“Come on, dear, time to go the hospital for your first Chemo treatment.” She said in a calm and reassuring voice to her husband.
“Is it time already, Jan?” her husband asked, still laying on the couch. He was wearing his favorite Star Trek t-shirt with a stern-looking Klingon standing with his arms folded. “We have to pick up the kids, remember? They all want to be with you.”
She got her husband loaded into the family minivan. The inside of the minivan had safari-pattern seat covers. They left their country house and headed into the city.
“Where are they today?” the man asked, rolling down his window to get some fresh air. Ever since he started the radiation treatments, his stomach was sensitive to motion. Sometimes he got nauseous; other times it just put him to sleep.
Jan replied as she drove, “Oh, the usual…. Praxia is doing 4-H in the park…. Steve has pee-wee wrestling practice… Kor is at Science Club and Argul is at the library, probably on Skype with all his digital buddies in Japan or Australia or where ever today.” She chuckled, “I am just the chauffeur as always.”
“Is Steve wearing his Brick Rockman costume again?” The man asked feebly, his stomach turning south on him.
She laughed, “Haha, coach told him he had to wear proper wrestling gear – for his own safety.”
“Did Steve actually listen this time? He is usually off in his own world.”
Jan picked up Steve, their youngest boy, first. He was indeed wearing his Brick Rockman costume from last Halloween. It had a rip in the feather boa today. “Where’s Steve? I can’t find Steve. Brick, have you seen Steve?” she asked playfully. She knew that once he had on that costume, he would only answer to being called by his hero: BRICK ROCKMAN – SPACE WRESTLER!
Brick answered, “I lost Steve, Miss Elizabeth! I think he fell out the bus window on the way to school this morning. Will you be my manager today? I have a big match against MEGA-CLAW tonight!”
“Sure honey. Can we look for Steve later?” Jan replied with a wink.
Jan picked up Argul next. He came out of the library loaded down with a backpack full of new books. “Look what I found!” Argul proudly held up a copy of “28 ways to increase your psychic abilities”.
“I see…. so what I am thinking now, young man?” Jan asked her eldest son.
Argul squinted his eyes in concentration, “Um…. That you got me chicken nuggets! No? That… I should get in the Safari Van.”
“Amazing!” his mom replied with a wide grin.
Jan pulled up to the city park, to look for their middle child and only daughter. She could see the 4H group walking their pets on leashes. Most of the other kids had dogs. There were a couple cats, who didn’t seem happy about being on leashes. And then there was Praxia who was trying to leash-train her pet Iguana. Skree had climbed a tree in protest. Jan helped get Skree out of the tree and loaded them into the family “safari van” as the kids called it.
“Did you remember to bring Zang?” Praxia asked her mother.
“He’s in your seat pocket dear, just where you left him this morning.” Jan replied. The only thing Praxia loved as much as her pet lizard was an old rusty robot she named Zangular the Mechan. Praxia always pretended Zang and Skree lived in the same make-believe world of Ssyk. The history of how dinosaurs and robots lived together was a constantly-changing tale of aliens, space ships, and pyramids. Zang always spent the night with his best friend Skree in his terrarium.
Jan headed for the old jr. high building. Science Camp used the chemistry room. Korvaq was playing chess on the steps outside with one of his friends. His teacher was standing nearby and he didn’t look happy. Jan waved as she walked up the old cracked sidewalk. The teacher didn’t return the wave or say hello. “Kor started another fire today” he said sternly. Jan sighed, Korvaq did have an affinity for fire. Kor kept playing chess without looking up. The teacher continued, “He was combining Styrofoam cups from lunch with chemicals from the chemistry lab in a glass beaker. If I didn’t know better, I would say he was making some kind of napalm grenade. Kor is very bright, but he’s become a safety threat. I can’t allow him back for the rest of the summer. I am sorry.”
Jan tapped Kor’s shoulder. Kor followed his mother to the safari van silently. She knew how much science camp mean to him and being expelled was punishment enough.
Jan drove the safari van, with its colorful seat-covers, over a long bridge towards Salyut Clinic in downtown. Everyone was quietly looking out the windows or day dreaming for most of the ride. Her husband had dozed off in the seat next to her. He snored slightly, though he refused to admit it.
Jan heard Praxia make a loud growling sound from behind her in the backseat. “What’s wrong with Skree?” she asked her daughter.
“The 2 boys in the car next to us are mad-mugging me, mom! So Skree jumped out the window and landed on top of their car. He smashed them good!” Praxia was making Skree hop up and down in the window, pretending he was demolishing the enemy car.
Jan glanced over her shoulder but instead of seeing Praxia, she saw Steve, still dressed as Brick Rockman. Brick was flexing his muscles at a group of bikers out the other side window. She chuckled at her kids’ imaginations. When she turned her eyes back to the road, her heart jumped into her throat. Traffic ahead of her had stopped. She swerved sharply to the left to avoid slamming into them at full speed. She pressed her brakes as hard as she could, but couldn’t stop in time. She sideswipped the car with the 2 boys who were making faces at Praxia to her left. Both cars hit the cement divider on the bridge. Luckily, no one was seriously hurt, but the crash made quiet a mess. One of the bikers stopped and made sure they were all ok.
