Notes

Irwin was in class. He stood at the front of the classroom as he spoke, having a discussion about some topic. Talking for a long period of time annoyed his chest. Every so often, he'd have to stop to turn away and cough into his arm. For the students, that was good. Then they'd have an extra second to write down notes before the teacher continued, but for Irwin it was just another breath wasted. He continued speaking, coughing a tad more frequently than he was before. Some students looked up, slightly distracted. Irwin cleared his throat and continued. A few seconds later he stopped. He no longer was talking. He took in a deep breath and tried to continue, but did so with coughs. His face took on a pale white color. More students looked up at him. One of them cleared their throat uncomfortably. Irwin suddenly skunk forward, he was half kneeling on the ground as he coughed uncontrollably. His left hand shot up and gripped the edge of a desk, trying to catch himself, his other hand went up near his throat. The man coughed a few times, he brought his right arm up to his face and coughed into it. He heard sounds, but they seemed distant. His vision was blurring and the ground quickly came up and met his face. He heard screaming and yelling, lots of sounds now. He heard loud footsteps too. Someone sounded like they were crying. Irwin laid on the ground in the class room, staring up at the ceiling and shaking as he gasped for air. One student ran up and shook him. "Mr. Page!" He heard through the constant sounds. His name was repeated multiple times. Someone pressed down on his chest, hard. His entire body convulsed, he rocketed into a bear sitting position and coughed, his throat felt raw. Something wet was on his face, running down from the corner of his mouth, to his chin, and down his neck but he couldn't tell what. There then was more commotion. He felt someone moving him. "Mr. Page?" A familiar voice asked sounding slightly panicked. He recognized it as the school principal's voice. Irwin wanted terribly to respond, but couldn't move besides for wheezing. His eyes started blindly up at the ceiling. His head was swimming and he couldn't make out anything with his eyes. He felt something get forced over his mouth. He recognized it immediately and weakly tried to resist. His vision swam once more and blackness engulfed his sight.

It was hours later when he woke up again. He wasn't fully conscious, he could barely move still. He heard a younger voice exclaim something worried. Something about changing lines. Irwin's eyes slowly opened. He didn't have his glasses on anymore, he hadn't a clue where they were put, if didn't matter though, his vision was black anyways. Once more he heard multiple voices speaking at the same time and couldn't make any of them out into words. Then it changed, a nicer, softer and more familiar voice broke threw his thoughts. "Irwin?" He heard. He closed his eyes shut tight, a look of pain crossing his face, he once more blacked out. Even more time later, he started to wake up. "Mr. Page?" Someone asked with a yawn. Irwin opened his eyes once more, he could see this time. He tried to speak but there was a mask over his mouth. He still didn't know what it was called, nobody ever told him when he came. He moved his gaze around confused, he didn't have his glasses on. Right on cue, someone slid them into his face. He blinked a few times and then was able to recognize the student. Irwin paused, then remembered who she was. Her name was Miranda, he was in his fourth hour AP history class, the 11th grade. The girl stepped back and asked again. "Mr. Page?". But Irwin couldn't respond. . With shaky movements, his hand rose up to his face and took off the mask, he could hear things more clearly then but his lungs suddenly emptied and he couldn't breathe again. A hand moved ontop of his and forced the mask back on his face. He turned towards the hand. His eyes trailing up the mans arm and to his face. It was the schools principal who has put the mask back on him. "You can talk with it on." The man said and sat down. Irwin nodded his head shakily, it was only then that he saw his entire body was shaking. "So..." The principal said, trying to get Irwin to speak. Irwin swallowed air nervously. He didn't know what he was suppose to say. There was an awkward silence for a moment. "Whys he so.. pale?" Miranda asked. Irwin opened his eyes and glared at her, she looked terrified. Irwin wondered for a moment on why she was here, then remembered. She already had her job planned out, which college she'd go to and where she'd work. She was training in school, every time someone from school went to the hospital she was suppose to come too. It was a dumb way of trying to get her to learn but Irwin didn't object. The principal didn't respond to Mirandas question. He was still waiting for Irwin's response. A nurse walked into the room. She whispered something to the Principal, suddenly his expression changed. "What?" He demanded of her. The nurse took a step back and repeated it. It was still too quiet for Irwin to hear, Miranda did though. She soon looked just as pale as Irwin did. " Detected cancer?" She asked immediately and loudly. . Irwin froze, his heart started racing again and suddenly all he could hear was his fast beating heart. The steady beeping from the monitor next to his bed suddenly began beeping faster. Irwin's chest rose and fell repetitively and with great speed. The nurse suddenly dropped her clipboard and rushed up near him, pressing a few buttons on the systems nearby. "Page?" The principal said, but Irwinbcouldn't respond. "Mr. Page? Mr. Page!" Miranda was yelling. The nurse pressed another button and his shaking stopped, he went still and then closed his eyes, sliding back into unconsciousness. Hearing a final "Irwin!" Yelled at him by his principal.

