A Necessary Struggle: Fall Semester

Part 57

    December started with a bang. At 3:17 in the morning, Braxton Hicks matured into full-blown contractions. Safiya's screams woke up everyone, even Cairo who was out like a rock on the couch downstairs. Alyssa ran a couple of stoplights since the streets were empty of traffic despite Harmony telling her how much her fine would be if she got pulled over. Cairo upheld his promise. In the modern living room-esque hospital room, he held Safiya's hand during every contraction and instructed her how to breathe. Not to be outdone, Harmony rearranged Safiya's pillows, dabbed beads of sweat off her forehead, and fed her ice chips from a spoon like a toddler. Lela paced in front of the flat screen TV counting down until the next contraction while Alyssa read the monitors calling the nurse every time the baby's heart rate dipped. Around 5:39 AM and eight pushes later Ameera Grace entered the world with an exuberant holler.

     "Where's my parka?" Lela yelled. She forged through her closet color-coded like a new carton of crayons. She knew it was there. She took her box of winter wear out the storage days ago when she packed. "It's not in here!"

     Alyssa pranced in the all-white room cradling a bowl of cereal that was mostly milk, "What the hell is a parka?" She lifted the spoon to her mouth.

     "A jacket," Harmony answered poking her head in the door. "It's in your suitcase." She pointed to the black bags sitting by the pink paisley comforter covered bed. Lela turned around with far-away eyes. "It's going to be fine." Harmony's voice was softer, empty of its playfulness. "Take a breath."

      Lela inhaled slowly watching a ray of the sun wash over Alyssa's face. She told them she had OCD. It was the calmness of the hospital room that made her feel like talking. Harmony hugged her like she was about to go off to war and Alyssa typed the initials in her phone to ensure she knew everything about the disorder. Lela still didn't know if Safiya actually comprehended what she said because she was still plagued with the exertion of childbirth.

    Alyssa used her spoon to point to the orange translucent bottles on the dresser, "Take a pill." She suggested during chews.

      Lela released her breath. "Did that two minutes ago." She hunched up her shoulders.

       Safiya walked in looking thrown together in stretched out sweatpants and bleach splattered yellow tee. She yawned without covering her mouth before saying, "Isn't snow your trigger?" Lela nodded trying to shake the anxiety out of her hands. "Then why are you going to Aspen?"

     Lela stopped shaking her hands, "To slay fear."

      Lela began slaying fear the day after Thanksgiving. She let Trevor pay for her car to get towed back to Austin. It wasn't like she had a choice. He made the call without asking her. Wrecked with fear, she watched her orange mini cooper be unhooked from the tow truck in the parking lot of Harvey's Chevrolet Dealership. The used mini cooper she bought with the money she earned after working two jobs, a waiter at a barbecue joint and the neighborhood babysitter. 

It was the first big thing she bought for herself. When she was released from the Oakfall Mental Hospital for the third time her parents were divorced and didn't buy her a bus ticket home. Sylvan picked her up at the gate of Oakfall explaining why her parent's needed a little time. Sylvan tried her best to make an eighteen-year-old Lela feel at home but that night as Lela sat on the floor in the guest room she vowed to take care of herself that way she wouldn't be disappointed.

*****

     Lela knew Trevor was rich but she didn't know how wealthy he was until they pulled up to the hangar housing the private plane chartered for their winter escapade. She laughed when he suggested they all go to his family's cottage in Aspen since no one wanted to go home for the break. She was flat broke after paying her last tuition payment. He told them it would be free and it was his birthright so, she reluctantly signed on after her friends said yes instantly.