Keeping Up With the Wind: A 'Burban Tale by Suleyma Moon

19.

None of the rest of us really saw each other for the next week or so. Faith was moved into a regular hospital room, and everyone took turns going to visit her. Even Li'l Jay snuck out occasionally to go. Sometimes he would come over and try to get me to come with him. I would just tell him "no," and leave it at that.

He never got caught sneaking out after that time at Whisper's and was ungrounded a week later. He told me that his father hadn't even said anything else about finding him outside that morning. Li'l Jay's dad had also somehow convinced his mother not to flip on him when he walked boldly through the front door. She was, after all, the control freak of the house.

            It was around the time that Jay got ungrounded that I finally did get to see Faith. It was the day that she came home from the hospital. Naturally, everyone else was already there and wanted to know where I'd been. Faith, on the other hand, never asked about my whereabouts. She just kept watching me. She was giving me the creeps eyeballing me like that as I squirmed uncomfortably.

            Finally, she asked, "You don't like hospitals do you?"

            "No," I replied guiltily.

            "Me either."

She smiled at me and I knew that everything was all right.

            That day was like any other day when we got together. Li'l Jay and Spider were sitting two inches from the television, trying to find some cartoons. Ace and Blaze were sprawled out on the floor playing cards, and this time it was Faith who watched her "little" twin brother closely. I noticed that she looked thinner and even more breakable than usual. She was still very pretty, though. Her face had not lost the internal light that radiated from it.

We were all doing what we had always done, but something wasn't right about that day. There was something missing.

            "It feels funny without Shadow and Whisper here," Faith said softly.

            I nodded in agreement. "I heard Shadow got to see you before he left. How'd he pull that one off?"

            "That dude's crazy as hell," Li'l Jay mumbled under his breath, then, shaking his head, looked at me and answered a little more loudly, "snuck in." 

            Faith smiled quietly and shook her head, letting out a weak, disbelieving laugh. It turned into an even weaker cough. Blaze looked over at her. Ace did too, but not before seizing the opportunity to stick an ace of spades up his sleeve.

            Their parents came down then, all dressed up. They were the only couple I knew who still went out on dates after twenty years of marriage.

            They went through their usual spill. Be back soon. Faith, don't forget to take your medicine. Don't stay up too late (it was only a quarter to five), then again they said, "Be back soon." Maybe they were trying to tell us something. Blaze and Faith got kisses from mom, etc.

            I was sitting on the floor in front of Faith. On the way out, their mother kissed the top of my head. "Hi sweetie," then she breezed out the door.

            Neither one of them ever asked me about my home life when they saw me, but they always made it very clear that I could come live with them if I ever needed to. I don't think that their mother had ever liked my father...and she was there when my parents first met.

            "You guys take care of my Faith, now," their dad said on his way out. Blaze looked up and saluted him. Ace used this distraction to take another card. Blaze's dad looked down and winked at Ace. "You've gotten almost as quick as me, son." Ace smiled guiltily, and then their father was gone, too.