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Quickly they look away, scrutinizing the labels of cans of peas or jars of pickled beets on the shelves.

      Staring straight ahead I push my cart. Most of them cannot resist a furtive, sidelong glance as I pass. The really frightened ones refuse to look at all.

      The odd thing is, almost everyone has had their lives touched by cancer: a father, mother, son, daughter, brother, sister, friend who has fought the disease. You would think compassion would reign, but instead, fear rules. You would think your phone would be ringing off the hook with people offering their support. It doesn’t.

      If it happened to him, it could happen to me. Who can stand the thought of death insinuating itself into the mundane routine of daily existence? Who wants to admit that we are all a single drifting piece of arterial plaque away from dropping the jar of pickled beets and collapsing to the tile floor?

      Who can stomach the idea that the smashing of the glass would be the last sound we hear? The stench of the vinegar the last smell we detect? The last bitter sight the image of a bloated hairless figure, stained with the mark of Cain, pushing a shopping cart, as the greasy plug of cholesterol clogs a coronary artery and our heart withers and dies, starved of oxygen, in a grocery store of all places? Never mind bloody cancer.

      Monster, I understand your predicament. It’s their fear that keeps you ranging the blasted moors and ravaged valleys at night, away from the sight of them.

      “Listen, guys… I want you to know I’m going to be pretty sick.” My sons sat on the edge of the bed and looked away as I spoke. I bit the inside of my lip to help maintain my composure. I didn’t want to cry and upset them.

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