Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 94119 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 471(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 314(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94119 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 471(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 314(@300wpm)
“Harmony Ranch is set on over one hundred acres, and the main property is just a fraction over twelve thousand square feet.” She stopped at an oil painting of an older man dressed in a suit. “The man who built it, Mr. Owens, lost his teen daughter to cancer, and after his death, he wished for this place to become a place of hope for teens with cancer to keep fighting. It took years to get the ranch approved as a hospital, but it has become a beacon of light to those who come to heal here since.”
A burst of warmth filled my veins followed by sorrow for the man who had lost his child. I discreetly looked to my mama and daddy and saw sadness on their faces. I knew losing me was their biggest fear.
“If you’ll come this way,” Neenee said, and took us toward the room I’d be staying in. I followed along and marveled at the decor—the intricate cornices, the artwork, the ornaments making the vast ranch house feel so homey. Despite the size, there was a coziness to the place. It wasn’t sterile and clinical, like all the other hospitals and treatments centers I’d been in. This truly was a harmonious sanctuary. Nothing about it screamed “medical.”
We turned down three long hallways and stopped at a door where the room read Dove. “This is your suite, June,” Neenee said. She opened the door, and we followed her inside.
I gasped at its beauty. Rich, green-paneled walls brought a sense of peace to the room. It was large but not so much that I felt lost within it. There was a plush couch, a substantial TV-and-living space to one side, and a double bed at the other. The linens were floral in the most elegant way. On closer inspection, I realized that the bed was a clinical one. It had the call buttons and the controls to move it to sitting position, for the harder days, when staying bed was the only choice. There were large chairs to the side of the bed, clearly for visitors. IV stands were collected in the corner, and a medical cabinet disguised as a tall dresser was beside the bed. They had tried their absolute best to tone down why we were here and make it a place of rest and comfort.
I went through the closed door at the end of the room and was greeted with a bathroom. The walls were paneled and dusky pink, with a claw-foot bathtub and roomy cubicle shower, with subtle handrails and stools. There was an emergency pull and anything else I could need when I didn’t feel so strong, like a shower stool, a walker and long handled brushes to name a few.
When I came back into the main space, I noticed the wardrobe that rivaled the one to Narnia along the far wall. “It’s beautiful,” I said, feeling completely overwhelmed.
I could heal here, I thought. I could make it a home while I complete the treatment.
“You like it, honey?” my mama asked.
“I do,” I said, nodding. “I really do.”
“Some place, huh?” Daddy said and dropped a kiss on my head. “This’ll be a nice place to stay for a while,” he said just as a knock on the door sounded.
A young man carried in my luggage.
“Thank you, Bailey,” Neenee said as he placed them by the wardrobe.
Bailey smiled at us. “Nice to meet y’all,” he greeted, then left the room.
“June, will you be okay here to settle in while I steal away your parents for a while?” Neenee asked.
“Of course.” I smiled at them as they left, then held my notebook to my chest and turned a full 360, taking it all in. I waited for the fear, the nerves about what lay before me, but they didn’t come. A heady peace settled over me, and a flicker of excitement sprouted in my stomach too. Something about this place felt special somehow. I knew deep down that it was going to help me. Change my life. Something about my being here just felt right…destined.
I sat on the end of the bed, noting it’s softness, but then turned to the French doors that led outside. I looked beyond them, and a happy laugh spilled from my lips when I saw that same chestnut gelding from the paddock had moved to the part of the field my room faced.
A loud laugh came through the door from somewhere else in the house. Deciding to explore some, I was leaving my room when I heard the laugh again. I turned left and, with my notebook still clutched to my chest, tried to track down what sounded like a group of people talking. A smattering of nerves did rush through me this time. In all the time I had fought my leukemia, I hadn’t made many friends in the same position as me. We had to travel to big cities for my many treatments and all the back-and-forth traveling hadn’t afforded me many people to take into my confidence.