Everyone got an ambulance ride to the hospital, which the kids greatly enjoyed. Jan went with the kids to the ER while her husband headed upstairs to Oncology.
The nurses in the ER wanted to check the kids out. The ER was full of minor injuries from the traffic wreck.
There was a guy with a broken jaw that looked painful and another whose nose was bleeding. The kids had a few bumps and Praxia needed a couple stitches on her elbow. The nurse approached her with a gentle voice and needle to stitch up her arm. Jan watched in shock as Praxia jumped out of bed and started running around the ER like a crazed chicken. She was still carrying Skree, who looked confused, and Zang under her arms.
Steve jumped out of his bed, “Don’t worry sis, Brick Rockman will save you!” Steve began pulling blankets off the beds and tossing pillows.
Argul just laid in his bed and shook his head at his siblings’ antics. He was talking to an old man with a British accent in the bed next to him.
Korvaq slipped off his bed and disappeared in the chaos.
Praxia swung her metal robot Zang at the fire alarm lever on the wall. Sirens blazed, water sprayed from the ceiling and in the chaos that ensued, Praxia, Kor and Steve dashed out the ER. They were finally cornered in the hallway by a security guard named Rodgers and a handful of orderlies. Everyone finally got stitched up and were cleared to leave.
Jan and the kids, still dripping wet, went upstairs to find their father. They checked the Chemo treatment room, but he wasn’t there. They headed down the hallway to Dr. Rasso’s office. The door was closed but they could hear Dr. Rasso’s voice from inside. His voice went from a shout to an inaudible whisper. Jan didn’t like Dr. Rasso, but he was supposedly the best oncologist in the tri-state area. Her husband never wanted Jan to hear the details, but she opened the door anyways and went inside with the kids.
Dr. Rasso was lecturing her husband, “Your cancer has spread… I told you this was possible. You wanted to start with only the radiation treatment, remember? The Barium injection identified several spots of Chondrosarcoma. Do you remember that Golden Barium dye we injected you with? I told you at the time that we should be more aggressive, but you wanted to wait. Now the cancer has metastasized and spread through your blood to your spine, lungs and spleen. We have to attack it now, with a multi-dose of Chemotherapy and radiation treatment. I have developed a special treatment for aggressive Chondrosarcoma!”
Jan supported her husband, though she just wished he could be well again. “What’s the point of living if he is too tired and sick to participate in life, let alone enjoy it?” she wondered to herself.
Dr. Rasso went off on a loud rant about his research on cancer, different treatments, success rates, and survival outcomes without his treatment. Jan saw her husband’s defeated look. He hung his head and motioned for her to take the kids out to the hallway. She knew that he was going to consent to Dr. Rasso’s treatment plan.
Over the next several months, time seemed to slip away.
Jan took care of the kids by herself. The man barely got out of bed. He might make it as far as a swinging chair on the porch, but only if it was warm and sunny. It’s was like time was just passing him by without his notice. His body was being destroyed on two fronts by Dr. Rasso’s Chemotherapy and by the cancer eating him away organ by organ.
One warm day, Jan and the kids pulled up in the driveway after school. The man was asleep on the front porch. The kids went inside and Jan kneeled down by her husband. He awoke and looked lovingly at his wife. Jan was still beautiful to him. She was bathed in yellow sunlight and surrounded by the trees of their yard. She was his world, his entire universe. Lately she was like his mother as well - caring for him, the house, the kids – she was a mother to everything he cared about.
Jan still saw herself as his partner, his love, his wife. “My love, I miss you. I miss us. You have to stop this madness. This is no way to end your life. Either chose to FIGHT or stop all treatment and at least enjoy the time you have left with your family. We could just go to the beach house. You always loved it there. You said it was like Paradise.”
Jan hadn’t realized the children had come outside on the porch too. They were looking at their father, who was again wearing his favorite Klingon t-shirt.
“We want you to fight dad. Zang and Skree will help.” said Praxia.
“Maybe there is a way to burn the cancer out?” suggested Korvaq.
“We will fight with you, Brick Rockman never gives up!” said Steve, who had put on his Brick costume.
“I will use my psychic powers to heal you, dad” said a confident Argul.
“What’s it going to be, my love?” Jan asked her husband.
The man felt like giving up. He was so tired. He felt beaten, defeated. He could see how much his family loved him and wanted him to live. He looked down at his favorite t-shirt. The stern-faced Klingon stared back at him, challenging him to fight. He stood up quickly. His children took a step back in surprise as their dad hadn’t moved that fast in months. “I need your help! ”
Perhaps he just stood up too quickly or perhaps his body was finally failing. The man saw a black dot in front of his eyes. It grew larger and larger until it filled his vision. He felt light-headed, like he was about to faint. As the man lost consciousness it appeared to him as though he was falling into the black hole in front of his eyes. That is the last final memory.
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This is a general map to the interior of the black hole. This explains what each area represents 
