| General Fiction posted October 13, 2025 | Chapters: |
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Marie meets with her new oncologist
A chapter in the book Beating the Devil
Beating the Devil - Chapter 23
by Jim Wile
| Background A cancer researcher invents an early cancer detection system. |
Recap of Chapter 22: Brian and Julia agree to ask Marie to stay with them until the end but won’t ask her just yet. She remains in the hospital for two more days and then is discharged with a back brace and walker. On arriving home, Earl greets her with enthusiasm. Relaxing in the Florida room, Julia tells Marie about the therapy dog training.
Brian joins his lab techs, who are busy at work on the nanoparticle pill, currently working on toxicity testing. He is gratified by Mal and Bertie’s wonderful working relationship and is very proud of them for devising the toxicity testing plan.
When Marie goes to bed, Earl scratches at her door to be let in, and he joins her in bed to give her great comfort while she despairs at having to resign from her orchestra.
Chapter 23
A week later, Marie had her first appointment with Dr. Renee Houlihan at the Levine Cancer Institute in Shelby. She was the oncologist who would be caring for Marie during her stay with her family.
For this first meeting, they were seated in a small conference room. Julia and Marie sat on one side of a table, while Dr. Houlihan faced them from the other side with Marie’s records spread before her. She was an attractive woman in her mid-40s—about the same as Julia—with long, dark hair clipped together in the back.
After introductions and a few questions about how Marie was feeling physically today—like I could do cartwheels—and mentally—just happy as a clam—Dr. Houlihan decided she liked this woman and her sarcasm. She knew, however, this was often a way for some to disguise deeper concerns and fears, and she knew not to make light of anything in their discussions. She noticed that Julia approached the meeting with a more serious demeanor and that she took Marie’s hand and held it throughout.
“Marie and Julia, now that we know the cancer has spread and is active in multiple systems, that limits our treatment options. Your 2027 treatment included a course of chemotherapy along with surgery and radiation, but I’m afraid this time, due to the extent, we are limited to only chemo. How did you tolerate it, Marie?”
She thought back to that horrible time, which seemed interminable. “Not well. The anti-nausea drugs didn’t seem to touch the nausea, although it may have been worse without them. Who knows? I lost a lot of weight and had no energy. I had to take a leave of absence from my job, and, of course, I lost all my hair. I felt like crap, to be honest.”
“I’m afraid all of that is likely to happen again.”
“I want you to be honest with me, Dr. Houlihan. How much time would it buy me if I underwent chemo again?”
Dr. Houlihan paused for a moment as she formulated her response. It was not good. “Let’s put it this way: With palliative care only, you can probably expect 3 to 6 months, but with chemo, it’s likely to be 6 to 12 months at this stage of the disease. The drugs we would use now may have slightly fewer adverse effects, but there will always be some. I’m sorry for this grim assessment.”
“Please be honest with me again; if I were to opt for a course of chemo, is there any chance of returning to my job as a violinist in the New York Philharmonic?”
“I think it would be at least a couple of months before you could consider doing that in light of your injuries and the onset of chemo. After you’ve healed sufficiently and your body’s had the time to adjust to the chemo, it’s probably more a function of your ability to remain seated for extended periods and maintain your posture. I assume you need to sit with your back straight and your arms raised? Do you think you’ll be able to manage it?”
“I’ll have to think about that.”
Julia gave her mother’s hand a gentle squeeze.
There was a long pause before Marie said, “So, tell me about palliative care and what to expect from that.”
“It’s emphasis is entirely on making you as comfortable as possible. It would focus on keeping your pain at bay, and we have some terrific painkillers today with virtually no side effects except at extremely high doses. It would be the same one you’re taking now—Glyptophan. We w—”
“I know all about Glyptophan. My son-in-law invented it.”
Dr. Houlihan just stared at her for a long moment. “Your son-in-law is Brian Kendrick?” She looked at Julia and asked, “Is that your husband, Julia? Oh, my goodness, you’re Julia Kendrick, the famous violinist, and your husband is the inventor of Glyptophan! I’ve read all about you both in North Carolina Today. I had no idea it was you. I wasn’t even aware of your last name.”
Julia simply nodded.
She turned to Marie. “You must be so proud of them, Marie. What a power couple if there ever was one. Glyptophan has been such a life-changer for so many of my patients.”
“Yes, I am very proud of both of them. I’m not worried about being in pain.”
Julia said, “Dr. Houlihan, besides pain management, what are the other things she might benefit from, and would I be able to help with them?”
“There would be physical therapy and exercises you could help her with. Without having to worry so much about pain management, palliative care would focus more on keeping your mom’s energy up, any nausea or other discomfort down, and helping deal with any psychological issues like anxiety or depression that may arise. Again, the emphasis is on making her feel as comfortable, both physically and mentally, as possible.”
Marie looked at Julia for a long moment and patted her hand with the one she wasn’t holding. She turned back to Dr. Houlihan and said, “Well, I guess I have a lot of thinking to do.”