Again, Irwin woke. To his surprise, the principal was still there. Miranda was gone though. "Mr. Novak?" Irwin asked him, his brain too mush to decide between saying the mans real name or his last name. "Mr. Novak?" He asked again, this time louder. The principal stirred and looked up. "Irwin." He said finally, then asked. "How do you feel?" Irwin felt surprised. Previous times that he'd had asthma attacks, the principal would always ask him what happened. He wondered why his attitude was different, but couldn't seem to remember. Irwin paused and thought of how he should respond. He considered just shrugging, but he was already the youngest teacher. Everything he did at staff meetings he would get compared to the students for. He answered instead with "Bad." The principal's emotion changed again, painted across his face was a look of panic. "A-Are you ok Mr. Novak..?" Irwin asked cautiously. "Terry will do." The principal said dismissively and stood. Irwin frowned, he knew it probably wasn't right to call him by his last name. Terry turned towards him and took a deep breath, he looked like he has something to confess. "Are yo-" Irwin tried again, still jumpy. "Quiet!" Terry snapped at him, looking distracted. Irwin flinched, his heart raced again, the beeping quickened. "Oh shit." Terry said and rushed over to him. Irwin didn't know why he got so startled, but he suddenly couldn't breathe again. He then was staring at the ceiling, he was inhaling fast and barely exhaling ahain. "Irwin?" Terry yelled and shook him. Irwin's heard swam "Wuuuuuuhhh" he said and flopped over to the side feeling numb. "Irwin!" Terry yelled. A button was pressed and within seconds nurses burst into the room again. "You haven't told him yet?" One scolded Terry. "I-I.." Terry stuttered. Irwin hadn't heard him stutter before. He wondered what was so urgent..

The next time Irwin woke up, it was to a light beeping sound. "How do I turn this shit off..." he heard someone muttering. He recognized the sound as the alarm on his watch. "The top left button..." Irwin responded weakly. Suddenly Irwin's arm fell from the grasp of whoever was holding it and slammed against the bed side. "You scared me!" Terry exclaimed with his eyes narrowed, but Irwin caught an apologetic look in the pirncipals eyes. "Ow.." Irwin whined. Someone else stepped forward, gently shoving Terry aside and grabbing my wrist. The lady pressed the button, turning off the beeping sound. "What day is it..?" Irwin asked. "Thursday." The lady replied, Irwin soon recognized her voice. It was the English teacher. "But.." Irwin said strangely, he wasn't exactly in control of what he said. He was on some sort of numbing thing. "Wasn't it Monday yesterday?" He asked and frowned confusedly. Terry frowned even wider at that and turned away from Irwin, he sat back down by some other teachers. "Why are there so many people here?" He asked dumbly. "Maybe we should tell him some other time." He recognized the voice of an algebra teacher whisper. "Tell me what some other time?" Irwin asked. The algebra teacher froze. Some other teacher quickly made a coverup lie. Irwin believed it immediately. "Why are there two of you Terry?" Irwin asked dizzily. Nobody said anything after that.

A few minutes of staring at the ceiling bored later some nurses walked in. They ran some tests and said the breathing mask could be taken off now. Another nurse nodded at that and took it off. Irwin's mouth dropped open for a moment, he inhaled sharply and then coughed a few times. The beeping sped up once more, but not nearly as much as it had the other two times. Irwin coughed again, instinctively coughing into his hand. His vision was clearer now and when he looked around, he spotted that there weren't as many of his coworkers here as he has originally thought there were. There were only four of them. Irwin brought his hand away from his mouth and set it down on the bed sheet. The teacher whom had been silent the whole time suddenly spoke up. He said something that Irwin didn't hear and then one of the nurses walked over to him. She picked up his hand and looked at it. There was blood in the palm of his hand from when he had coughed.. Irwin tilted his head at it. He heard a door open and looked up in time to see Terry exit the room and go somewhere down the hallway. He then shifted his gaze, looking at each of his three co-workers expressions. He tilted his head once more, but this time at a table. Off to the side there were a few get well balloons and a teddy bear over there. "What are those?" Irwin asked. The English teacher walked over to him again, "Some students dropped by after school and left them for you. They wanted to see you. I'm guessing they were either concerned or hoping for you to raise their grades." She explained. "Did you catch their names by any chance?" Irwin asked, slowly returning to speaking as normal. His coworker shook her head and looked back at the other two teachers. The algebra teacher cleared his throat. "I believe one of them was some girl named Allisa. I have her in my first hour." He explained. Irwin nodded. "She's in my 5th class." He added.

