FENCING CURES EVERYTHING

• Chloe Ledger, Grade 11
• Short Story
• 2016

Everybody say cheese “Cheese!” click…….
Every year our family has a tradition of getting a family photo. Since I was the first born the tradition started with me. We take it around the time of my birthday on my parents’ property. The purpose of us taking these photos is to look back on them and see how our family has changed. I have two younger brothers Alex and Nick who are both married now. Recently Alex had his first child and she will make her first appearance in our photo next year.
Two weeks after our photo last year, Mum was diagnosed with cancer. It seems to be hitting her harder now than ever before. The past few months she hasn’t been able to leave her bed, she just lies there slowly deteriorating. My brothers aren’t coping, they don’t talk to one another anymore, they just argue. Before Mum’s cancer you would have thought nothing would be capable of tearing those two apart. We’re trying to keep the feud a secret from Mum, she’s got enough going on in her life right now, and the Doctor said that stress will only make her worse. But Mum knows everything, she whispered in my ear and ordered me to fix whatever was going on between my brothers. She doesn’t want to die knowing her family were unhappy because of her sickness. Her goal was to stay around for the next photo next year but I know she will make it for that photo, and many more.
Dad has secretly arranged to get both of the boys helping him with fixing the top boundary fence without the other knowing.
Dad’s a genius. Both boys come back from fencing with mile-wide grins. Things are going to be ok for our little family… even if they’re not ok for mum.
Mum is going in for her operation tomorrow and we are all hoping that she can get through it and they can take all the cancer out.
Mum has gone in for her operation, we have been sitting in the waiting room for over two hours. The doctor finally just came out to fill us in on how she is going. He said that she is going to be fine and that she will be out in the next week or so which means that she will be able to make the family photo in three weeks’ time. Our life is finally starting to come back to normal.