“Of course. There’s no need to make a decision right away. I would encourage you to think about the options and talk it over with your family. I’d like to meet with you again in a week, and we’ll talk some more. Whatever you decide is fine; there’s no right or wrong decision. Thank you both for coming today, and I’ll see you again in a week.”
On the way back home, Julia said, “How do you feel about what the doctor said, Mother? Were there any surprises?”
“Not really. I’ve been running this meeting through my head for a few nights now, and it went pretty much the way my interior screenplay had it. I’m certain my career is over. You heard the doctor. It will be a couple months until I could even think about returning to it, and that’s if I decide to go the chemo route. But even with that, there’s no guarantee I’ll last more than a few months more, so what’s the point?”
“Resigning from the orchestra is a big step, Mother. Are you sure you’ve thought about it enough?”
“Look, Julia, it’s not as though I’ve got a lot of built in reserves. I’m like a sinking ship without any freight to throw overboard. I doubt I’d have the stamina for long practice sessions, and who knows how shitty the chemo will make me feel? Physically, I don’t think I can do it.”
“Mother, Brian and I have talked about this. We’d like you to move down here and live with us. We c—”
“No, Julia. I wouldn’t put my worst enemy up to having me as a housemate. Right now for a while during my recovery is one thing, but permanently? You don’t know what you’d be setting yourself up for.”
“Yes, I do. Remember, I lived with you for the first 18 years of my life. You can be a challenge, but it’s different now. We love each other. We want you to be with us. Brian and I do, the kids do, and Earl certainly does. I know he’s been sleeping in your room the past few nights.”
“He’s a piece of work, Julia. He gets up there next to me, and I can hardly move him if I have to get up and use the bathroom. I never thought I’d feel this way about a dog, but I do love him.”
“Look, Mother, if you resign from the orchestra, there’s nothing to keep you in New York anymore, but here you’ve got your whole family who loves you and wants you to be with us. Won’t you consider it?”
Marie was suddenly choked up and couldn’t say anything. Love of family was quite new to her in the course of her life, something she had only experienced in the last seven years.
She thought back to when Julia was growing up. She had been an awful mother, she knew, and had put such pressure on Julia to excel at the violin that it drove her to drugs when she was 16.
And then Julia met Brian at rehab—a fellow drug addict, who certainly couldn’t be good for her and would no doubt keep her involved with drugs. For two years she put up with it. Perhaps when Julia was at Juilliard in New York, and the drug addict was going to school back in North Carolina, the relationship would just die, but no such luck.
After Marie had won an audition for the New York Philharmonic, she asked Julia if she could move in with her for two weeks while her new apartment was being prepared. Julia soon called the drug addict in desperation. Christ’s sake, it had only been a few good suggestions she’d been trying to give her thankless daughter on the concerto she and her teacher were botching, but Julia freaked out.
She knew that boy was going to take her to a hotel where they would undoubtedly do drugs and screw. She had to put a stop to it so she threatened to cut off Julia’s tuition to Juilliard unless she broke up with that miserable drug addict boyfriend.
Julia cursed her out, and they walked out of her life for 13 years. It had been 13 years of bitterness, loneliness, and alcoholism, a time when she had no friends and nothing but her job in the orchestra.
And then Julia invited her to the christening of her grandson when he was ten months old—a grandson she didn’t even know she had. She decided to attend, but their reunion was about to go down in flames because both she and Julia were too stubborn to apologize for the horrible scene in New York.
The trip would have ended in failure had Brian not rescued the relationship. How ironic that Brian, the one whom the rift was all about, was the one who brought them back together in the end.
Becoming a grandmother changed her, and she had never enjoyed life more than these past seven years with her family. How could she refuse such an offer as Julia just made? God knows she would need their help as she neared the end.
“Thank you for the offer, Julia. I’ll think about it.”
 Recognized |
Brian Kendrick: A 43-year-old neuroscientist and cancer researcher
Julia Kendrick: Brian's 43-year-old wife. She is also a world-class violinist.
Johnny Kendrick: Their 8-year-old son
Lindsay Kendrick: Their 6-year-old daughter
Earl Kendrick: The Kendrick's chocolate Labrador Retriever
Dr. Marie Schmidt: Julia's mother
Abby Payne: Brian's partner on the project. She is 67 and a brilliant mathematician
Malcolm Roberts (Mal): One of Brian's two lab technicians
Tanya Roberts: Mal's wife
Samantha (Sammy) Roberts: Mal's 6-year-old daughter
Letitia Roberts (Lettie): Mal's mother
Larry Posner: One of Brian's two lab technicians
Vivian Delacroix: An oncology professor at Wake Forest University also doing early cancer detection work
Roberta (Bertie) Chen: Brian's new lab technician
Cedric (aka Cecil) Washington: Marie's premier violin student and friend
Maddy McPhail: Owner of Bo
Bo McPhail: Maddy McPhail's cancer-sniffing therapy dog
Dr. Renee Houlihan: Marie's oncologist
Picture courtesy of Imagen-4-Ultra
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