FOR MONEY, I'LL MARRY YOU.......

25

👉🏻👈🏻

Her mother was small in the hospital bed.

It wasn't like seeing her in her bed at home.

There were tubes. A drain was in her head, and Jade couldn't stop herself from checking everything, eyes restlessly moving over the machines and the pulse oximeter readings, watching the rise and fall of her chest.

They'd sedated her for now to stop her tugging on the various plastic things coming out from her body.

Once upon a time, her mother had been funny. And stubborn. Strong. She'd liked old black and white films. She'd cry in romantic movies and used to throw a couch cushion at Alice and Jade if they laughed at her.

She'd liked cooking even if she wasn't the best at it. Things were always undercooked. She used to sing, always off-key, when she cleaned.

Some of those habits, those little pieces of her, continued the year Jade had looked after her. But slowly, one by one, they'd fallen away, peeled back and lost somewhere. And her mother had become someone Jade didn't recognize.

She'd flash in anger, get confused over small things. Yell. And it was all the disease; Jade knew that. But watching her mother fade away into someone else had been the most painful thing Jade had ever experienced.

But her mother was fine.

She'd be fine.

Grandma, Alice, and Jade, however, were not.

And that was something they all needed to talk about.

In the cafeteria of the hospital, they sat with coffee that was as thick and stale as the one in the hospital in New York. Grandma put in three sugars and still made a twisted face when she took a sip.

"Lasang pwet," she stated.

Jade snorted, thankfully right before she took her own sip, whereas Alice was not so lucky. She choked and started coughing.

Grandma clicked her tongue at her.

"You should be more careful."

"And you shouldn't say 'pwet." Alice took the napkin Jade handed over and swiped at her chin.

"I am seventy-two. I say what I like."

Who were they to argue with that?

"Say 'pwet' all you want, Grandma." Jade smiled and hoped her exhaustion didn't reach her eyes.

"I for one think it's hilarious."

Grandma sniffed and looked from Alice to Jade and back with a stern eye.

"It is time we talk."

Jade was hearing a version of those words a lot today, it would seem.

"Agreed," Alice said.

"Me too," Jade agreed.

"I think the time is coming that we need more help with your mother. Kailangan na natin ng tulong sa sitwasyon niya"

Those words cost Grandma a lot to say. Jade could see it in the way her jaw was set, in the way the words rasped out her throat, as if she wanted anything more than to say them.

Jade reached a hand over the table and laid it over hers. Only a second later, Alice put hers over both of theirs. Grandma's eyes were misty.

"Oh, my girls."

She drew in a shaky breath. The fluorescent lights made her squint, emphasizing the deeply etched lines around her lips and eyes. Jade had no idea how she considered putting her own daughter into care.