The first entry
For the first time, I feel time like
a heartbeat, the seconds pumping in my breast like a reckoning;
the numinous mysteries that once seemed so distant and unreal
threatening clarity in the presence of a truth entertained not in
youth, but only in its passage.I feel these words as if their
meaning were weight being lifted from me, knowing that you will
read them and share my burden as I have come to trust no other.
That you should know my heart, look into it, finding there the
memory and experience that belong to you, that are you, is a
comfort to me now as I feel the tethers loose and the prospects
darken for the continuance of a journey that began not so long
ago, and which began again with a faith shaken and strengthened
by your convictions.
If not for which I might never have been so strong now as I
cross to face you and look at you incomplete, hoping that you
will forgive me for not making the rest of the journey with you.
The second entry
In med.
school I learned that cancer arrives in the body unannounced, a
dark stranger who takes up residence, turning its new home
against itself. This is the evil of cancer, that it starts as an
invader, but soon becomes one with the invaded, forcing you to
destroy it, but only at the risk of destroying yourself. It is
science's demon possession. My treatment, science's attempt at
exorcism.
Mulder, I hope that in these terms you might know it and know me,
and accept this stranger that so many recognize but cannot ever
completely cast out. And if the darkness should have swallowed me
as you read this, you must never think there was the possibility
of some secret intervention, something you might have done. And
thought we've traveled far together, this last distance must
necessarily be traveled alone.
The third entry
I have not written to
you in the last 24 hours because the treatment has weakened my
spirit as well as my body. Mulder, it's difficult to describe to
you the fear of facing an enemy which I can neither conquer nor
escape.
Penny Northern has taken a downturn. I now look at her with a
respect that can only come from one who is about to walk the same
dark path. Seeing her I can't help, but see myself in a month or
a year. I pray that I have her courage to face this
journey. Mulder, I feel you close though I know you are now
pursuing your own path. For that I am grateful, more than I could
ever express. I need to know that you are out there if I am ever
to see through this.