
Mia would have screamed if she did not know it would only draw out another long
rattling cough. The summer between senior year of high school and freshman year
of collage was supposed to be *her* time. She had been planning to travel all
around Europe - to visit museums in France, see her cousins in Warsaw for a
few weeks, bike around Germany staying in youth hotels. Now Ally and Sarah were
landing in Paris and she was stuck in a New York hospital with some mysterious
disease.

It had started around Prom. At first she had just displayed flu symptoms, but
her after graduation she rapidly deteriorated. Just a week later she was to
weak to move from her hospital bed. It seemed as if she could feel the drugs
oozing through her veins. The antibiotics hardly seemed to do anything for her.
Her doctors tried to remain optimistic in her presence, but they had informed
her that there might not be a cure, at least not in time for her. Despite her
looming mortality, Mia's anger was focused entirely on the trip she had missed.

She struggled to pick up the TV remote *click*.

================================================================================

*click* "Mia, you should rest. This TV is keeping you awake to long." It was
Allison, one of the nurses in the long term care ward.

"I don't want to rest. I don't do anything *but* rest."

"I know, but I need you to. You've been doing very well. Better than we could
have expected."

Mia felt like a petulant child being admonished, "Ok Allison."

"Is there anything I can do to make you more comfortable? Do you need your
bedpan emptied?"

"No that's all right. I promise I will be good."

Allison walked out. After a moment Mia picked up the remote *click*. She turned
the volume down and stared listlessly at the reality show about eating
competitions.

================================================================================

*click* Ally and Sarah were in Frankfurt, but Mia was stuck watching tigers
mating on the discovery channel. At least it seemed like she was going to live.
She supposed she should have been grateful, but getting past the anger was
difficult. She hated that her trip had been taken from her, she hated how weak
she had become, and she hated how she did nothing but watch TV all day.

*click* she turned it off in disgust and turned to contemplate the wall.

================================================================================

"Whitehouse spokesman Jay Carney said that the president would consider vetoing
the Republican's proposed budget if they did not remove the controversial--"
*click*

"Hey, I was watching that!" Mia said.

"And not doing your exercises correctly." responded Dave, her physical
therapist.

Mia sighed and concentrated on keeping her back strait and hips aligned as she
moved her leg against the elastic resistance of her exercise band. Her sickness
had left her emaciated and weak. At 5'2" she only weighed 75 pounds. Her jaw
looked razor sharp under her taught skin. All her joints were to large:
leftovers from a giant. Her hands were huge at the ends of her twigish arms.
When she spoke her voice was raspy. Her hair had gone from shoulder length full
bodied glossiness to a brittle brown mass. Her breasts had gone the way of all
her other fatty tissue, she was now flat as a board. Mia's bright green eyes
were the only part of her appearance that she still liked; her sickness had
made them seem larger and they stood out like spotlights on her otherwise 
pinched visage.

================================================================================

"Good job, Mia! You've made amazing progress. That was half a mile."

Mia smiled at Dave. "Thanks. I've been really working hard."

"Well, I have to say your good spirit has been key to your recovery. You are one
of my best patients"

Mia fluttered her eyes at Dave, "I bet you say that to all the girls." The
effect of her piercing eyes was only slightly ruined by her reedy voice.

He grinned "Only the pretty ones." Mia smiled back, glad he was willing to play
along. After a moment Dave became serious, "Listen, Mia, I know you really want
to go to Duke in the fall, but that may not be in the cards for you. There is no
need to rush things, and there is nothing wrong with starting in the spring."

Mia wrapped her too big hands around her bulbous knees. She looked so morose
that Dave said, "We can talk about it again in a few weeks. You've surprised me
before, and you might do so again. If you start gaining more weight we might be
able to make it work." Mia seemed to cheer a little at that.

================================================================================

"Eighty seven pounds. This is great!" On Mia's 5'2" frame it was about 30 pounds
under weight. Allison's job taking care of the slowly dying could be depressing
but successes like Mia's made it all worth it. 

"I'm gonna make 90 by September." Mia jumped off the scale.

