like life

"Last year she had gone to a doctor, who had looked at her throat and a mole on her back, studying them like Rorschachs for whatever he might see in them. He removed the mole and put it floating in a pathologist's vial, a tiny marine animal. Peering in at her throat, he said "Precancer" - like a secret or a zodiac sign.

"Precancer" she had repeated quietly, for she was a quiet woman. "Isn't that...like life?". She was sitting, and he was standing(...) He took her wrist and briefly squeezed."It's like life, but it's not necessarily life".

Lorrie Morre, Like Life