Sister Mother

Chapter 16

Addie

Social Services got to the hospital before Gabe did. A woman introduced herself as Heidi and interviewed Beatrice and I separately. She was an elderly woman with gray hair and thick round golden frames that were practically bigger than her face. Beatrice cried when the woman escorted her into an empty conference room and she cried more when she walked out. Heidi treated me with more respect than Frank did, but the fact that she was speaking to me terrified me. I did my best to answer her questions. Beatrice is in the eighth grade. She mostly takes the bus but when I'm not working, I pick her up via Lyft. I work three jobs to pay the bills.

Then Heidi started asking about what sort of medical care I required. I almost scoffed but bit my bottom lip to stop myself. One of my greatest pet peeves was people asking for my private medical information. If I wanted to tell someone about it, I would do so on my own terms. There was a difference between someone being curious and someone being nosy. Did social services even have the legal right to ask me about Morquio?

"That is my private information," I said through clenched teeth. "I am disabled, but this doesn't have anything to do with Beatrice. She's taken care of. Can I please take her home?"

Heidi wouldn't allow me to leave the room for another half hour, and when she did, it was so that she could call her supervisor. I wheeled myself out of the room and fled to the waiting room of the ER where Beatrice was sitting with Mags and Gabe who had just arrived. I hugged Gabe just as tightly as I'd hugged Beatrice before Heidi got here.

"Beatrice told me that CPS is here. That can't be true," he said quietly. His face was white with shock and when he grabbed my arms, I felt his sweaty hands.

"It is." I looked from him to Beatrice, who was no longer crying but her face was frozen in shock.

"She said I might not get to go home." Beatrice whispered.

I leaned forward in my wheelchair and grabbed Beatrice's good hand. She had to come home with us. Beatrice didn't belong with anyone but us. She's a McKenna! Gabe grabbed my other hand and squeezed it. He didn't say anything either. Mags paced in front of us, asked each of us several times if we wanted water or anything from the vending machines.

"Let me speak to her," Mags said as she put her hand on my leg. "I'll make sure that she knows Beatrice is taken care of."

Heidi was too busy speaking to her supervisor to speak with Mags.

Unsure if we were legally allowed to leave the hospital with Beatrice, we waited for Heidi to exit the conference room. Gabe scooted to the edge of his chair and tapped his foot repeatedly on the floor. Beatrice downed a dose of Ibuprofen, and then gave me a smaller dose. I shouldn't have taken my sister's pain medication especially with a social worker already sniffing into our business, but I was in as much physical pain as emotional. I squirted the thick purple liquid into my mouth, put the syringe back in the medicene box and grabbed Beatrice's hand again.

She's coming home with us. I don't care if I have to kill someone to make that happen.

"Miss McKenna?" asked the same long drawn out and monotone voice. Heidi had exited the conference room and stood in front of us with her clipboard under her arm. She adjusted her glasses by pushing them up the large bridge of her nose.

"Beatrice is coming home with us," I announced.

"I have spoken to my colleagues and we have agreed that there's no reason to remove Beatrice from your home tonight."

I sighed out of relief and heard Beatrice sigh too. Gabe rubbed Beatrice's back and Mags beamed.

"However," Heidi continued. "Vital things were brought to light and the state cannot ignore them. We would like to investigate this further."