Chapter 36

Nadine realizes she's going to die from her leukemia; but she's never dwelt upon it. She keeps telling Adele that the treatments are going to make her better; so, even though subconsciously she knows otherwise, she hardly ever consciously focuses on her inescapable, approaching demise. That was at least up until now. Since Miss Krinsky's passing has been the main topic of conversation throughout the school recently, Nadine can't seem to avoid being reminded of death; and it constantly remains in the forefront of her mind. Miss Krinsky's dead now; and sometime in the near future, she'll be dead, too. Although Nadine feels bad that Miss Krinsky had died…especially being how her death has upset Adele so much…she rationalizes her death, like everyone else, as being a result of her advanced years. It seems only natural that after having lived such a long life, Miss Krinsky was bound to die sooner or later. But it's different in her case. True, everyone dies one day; yet this doesn't seem fair. Miss Krinsky was in her seventies; while she hasn't even reached her seventeenth birthday. Nadine's starting to obsess over all the things she's going to miss out on; and for the first time in her entire life, she's beginning to feel sorry for herself. She doesn't want to; but she can't help it. The harsh reality of her fate has finally slapped her in the face; and Nadine's feeling the sharp stinging from it. It resounds in her mind… "I'm going to die. I'm…going…to…die." And once the self-pity begins to fade away, the anger rises; and Nadine goes from wondering "Why me, God?" to demanding to know "Why, God?" She's angry that her life's about to end; that she was only allowed such a short time to live. She's devastated over the fact that she won't have the chance to experience everything that she's been looking forward to doing…to graduate from high school and attend college…to fall in love and get married…have and raise a family of her own…have a career…to be able to enjoy all that life has to offer. Essentially; to just be able to grow old…to someday reach Miss Krinsky's age, or older. Then Nadine goes back to worrying about what's going to happen with Adele once she's gone. And after that… What about her mom and sister? Sure, they seem to be getting along a little better now than they were before; but is that only because of what they're going through with her? What about after she dies; will they go back to only communicating with each other through arguments? Will Corrine run off again; and this time not come back since she was no longer around? She worries… "If Cor abandons Mom; what would happen to Mom…and Cor? And what about Dad?" It's the last week in January, and Nadine, whose immune system is starting to weaken from both the leukemia and chemotherapy, has become extremely ill from a cold; and will probably be unable to attend school for the next week or two. And although Sarah promised Nadine that Trish, Janice and she will look after Adele during her absence, Adele's still depressed over Miss Krinsky's death and tends to keep to herself; making it difficult for the girls to keep tabs on her. This essentially means that Adele is pretty much left up to her own devices to take care of herself at school. Understanding that her granddaughter's still hurting, Estelle's been trying to give Adele a little leeway; but it's now 6:30, supper's cold, and still no call. This won't do. She figures that Adele must be with Nadine, so she calls the Martins, only to find out from Corrine that she isn't there; that she hadn't been there at all that day. Estelle starts to worry. Corrine reassures her that Adele's probably fine, and tells Estelle that she'll go out and find her. Estelle informed Corrine that Adele left that morning for school; so she decides that's where she should start looking. Fact is, Adele did go to school; and she's still there. Being fully aware that Nadine's home sick, Christy saw this as the perfect opportunity to get back at Nadine; while also having some fun with Adele. So, after eliciting help from Frankie and some of his fellow jock goons; immediately after homeroom, Adele was stuffed into an empty locker and left locked in there. And being how she has recently started to transform back into the ‘old Adele', she had resigned from the notion of seeking out assistance from any passerby and forlornly accepted her situation; remaining shut up in there the entire day.