Running For Lily
by Rachel L. Colson
Lily and I had been best friends since forever. We were really more like sisters than best friends. We were just that close. You see, it started out with our mothers, Jane and Marcia. They were college roommates enrolled in the same program: nursing. They became really good friends, and after graduation, they ended up getting a job in the same hospital, working in the same department.
Then, my mom met my dad and got married a few years later. Of course, Jane was my mom’s maid of honor. A few months after that, Jane got married and my mom was the matron of honor. About a year later, I was born, and a month after that, Lily was brought into the world.
So, as you can see, it was natural for us to be the closest of friends. Even though we were practically sisters, Lily and I were quite different. I was shy; Lily was outgoing. I loved academics; Lily loved sports. I was quiet; Lily was outspoken. I was plain, medium height, medium build, brown hair, brown eyes; Lily looked like a model, blonde hair, blue eyes, tall, and thin. But there was one thing that Lily and I shared: our love for running.
Ever since I can remember, Lily and I were running. Our mothers said we were running before we learned to walk. They would laugh at how much trouble we caused them by running off together somewhere. We’ve been running ever since.
Every morning since Lily and I were 7, we’d get up at the crack of dawn and take turns running to each other’s houses. After we met up, we’d then proceed to run to the park 10 blocks away, run a mile on the track, and then run back to our houses. Rain, shine, sleet, snow, or hail, Lily and I would be running. People around the neighborhood would joke and say that they could set their watches by us.
When we entered junior high, Lily and I joined the cross-country team in the fall and joined the track team in the spring. And then, when we entered high school, we joined the high school cross-country and track teams.
Even though we were the two best on the team, our times weren’t good enough to beat our biggest rival school’s times, the North Shore Knights. They had some of the fastest runners in the state, faster than Lily and I, even. It was our goal to beat them before we graduated from high school.
Lily and I were the best on the team, but Lily was always better than I. With her naturally built athletic body and her height and long legs, she always beat me. But she was never one to boast. She would always smile, put her arms around me, and say, “Next time, Lizzie. You’ll beat me next time.”
But I never did.
And I never had a chance to. Lily got sick.
I remember it as if it were yesterday. It seemed like any other day. It was the spring track season, and Lily and I were in training. We were running around the track in the park as we did every morning before school when suddenly Lily tripped and fell. I stopped running and jogged back to where she had fallen.
“What happened?” I asked, not seeing anything that could have tripped her up.
She smiled and took the hand I offered her. “I’m such a klutz,” she quipped as I pulled her to her feet. “Let’s keep going.”
So, we did.
Lily and I completed our run and went to school. After school, we went to the varsity track and started to run again.
After our run, we went into the locker room to change. Lily sat on the bench and began rubbing her knee and shin.
“Are you OK?” I asked.
“I’m fine,” Lily replied with a smile.
I sat down next to her and looked at the leg she was rubbing.
“Oh my God!” I was shocked at what I saw. Lily’s knee and shin were severely bruised. “What happened?”
“Nothing. It was just from my fall this morning. No big deal,” Lily replied.
“That doesn’t look like something that is no big deal,” I said seriously. “I think you should get that checked out.”
Lily just laughed it off and said that everything would be fine.
I just wish she had been right.
About a week later, during one of our track practices, Lily fell once again. I ran back to her to help her up, but stopped in my tracks. Lily was coughing up blood and her legs were highly bruised. I ran as fast as I could to find the coach and brought him back. An ambulance was called, Lily’s parents were notified, and Lily was taken to the hospital for testing.
I couldn’t do anything that night. I was so worried about Lily. I sat by the phone all night, waiting to hear from Lily. When the phone finally rang at 10 that night, I was so afraid, I could barely speak.
“Lily? What’s the matter?” I managed to choke out.
“Elizabeth, may I please speak to your mother?” I heard Jane say on the other end of the line.
At that moment, my heart seemed to fall out of my body. It was at that moment that I knew that something was terribly wrong. I handed the phone to my mom and went upstairs to my room. That’s when I started crying because I knew — nothing would be the same.
Lily wasn’t in school the next day. I could barely function. It was my first time running without Lily in nearly 10 years. The worst part of it all was that I didn’t know what was wrong with her.
That night, I got a phone call. It was Lily.
“Lily,” I choked out through tears. “What’s wrong?”
I heard Lily laugh softly into the receiver. “I thought I was invincible, Lizzie. Turns out something smaller than the point of my pencil brought me down.” She was silent for a minute before she continued. “I’ve got cancer, Lizzie.”
“No!” I cried into the phone, sobs shaking my body. “No, you can’t! You’re healthier than I am, even!”
“Not this time. This time, there isn’t anything I can do to make it better.”
“They have treatments!” I sobbed. “You’ll be fine! I promise!”
“Not this time, Lizzie,” she whispered. “Not this time. I have lymphoma and osteosarcoma. Lymphoma is a disease of the blood. That’s why I was coughing it all up yesterday. And the osteosarcoma, well, that’s a cancer of the bone. That’s why my legs were swollen and bruised. Lizzie. ... This is so hard to say. But, Lizzie, the thing is, I don’t think that I’ll ever be able to run again.”
It was those words that completely ripped out my soul. I cried for hours. My best friend, no, my sister, was dying of cancer, and there was nothing I could do to save her. I was powerless, and the only thing that I could do was stand back and watch her slowly slip away from me.
The next few months were the worst. Lily remained Lily; happy, always looking on the bright side of life. But I saw the change more than anyone. The chemotherapy wasn’t doing enough to help her. She was sick a lot, always bleeding. Her eyes lost some of their twinkle and dark circles formed around them. She was trying so hard to remain happy, but I knew. She told me.
“I’m scared, Lizzie. I don’t know what’s going to happen to me,” she told me one night while I was visiting her in the hospital after a particularly brutal treatment of chemo.
All I could do was hold her hand and say, “No matter what, you’ll always be my best friend in the whole world.”
Despite everything, I kept running, and Lily was always there to watch my meets and coach me or cheer me on from the stands.
“You’ll beat those knights! This is our year!” she’d tell me, even though I knew it was always her dream to be the one to beat them.
Finally, that day came. It was the state track meet, and it was me versus the Knights. The 1600-meter run was just about to begin. I got into position and looked up into the stands. My mom and dad were there, but I couldn’t find Lily. Just then, the starting gun fired, and I took off.
I ran as fast and as hard as I could. It was as if my feet had wings. All of my training came down to that moment. It was all or nothing. Everything was a blur and tears formed in the corners of my eyes. I was running that fast.
A quarter mile. Half a mile. Three quarters of a mile. It was the last lap and I put everything that I had into that last mile. I could hear the crowds cheering as I crossed that finish line and broke the tape, signaling that I had come in first place.
I smiled and took my cool-down lap and then met my mother and father at the gate. They were smiling with tears in their eyes.
“Lily would have been proud,” Dad said.
“Where is she?” I asked. “She wouldn’t have missed this for the world.”
Mom and Dad looked at me and then their smiles faded. “Elizabeth, Lily died,” Mom whispered.
Tears streaked my face. “When?”
“Four minutes ago.”
I looked at the clock and choked on a sob. That’s when the clock had been stopped after I had crossed the finish line. I sat down on the track and took a deep breath.
A reporter approached me and sat down next to me.
“I’d like to get a few quotes from you for the paper. What was your motivation for not only breaking the state record, but also beating the undefeated Knights?”
A slow, sad smile spread across my face. “I was running for Lily. I won it for her.”
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