"I don't understand," Sophia whispered. "My mom is perfectly healthy—there's no way she has a brain tumor. There must be some mistake."

The doctor sighed deeply, "I'm afraid this isn't a new discovery—according to our files, the patient has known about the tumor for a while."

"What?" Sophia gasped.

"I wasn't the attending doctor the last time the patient was here," the doctor said. "But I've studied her files, and it appears that the last time she came to the hospital with a head injury, ...