THE TOWERS FAMILY SAGA
       Episode 101
        THE CRACK
The warehouse hummed with
the rhythm of the press.
Robert checked the gauge.
"The pressure is steady."
Barbara wiped her hands.
"The weld looks perfect."
Virginia laughed aloud,
"We are ahead of quota!"
Dorothy joined the joke,
"Maybe we take a break?"
The air smelled of steel.
Shirley checked her data.
"Orders are up, Father."
They felt finally stable.
A future truly their own.
"I need to tell you,"
Virginia said to them.
Her voice dropped low.
"I found a lump, Dad."
Robert froze in place.
"Where?" he asked fast.
"In my breast," she said.
The shop grew very cold.
"We go to the doctor,"
Barbara said, stepping in.
"Right now, Virginia."
"I have a spot today,"
she replied, trembling.
Robert grabbed his keys.
"I am driving you."
"No, I have to work,"
Virginia protested hard.
"The work can wait!"
Robert roared at the room.
"Get in the car, Vee."
They sped to the clinic.
The silence was heavy.
"It will be fine, Dad,"
she said, touching his arm.
"I am a fighter, right?"
"You are," he whispered.
The clinic loomed ahead.
The past was behind them,
but the future was now
flickering in the dark.
They walked in together.
The wait felt like years.
"We must biopsy it,"
the doctor said to them.
The biopsy was a blade.
It cut through their hope.

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