lolita | bellerín

hospital

"It's only when I turn away
and only when I'm near the edge
do i look around,
and see where i should be
instead."
---------

Salome stared at her mother, then the doctor, and spoke. "What's wrong with her?"

"A heart attack." The doctor responded, softly. "Your mother is very sick."

Salome held her mother's hand and swallowed. "Is she going to die?"

The doctor hesitated to answer, so Salome took it as a yes, before finally she spoke. "Not anytime soon."

"I don't understand." Salome responded, unconfident in her bad english and her thick accent. "Does she have a sickness?"

"Heart disease." The doctor responded, sighing. "Do you know anything that may have caused this?"

"No, not really." Salome responded. What was heart disease, anyways? "Actually, sure. She drinks all the time."

"Ah," The doctor spoke. "That's precisely the reason, then." The friendly woman looked back to Salome with a smile of pity. "Why don't you keep your mother company while I go run some tests? If she wakes up, just press this button."

"Alright."

The doctor exited the room, leaving Salome with her mother. Salome stared at her. She couldn't quite imagine the world without her mother, despite having basically lived in one. Salome couldn't even remember how old her mother was, but staring at her face, she took a guess for around forty or so. Then, doing the math, she calculated thirty five.

She used to try to warn her mother of things like this; the fact that alcohol killed. Her mother hadn't really listened, and when Salome saw that her mother was still surviving, she'd said fuck it and began to drink herself.

Her thoughts were interrupted by Hector, who entered the room with a frown on his face. "Salome," He let out, moving to her side. "Is everything alright?"

"More or less." Salome responded, squeezing her mother's hand. "I'm okay."

Hector glanced at the woman who's hand Salome held, then gasped slightly. "Is this your mother?"

"Yeah."

Hector pulled up a stool, next to Salome's. "She's beautiful." He glanced at his girlfriend. "Díos, you look exactly like her. You guys could be...sisters."

Salome opened her mouth to respond, but her mother began to move around before opening her eyes and gasping in a breath of air before coughing a few times, then glancing around at her surroundings. Her eyes landed on Hector's first, and then Salome's. Then their hands, which were intertwined.

She squealed. "Tienes un novio, mija? Why didn't you tell me!"

"I did tell you." Salome felt her face burn. "I just didn't tell you who it was. He...speaks Spanish, so he understands everything you're saying."

Salome's mother rolled her eyes. "I can't believe this, Salome. You wait until I'm going to die to finally let me in to your personal life."

"You might not die." Salome responded, blinking.

Salome's mother glanced at the ceiling, then back at her daughter's boyfriend. "He looks much older than you."

"He's not that much older." Salome spoke, tucking her hair behind her ear. "Only four years. Soon, he'll be twenty one."

"Díos mio." Salome's mother brought a hand to her forehead. "Now I see why you waited. Well, introduce me."

Salome grunted. "Mama, this is Hector, Hector...my mother."

"Call me Sofia."

"It's nice to meet you, Sofia." Hector politely shook her hand.

"Are you the one my daughter constantly runs away to?" Sofia rose her eyebrows as she sat up, slowly. Hector blushed.

"I suppose so."

"You don't do drugs or anything, right—"

"Mom." Salome hissed, frowning. "Hector is a good man. He takes care of me."

Sofia closed her eyes with a nod. "That's all I could ever ask for. What do you work as, Hector?"

Salome spoke before he could, causing him to grin a little. "Hector is a footballer. He plays for..." Her voice drifted off. She looked at him. "What's the name, again?"

"Arsenal." He responded, firmly.

"He plays for Arsenal."

Sofia's eyes shot open. "How long has this been going on?"

Salome nervously moved her foot. "Um...two or three years?"

Salome's mother nearly passed out. "I need time to take this in." She muttered, closing her eyes again. "In peace."

"You want us to leave?"

"I don't want you to, but—" She paused. "Just don't go too far."

"I won't." Salome stood and let go of her mother's hand. "Please don't die, mama"

"Please don't be so morbid, mija."

Salome smiled a little. "Adios, then."

Sofia waved a hand and gave Hector a final observant stare before sighing and relaxing her eyelids, her voice tired as she bid the two farewell, hopefully not forever. "Adios."