The Power of Love

The Keep Writing Challenge for today is to write a 150-word (exactly) story using the prompt "tick."

The Power of Love

I recline in the comfy treatment chair and watch the solution drip into the tubes and begin its journey into my veins. This is my last infusion in a long course of treatment for recurring cancer. Remembering the shock of the unexpected diagnosis and dire prognosis that had rocked my world five years ago and the stress of the myriad doctors’ visits since, I relax into this familiar routine.

My mother, wandering now in aging dementia, is unaware and needy – and loving.

My husband loves and needs his partner.

My children love and need their counselor.

My grandchildren, almost grown, still love and need their second line of defense.

I am loved.

I am needed.

Drip. Drip.

Drip is what my ears hear, but my mind hears Tick. Tock.

Tick. Tock. 

I don’t count the seconds of borrowed time that are dripping steadily into my life’s blood.