Allison watched Mia slip her shoes back on. She worried that college would be
to much for the painfully skinny girl, but Mia was one of the strongest
willed patients she had had. "At this rate it seems inevitable."

================================================================================

"Bye Mom." Mia wrapped her bony arms around her mother. "I'll be fine. Really."
she added.

Not really knowing what to do alone in the room she walked over to her bed and
smoothed out her comforter. "Heeyyyyy roomie!" Mia turned to see a girl walk
through the door hunched over carrying a duffel bag under one arm and balancing
an overstuffed backpack on top of her. Mia would have offered to help if she
could have lifted anything. The girl plunked down her bags and straitened. She
was a few inches taller than Mia and as pretty as Mia had been before the
disease. "I'm Jessie, you must be Mia." the girl said sticking out her hand.

"Looks like someone has an Internet connection." Mia meant it to come out
jokingly but her control of tone was not what it had been. When Jessie looked
confused she added, "the roommate email. Sorry, just trying to make a joke."

As Jessie finished processing, her face briefly took on the look of someone who
has just noticed a cripple or encountered a vocal homeless person. She snapped
back into a smile, "Oh I see what you mean. Hey why don't you come meet my
parents."

Mia chatted with Jessie and her parents for a few hours while Jessie unpacked.
Eventually they left the two girls alone in the room. "You might as well go
ahead and ask me." Mia said.

"Ask you what?" Jessie said.

"Ask me what the deal is with all of this." Mia gestured to her body in a
sweeping motion.

Jessie looked a bit embarrassed, "Ok, what's the deal with all that?"

"It's not that interesting of a story really. I'm Polish, and I've been pretty
into reenacting events from Polish history since I was about 12. Anyway this
summer I had the opportunity to get involved with a really intense reenacting
group. They're called the Warsaw Group. Have you ever heard of them?"

"No."

"I didn't really expect you to have. Anyway, I got an opportunity to be part of
their summer long reenactment. It was amazing. We were doing World War Two, so I
played the part of a Polish Jew. We really wanted to drive home the impact of
the invasion and occupation, so myself and a few other volunteers decided to do
a full concentration camp experience. It was really hideous, but I learned so
much about myself and the other volunteers. It's really started a dialog.
Needless to say I'm glad to be done, but I have no regrets."

Jessie looked floored. "That sounds really dangerous."

"Oh, we had advising doctors monitoring us. They made sure we were not in to
much danger of death."

"To much?" Jessie said incredulously.

"Well Jason had to stop halfway through when his belly started to distend."

"That's wow. That's not something I expected."

Mia let the silence stretch out a little bit more. Finally she could not take it
any longer and she cackled, "Nah, I'm just fucking with you."

"Oh my god. You're aweful. You can't just say stuff like that!"

"The look on your-" she paused to take a gasping breath "face was priceless. 
You were all like: 'I'mma have to sleep in the same room as this crazy bitch?'.
Priceless."

"That's so bad." Jessie repeated herself.

"What really happened is that I got sick and lost a ton of weight. I used to be
much bigger. I had curves you know?" Mia made a cupping motion in front of her
chest "not like you though. What are you a D-cup?"

Jessie's face did a passable impression of a tomato, "Double actually."

Mia grinned at her roommate's discomfort. "I'm just joking around. I figure if I
make you uncomfortable while I'm awake you'll be relieved rather than concerned
that you are sleeping in the same room as a scarecrow."

"You're not a-"

"Yeah yeah yeah. I know I'm not a scarecrow. More of a slenderwoman really."

Jessie seemed to have run out of things to say. After a second she came up with,
"Want to get a bite?"

"You betcha!" Mia said. "FUCK! I used to be able to to a better Sarah Palin
impression than Tina Fey!"

Jessie looked skeptical, "Bitch that's impossible."

"The sass flows both ways I see. Next time snap your fingers in a Z formation."

It took them a while to decide on a place to eat, but they ended up settling on
a pizza place just off campus. It was pretty clear that the restaurant fed on a
steady diet of undergrads, so there was a nice discount for the two girls.
