Grandma Thompson's Diagnosis
Aiden frowned. He grabbed James by his shoulders.
"Who are 'they'? James, where are you going?"
James' phone rang at the opportune moment. Without even picking it up, James glanced at the Thompson's front yard. A black luxurious car stood outside of the gate, its headlights shining at Grandma Thompson's flowers.
"Bye, Aiden."
James closed the door behind him. Aiden pulled the window curtain aside and saw James getting into the car. As soon as the car door was shut, it drove away without further ado.
Grandma Thompson's little house was suddenly filled with a lot of people for the weekend. The elder woman liked children a lot, but her only daughter only had one son before she passed away.
Having James' younger siblings over made her very happy. She busied herself in the kitchen the whole morning preparing three meals and snacks with her own hands and refused any help from the others.
That was good because Aiden needed something to distract his grandmother with. Dr. Hunter gave Aiden a call and asked him to come to the hospital alone. He needed to discuss certain things with him.
Aiden might be young, but he knew that such a call did not bode well. If it were good news, then Dr. Hunter would have asked both of them to come and see him.
No, not even.
Given the elderly woman's reluctance to undergo further testing, the doctor would have told her straight on the phone that she was fine, and that she did not need to come back.
That Saturday morning, autumn arrived with a strong gust of wind. Aiden rode his bicycle to the hospital and then walked along the cold floor and corridor to reach Dr. Hunter's consultation office.
When he finally arrived at the doctor's office and the latter told him the result of the biopsy, Aiden still crumbled inside.
The bad news was that it was the most lethal variant of leukemia.
The good news was that Grandma Thompson was still in the first stage. With current advanced technology, Dr. Hunter was very optimistic that she could be cured completely.
The only problem was that this so-called advanced technology was developed together with the vampire hospitals. Human beings were allowed to enjoy the benefits as long as they were able and willing to pay for them.
The term "vampire hospitals" was often misleading.
These luxurious hospitals were manned by vampire doctors and nurses, but they very rarely had vampire patients.
Vampires liked to self-heal at home in the comfort of their coffins. The vampire hospitals came to be as a form of contribution from vampires to human beings.
By using their superpower and century-long obtained knowledge, some vampire doctors managed to achieve the important milestones in medical technology development that human doctors could only dream about but never reach.
Dr. Hunter gave Aiden a lot of treatment package options to choose from. And then there were also a few vampire hospitals available for picking. The best one was no doubt White Chapel.
It was located in the metropolitan city of Dominion, and was largely famous for its personalized leukemia treatment.
Before starting with any treatment, each patient would be carefully assessed and monitored on a personal level to ensure that the treatments correctly responded to their physical and mental condition.
It was hailed as the best vampire hospital for human leukemia diseases, with a 99% recovery rate.
White Chapel was also the costliest hospital out there. Aiden could not help but suck in a deep breath when he looked at the numbers written next to the words "Personalized Leukemia Treatment Package".
The sum of money was supposed to cover all the fees starting from the moment the patients were wheeled into the foyer up until the patients left the hospital on their two feet.
The vampire doctors were so confident in their skills that if a human patient died in their hands, the vampire doctors in charge were willing to return the money and also pay for the funeral arrangement.
Rich human families would not shy from spending this little amount of money in exchange for a full recovery. Aiden's little family was not rich. The cost of the treatment was more than what he could afford.
"I understand that you two are going to struggle financially due to this situation, but there is no price tag for health," Dr. Hunter emphasized.
Aiden agreed. The sum of money that they had in the bank was worth nothing if he had to lose his grandmother. He had to find a way to gather the money. The young man went home right away and started to think about finding a good job for the weekend. He could work the whole Saturday and Sunday.
"I am home," Aiden announced as he opened the door.
Just as he promised, James was there to pick his siblings up.