm.
Clearly not a fan of being interrupted, the doctor hardened her glare as she continued, “But, after running a number of tests, we have been able to confirm that your father has coronary artery disease, or CAD.”
Every vertebrae in my spine locked stiffly into place as my brother asked, “So … what exactly does that mean?”
Her expression became solemn and a deep line formed between her brows. “What happens with CAD is, plaque lines the walls of the blood vessels, making the pathways to the heart more and more narrow, until eventually the blood flow is stopped altogether.”
Jenna gasped and took a hold of my arm, and I asked, “So, why can’t you just clean them out? I mean, they already put in those … what were they? Stents?” The doctor nodded slowly, already exhausted with my attempt at playing doctor. “Right, okay. So, just do that again.”
“That’s not how it works, Vin,” Jenna whispered from beside me, her voice quivering, and I looked at the doctor for confirmation.
Dr. Singh sighed. “I’m afraid she’s right. If caught earlier, the progression of CAD can be slowed with treatment, but as it stands, years of damage have already been done. We can try to do what we can, but …”
Then, Zach asked the question the rest of us were afraid to ask. “So, what are you sayin’ here? He’s gonna die?”
She released a deep breath, and in her eyes, I saw how much she dreaded what came next. I thought about how hard her job must be, to deliver this type of news to family members. To children. Because, at the end of the day, that’s what we were. Adults, sure, but we were still his children and he was still our father, and no amount of adulthood can prepare a child for that look.
My heart had already started to break before she even spoke.
“I’m afraid so,” she said quietly, barely nodding.
Jenna’s sob crashed through me and her hand released my arm to cover her mouth. “I‘m sorry,” she said needlessly, her voice muffled behind her palm. “I just … I need to …” Before she could finish, she was hurrying down the hall to the waiting room, and it was just my brother and me, alone with the angel of death.
Zach cleared his throat. “So, um …” He cleared his throat again and sniffled. I couldn’t look at him, knowing he was crying. If I saw my big brother cry, I would fucking lose it. “How long do you think?”
“It’s hard to say,” Dr. Singh admitted, looking between Zach and me and maintaining eye contact. “I hesitate to guess—”
“Humor us,” Zach interjected. “Please.”
The doctor sighed and let her shoulders lift in a limp shrug. “If I had to guess, I’d say about six months.”
The breath was forced from my lungs with an invisible punch to my aching gut. I reached out a hand to grapple for my brother’s shoulder, as he clapped a hand over his mouth, just like Jenna had moments before. I worried he’d leave me, too, with the need to cry or scream or search for air that no longer seemed to exist. But he stayed by my side and muttered, “Jesus fuckin’ Christ.”
“Please remember, that’s just a guess,” Dr. Singh pressed, but from the look in her eyes, I could see it was more than just a guess. It was her professional hypothesis, and maybe it was her way of just being kind, by giving the old man a little more time.
She excused herself to speak to Pops behind the closed door of his room, leaving Zach and me in a monotonous hallway of doors, handrails, and bustling nurses with carted computers. We didn’t say anything for several seconds that felt more like hours, as we fought to wrap our minds around the sudden news and the sudden reality that soon, sooner than we had ever thought, we’d be facing the world alone.
Then, Zach wiped his hand away from his mouth, letting it drop at his side. “She said