Slowly, Johnny wakes up. He feels woozy. He opens his eyes and sees a big white ceiling. That isn’t the ceiling from his room. He looks around. He is in a big room. Some big beds, curtains in the middle, a big window. At the end of his circle are his parents. His father and his mother smiling at him. Now he remembers! He’s in the hospital, and he’s had surgery. He wants to touch his stomach, but there is something tied to his hand. He looks and sees a tube attached to his hand. His parents take his hand and put it back to bed.
“My son, don’t worry. You just had surgery on your stomach. So don’t try to sit up straight, OK?”
Stubborn as he is, Johnny of course tries to sit up, but immediately has to agree with his parents. His stomach still hurts. But it’s another kind of pain than before. Johnny wants to see the scar. But unfortunately that isn’t possible. Because there is a big white bandage over his belly. Once every hour a nurse steps in to check on little Johnny. And every time he asks her when the bandage can come of. He really wants to see the scar! Finally, the last nurse to come in before bedtime, tells him:
“Tomorrow I will come back with the doctor, and then we will take off the bandage. The doctor will then look at the wound, and after that, I will put on a new bandage. When we do that, you can look at the scar.”
Satisfied Johnny falls asleep shortly after. His dreams are about – what else could it be – dinosaurs. In the morning the dinosaurs are replaced by the doctor and the nurse. She folds open the sheet and carefully takes off the bandage. It reveals a big red scar, all across his belly.
“Cool!”
The doctor smiles as he examines the wound.
“It looks clean. I’m sure this wound will heal nicely.”
The nice nurse puts on a fresh bandage, and winks at Johnny as she leaves. She tells him that his parents can pick him up at the end of the day.
After a week, the bandage is reduced to a band aid, they go back to the hospital for a check up. Again, Johnny has to go into the big noisy machine. But this time it doesn’t bother him that much. He’s already getting used to the loudness. While waiting for the result, father takes his sun by the hand and together they walk across the hospital. They stop at the hospital shop to buy ice cream. Johnny gets a big one with lots of colors.
“Ninety-four.” Johnny suddenly says.
That’s how many windows he counted when he was in the hospital bed last week, Johnny explains to his puzzled father. A few minutes after they get back to mother, the nurse comes and asks them into the doctor’s office. Again it‘s bad news.
“We got most of the tumor with the surgery, but some bits remained. We can’t reach them or remove them, I’m afraid. All we can do now is try to treat with chemo therapy, but that is very risky.”
That is a big shock to the family! Finally father asks:
“What are his chances? And please be honest.”
The doctor shakes his head, and then tells the parents in a sad tone that it’s probably a matter of a few months, before little Johnny will die. There’s nothing more he can do but hope. One Friday, two weeks after that horrible day, poor little Johnny is back in the hospital for another session of chemo therapy. It always makes him feel ill, like he has to throw up. His candy doesn’t taste that well anymore after a session, and his hair is falling out. And that is terrible to him. He had a lot of beautiful blond hair, and now most of it is gone. And what is left, is hanging from his head in small bundles. When the session is over, his mother always comes to pick him up. She rides him down to the parking lot in a wheelchair. This time Johnny feels particularly bad. He throws up a lot, and he’s constantly coughing. Before they go out, Johnny has to go to the bathroom. His mother waits outside, while he carefully enters the door. The first three boots are taken, so he has to go all the way to the back to the last one. While walking there, Johnny looks in the mirror. His own face frightens him. Pale, thin, with terrible hair. It makes him sad. He stops and turns towards the mirror. He stares into it. The world around him disappears. It’s just him and his mirror image now. And then he decides.
“I don’t want to be sad anymore. I’ll be happy and positive! And I will hope for a miracle. After all, it’s almost Christmas.”
With new energy Johnny goes to the toilet, and with a smile on his face he joins his mother again. She doesn’t know what happened of course, but she is thrilled that her little boy is smiling again. She hadn’t seen that for weeks now. From that moment on, Johnny is very positive and happy.
At home he collects his toys, and gives them away to his friends who don’t have many toys. When his mother asks him if he’s sure, he answers
“Yes, I’m sure. Just wait and see.”
And she sees. Those friends all come over to play with Johnny, and they bring the toys he gave them. So instead of losing toys, he has gained company. Together they play and have fun, and mother and father hear laughter coming from Johnny’s room all the time. Also, when they walk on the street, with Johnny in the wheelchair, he calls out to the homeless people who are forced to live on the street in this cold weather. Every one of them gets a nice talk and a toy from the boy, and some money and a hot coffee from his parents. Now, whenever they are outside, all the homeless people greet Johnny enthusiastically. One night, father has a great idea.
“It’s great that you give them your toys. They have company now. But wouldn’t it be even better if we give them some warm clothes? They can really use it with the winter coming.”
Johnny immediately agrees that it is a fantastic idea. Of course Johnny can’t make it happen, because of the cancer and the chemo therapy. His health is actually getting worse. But his father goes at it with energy for two. At all the neighbors and with his colleagues at work he asks for clothes they no longer wear. Soon the whole house is full of boxes. Together with his mother, Johnny sorts the clothes on sort and size. Every day they go out and give a full set of clothes to a very happy homeless man or woman. Even the newspapers write about it. Lots of people think this is a great idea, so within a week so many clothes are delivered, that they have to use the garage as well to store them. All Johnny’s friends help whenever they can to sort them all, and to hand them out. Besides clothes they also receive other handy things, like shoes and toiletry.
Christmas is approaching, it’s only a day away. Johnny has to leave his new career for a few hours to go back to the hospital. He has another session of chemo therapy. Once every two weeks Johnny has to go into the machine first, to see if the sessions have any effect. So far, the results have been negative. As if he’s home, he takes off his shirt and gets up onto the bed. By now he isn’t afraid of the machine anymore, and he’s used to the noise too. After seven and a half minutes the machine is ready. Johnny says goodbye to it. He waits in one of the corridors, on the middle of five chairs. His feet dangle just off the floor. He whistles a happy tune over and over again. After a period of time longer than normal a nurse picks him up. She smiles a sad smile at the boy. She admires his courage. The cold hospital lights reflect of his bald head, as he follows her into the doctor’s office. Inside, the doctor is sitting in his big chair, turned towards the window. Johnny sits down, waiting. For a while, nothing happens. But just when Johnny wants to say something, the chair turns around. In the middle is the doctor of course, and with him comes a very big smile. He looks at Johnny and says:
“Well my boy, I have good news for you! Your tumor seems to be shrinking. In fact, I didn’t believe it at first. So I called my fellow doctors, and they didn’t believe it at first either. But it is true Johnny: you will get better!”
Johnny couldn’t believe his ears! He beat the cancer!
“So does this mean I never have to get chemo therapy again?”
Before the doctor could answer, the boy cried out again.
“And does this mean my hair will grow back again?”
The doctor confirmed both questions.
“With a small procedure we can take out the remaining bits of the tumor now, and after that you will be completely cured.”
This time the nurse doesn’t even reach three. Halfway on two Johnny is out again. With this surgery, that only lasts an hour, the surgeons take out whatever was left of the tumor, and now he is completely clean again!
The next morning, when he wakes up, Johnny sees the Christmas tree near the window of his room. It is richly decorated with balls, little angels and spray on snow. Next to his bed are his parents. His mother is crying, but there is also a big smile on her face. His father looks silly, with a red Santa hat on his head. Johnny laughs. And he has every reason to laugh, because he is cured. It’s a miracle. A Christmas miracle!
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