Glioblastoma Multiforme: A Short Story

I had had my hands full making chocolate chip pancakes along with sausage, bacon, eggs, and toast, all while in the middle of mixing a container of frozen concentrated orange juice into a pitcher of water when I heard my mama say, “Oh, dear.” somewhat somberly while she read the local paper. I of course had then asked her, “what?” and she said that it was nothing. My curiosity had been piqued though, so I again asked her, “what?” this time a little more urgently. She than glanced towards me with shifting eyes and said, “You remember that man from the drug store, the man who yelled at me?” “Yeah,” “Well, it says here that, Brandon Kolinski, age eight, of Maple Road died last week Wednesday from a brain tumor.” My mama then looked

Specifically thinking of what Katelyn had told me about how it was believed around these parts that Abellona Abbott was storing all the souls of the children and other residence of Mt. Harrison she’d killed in the bodies of cats. So that they could stay in her possession and at least in somewhat her control as they remained trapped indefinitely in a state of purgatory. My mama went on. “It says here that he suffered from a tumor called a Glioblastoma Multiforme, an extremely aggressive form of malignant brain cancer. It had been in remission since the fall of 2006 and it suddenly returned just last month. The wake was held at the AMIGONE funeral home on Sumner Road yesterday and Saturday, and the funeral will be held today.” “That’s terrible.” I said as I pulled pancakes off the stove top, and then followed that up with, “You should really stop reading the paper all the time. It’s only full of bad news that seems to upset you.” But what I really wanted to say to her was—You should really stop reading the paper. Because every time you do, I find out that someone else in this village has died, and then the next thing I know another weird stray shows up, which kind of backs up Katelyn’s there’s an evil witch collecting everyone’s souls theory, and that’s really creeping me

Brandon Kolinski had died on Wednesday the day before and Katelyn said that she thought Casper might have been only a day or two old at most when I’d found him. So, that would put Brandon’s death right at the same time of Casper’s apparently motherless birth. The thought had creeped me out, but what did Katelyn know, really? She’s a vegetarian not a veterinarian. Still though, there were way too many coincidences going on as of late to keep me from not having a serious case of the