A Color With Love

Chapter 10

Dragging my feet on the tiled floors was like inching ever farther away from my mother. I didn't know what to expect of my future. Yet I did know that after every step, I grew closer to the unknown. And not knowing what comes next is more frightening than even death and death was feared among all. Well, almost all.

The nurses and doctors I passed, seemed to look right through me. No, not like they saw who I truly was on the inside. Just like they couldn't see me at all. Like I was invisible within the Busy and Bustle in life. has no one seen me but my mother and Elena? I mean really seen me. Seen how selfish I am. How inconsiderate I was toward Trena. Had anyone seen my graditude for her? I will be frank and just come out and say it: I am not looking forward to living with someone so stone-like, so guarded. But I am VERY guarded. Great. Here comes my selfishness again.

I sighed my apologies when I accidentally ran into a woman in the bright-white lobby. A nervous lump grew in my throat as I realized who it was.

"Where have you been?" Trena asked through gritted teeth.

"I-I uhmm," I quickly decided on the truth, all the while starring at the tiled lobby floors, "The M-Morgue."

Her eyes bulged sickly out of her sockets as she looked at me as if I were some nut-case that she sure as Hell didn't know. She muttered, indeed humiliated, "The WHAT?!"

I cleared my throat, looked straight into her embarrassed eyes, and said with more certainty and an I-don't-give-a-damn-what-you-think tone, "The Morgue, woman! You know, the place they store dead bodies? Where they have my mom!"

I regretted my mini explosion instantly when many patients and nurses turned their heads toward the source of the disturbance. My cheeks burned a fiery red, but I was still determined to keep my eyes on Trena's.

Trena seemed to recollect herself smoothly. Yet her temper still cracked at the seams when she grabbed my wrist rather forcefully and dragged me in an apologetic fashion out the Exit Doors.

"What in God's name is WRONG with you? Do you realize my mother happens to work in this hospital?!"

I simply couldn't resist my cocky grin as I dared to say what I did next, "Geez, Trena, I guess I really must have missed that MY grandmother just HAPPENED to be the nurse assigned to care for me. Wow! I really didn't realize the resemblance her and I share!" I faked a sort of wondrous fascination.

"You little-" she bit her tongue. She probably remembered that tiny, insecure, snide comments like that could be so easily brushed off by the mere familiarity of it.

"Bitch?" I finished the accusation for her because it seemed she had trouble finding the right words, "Yeah, like I never heard that one before! Did you ever meet my mom? Well you two would've gotten along just FINE, trust me!" I felt hot tears burn in my sight and blind my vision.

"Do you think I want this?" Trena gestured from me to her, "Do you think I want to take care of you?"

I squealed with frustration, "Obviously not," my shoulders sagged, "otherwise you wouldn't have asked that..."

Trena took a deep breath. She seemed to feel slight remorse as she patted my shoulder and wiped tears of her own off her cheeks, "C'mon, let's get you home. I have your room all ready for you."

"T-thanks," I sniffled and walked arm-in-arm toward Trena's sleek-blue Jeep.

The street-lights blurred past and I dosed with my forehead cooling against the passenger window.

Home.

Trena said, "Home."

I am going home.