In the hospital——

"How are you?" Aunt Lydia asked.

"Good." I said.

We were watching Dr. Tolentino as she regularly examined nana's vitals. She jotted down notes I would never know. I was trying to decipher the slightest change in Dr. Tolentino's facial expression so I would know if I could sleep soundly tonight but I got nothing. I had grown to love Dr. Tolentino's usual dead-pan expression. It seemed nothing could startle her. I wanted to ask how many dead patients it took for her to master the art of a dead-pan look. Then I thought of Larry. Would he ever lose the smile in his eyes when he becomes a doctor? That should not happen. Afterall, he is the chosen one. The smile messiah prophesied to cure the world of loneliness with his smile.

"Everything will be alright," assured aunt Lydia after Dr. Tolentino left the room.

Things were far from being alright. I looked at nana lying motionless on the bed. She was intubated and all. That alone felt wrong in every way. Her tiny frame looked like a dead log. Everything will be alright was a hogwash. Lies do not work all the time and sometimes the best sympathy one could give is to shut the fuck up. Everything will be alright. Hell! Maybe that's what she told herself after uncle Ben jumped off of a footbridge squashed by speeding cars below when I was four years old.