The nurse walked back over to Irwin and pressed a few buttons on the machine nearby. "You can leave at any time you'd like to." She explained. "Good." Irwin said. "Can I leave now?" He asked, the nurse looked back at the three other teachers and mouthed something to them. The teacher who had still been silent spoke up once more. "Already?" He asked. Irwin nodded, he didn't want to be here any longer. He had been gone for too long. The algebra teacher nodded and walked into the hall to retrieve Terry. Terry and the man walked back in after discussing something outside. "Alright. You're going to go into this wheelchair." A nurse said. Irwin wanted to object, but then again didn't want to be yelled at. A different nurse walked over and started removing IVs from his arm. Irwin winced at that and shivered. He hated IVs. Slowly, he moved over to the edge of the bed and stood. His bare feet hit the cold ground, he noticed how he wasn't wearing any hospital gown and wondered why, but pushed the thought aside. He was in one his favorite shirts. His wife had probably brought them by for him. Glancing down at his watch Irwin realized she would be at work right now, and his daughter would be at her kindergarten right now.

The other teachers left to go back to their jobs or home, they were dismissed by Terry for the day. Irwin was wheeled out of the hospital and to Terry's car by Terry. Irwin watched as Terry opened his car door for him. Irwin put down the brakes on the wheelchair and stood up, Terry leaned forward to help him if nessecary, then stopped himself. Irwin seemed fine. He felt fine too. He carefully climbed into the seat and watched as Terry left to return the wheelchair. Irwin fastened the seatbelt and bent forward, resting his elbows on his thighs and his face in his hands, he closed his eyes thinking. Terry walked back to the car and opened his door, sitting down and puffing the keys in the engine. He stared at Irwin for a moment, a look of concern on his face. Irwin looked up and leaned back in the seat, wrapping his arms around his sides. Terry turned the keys and the car came to life, music started playing and Terry quickly turned it off.

They continued driving in silence, when they reached a red light Terry suddenly spoke up. "I'm sorry for scaring you a few days ago." He said. Irwin paused. He didn't respond immediately, and Terry glanced over looking into his eyes for a moment. Irwin couldn't remember exactly what had happened. "It's alright." He responded. Terry frowned and looked away. The light changed green and they continued driving. They were near Irwin's house when Terri spoke up again. "There's something you should know.." he said awkwardly starting. "What is it?" Irwin asked. "The nurses said they had detected cancer cells in you." He said, using focusing on the road as an excuse not to make eye contact, but Terry reached up and moved he mirror so he could see Irwin's face in it. "...Oh." Irwin responded weakly. They approached another red light and the car stopped once more. "It might be nothing though.." Terry tried to reassure him. "They'd said that they'd like you to come in sometime in a week or two for some tests to see if they were correct or not, and if so then they'd like to identify which type of cancer cells they were." Terry explained, then continued driving as the green light ended. "Page?" Terry asked. Irwin didn't respond immediately. "Yes." He said questionably, his voice sounded quiet. "May I ask what happened?" Terry questioned. Irwin took a deep breath and got ready to start explaining. "I don't know, I was feeling lightheaded again and suddenly couldn't breathe. Now I'm here and.." Irwin stopped speaking. Terry sighed, "Are you still going to lead the tour to the museum?" He asked. Irwin nodded quickly. "I'm not missing thatfor anything." He replied. Terry nodded. "Maybe you should bring your service dog with you there." He suggested. Irwin paused, he usually wasn't aloud to bring his dog many places due to allergies. He probably shouldn't even have a service dog, but he was given one when the doctors realized how bad of asthma he had. Besides, his dog had saved him many times. "It'll only be a two day trip." Irwin said. Terry didn't object, he nodded. "