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    Cellular
    Cellular
    Cellular
    Ebook72 pages1 hour

    Cellular

    By Ellen Schwartz

    3/5

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    About this ebook

    Brendan has it all—captain of the basketball team, good friends, a beautiful girlfriend and a loving family—until he is diagnosed with leukemia. Terrified and convinced that no one understands what he is going through, Brendan faces chemotherapy alone, until he meets Lark. She is also in treatment, although her condition is much worse, and yet she remains positive and hopeful. Brendan is torn between feeling sorry for himself and the love for life that Lark brings to even the simplest thing. Through Lark, he discovers the strength to go on, to fight for survival and to love.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOrca Book Publishers
    Release dateOct 1, 2010
    ISBN9781554694501
    Cellular
    Author

    Ellen Schwartz

    Ellen Schwartz is the author of eighteen award-winning books for children, as well as one non-fiction book for adults, a collection of profiles of women singer-songwriters. In addition to writing books, Ellen works as a corporate writer and editor and as a freelance magazine writer who has published hundreds of magazine articles. Ellen has taught creative writing classes for many years at the college and university levels. Her passions include reading, jazz dancing, baking, and hiking. After a decade of being hippie homesteaders in the Kootenay region of British Columbia, Ellen and her husband now live in Burnaby, BC.

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    • 2/5
      I didn’t hate it but I didn’t like it either. Brendon just found out he has leukemia and it feels like the end of the world. He’s in his final year of high school, made captain of the basketball team, found his way into the pants of the most prettiest girl in school and it’s all taken away from him with the diagnosis of cancer. But soon he’ll learn there’s more than one way to deal with cancer that doesn’t have to be anger.I get that it was a short story/novelette but the character just frustrated me. There are better Orca Soundings stories but this isn’t one of the better ones.

    Book preview

    Cellular - Ellen Schwartz

    Cellular

    Cellular

    Ellen Schwartz

    orca soundings

    ORCA BOOK PUBLISHERS

    Copyright © 2010 Ellen Schwartz

    All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without permission in writing from the publisher.

    Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

    Schwartz, Ellen, 1949-

    Cellular / written by Ellen Schwartz.

    (Orca soundings)

    Electronic Monograph

    Issued also in print format.

    ISBN 9781554692989 (pdf) -- ISBN 9781554694501(epub)

    I. Title. II. Series: Orca soundings

    PS8587.C578C44 2010     JC813’.54     C2010-903602-6

    First published in the United States, 2010

    Library of Congress Control Number: 2010929063

    Summary: When Brendan is diagnosed with leukemia, his life is turned upside down. With a smothering family and distant friends, all seems hopeless until he meets Lark, terminally ill yet full of life.

    Orca Book Publishers gratefully acknowledges the support for its publishing programs provided by the following agencies: the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund and the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Province of British Columbia through the BC Arts Council and the Book Publishing Tax Credit.

    Cover design by Teresa Bubela

    Cover photography by Masterfile

    In Canada:

    Orca Book Publishers

    PO Box 5626, Station B

    Victoria, BC Canada

    V8R 6S4

    In the United States:

    Orca Book Publishers

    PO Box 468

    Custer, WA USA

    98240-0468

    www.orcabook.com

    13  12 11 10 • 4 3 2 1

    For Uncle Gerald

    Table of Contents

    Chapter One

    Chapter Two

    Chapter Three

    Chapter Four

    Chapter Five

    Chapter Six

    Chapter Seven

    Chapter Eight

    Chapter Nine

    Chapter Ten

    Chapter Eleven

    Chapter Twelve

    Chapter Thirteen

    Chapter Fourteen

    Chapter Fifteen

    Acknowledgments

    Chapter One

    I’m sitting across the desk from Dr. Wong. My mom is beside me, clutching her purse.

    Dr. Wong folds his hands. Clears his throat. Glances at the folder in front of him, then at me.

    I’m afraid I have bad news, Brendan. It’s leukemia.

    It goes right by me. I don’t even hear it. I’m so prepared to hear anything else— a virus, mono, meningitis, even avian flu—that it’s only when my mom gasps that my mind backs up, rewinds the tape, and I actually hear what he just said.

    Leukemia.

    I’m going to die.

    It can’t be.

    It must be someone else.

    Will it hurt?

    Leukemia is for pathetic-looking bald kids with big eyes. Not me.

    Is there treatment? Is there a cure?

    I’m going to die.

    It was a complete shock—but then, looking back, I realized that I should have had a clue. I’d been feeling like crap for months but kept brushing it off.

    I had no energy. Got the chills out of nowhere.

    Must be the flu.

    Had no appetite. Started losing weight.

    Must be a stomach thing.

    Got pains in my joints. Weird bruises appeared.

    Must’ve worked out too hard at basketball practice. Pulled some muscles. Bumped into guys too hard in the paint.

    I knew I should see a doctor, but there was no way I was going to miss basketball. When my mom pestered me, I said I’d go, but after the season, after I’d led my team to the finals. Only, of course, my scoring dropped off, my stamina disappeared, and Coach, looking puzzled and just a little pissed off, started sitting me on the bench. And, as it turned out, I was nowhere near a basketball court by the time my team played—and won—the finals.

    It was only when I couldn’t get it up with Cassie that I really began to think something might be wrong. Ah, Cassie. Cassandra Villanueva. Big brown eyes, wavy black hair, luscious mouth.

    We started going out when she came on to me at a party. It was early winter.

    I’d just been named captain of the basketball team. Later I wondered if that had anything to do with it. Cassie had a reputation for going out with all the captains—she’d already gone through football and soccer.

    But at that moment who cared if that was why Cassie was after me? Not me. She came into the kitchen, where I was hanging out with Kesh and some other guys.

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