Fall For You

t w o

February 13, 2018 - Druid Hills, GA

Aaliyah Jay

"Everything I do is for you and I really do adore you,"

Walking down the halls of Egleston Hospital checking in on all my patients, I tried to hide the fact that I was fighting the worst hangover of my life.

"Ms. Aaliyah, you look so pretty," said my 6 year old patient, Danielle.

"Thank you, baby, you don't look too bad yourself," I said with a smile giving her a little tickle. "How are you feeling today?"

Danielle was a patient here at Egleston with Acoustic Neuroma. Which is when a tumor develops on the hearing or balance nerves, which can cause gradual hearing loss and dizziness. She was brought here by her grandmother 3 months ago, she was put on a list for surgery to get her tumor removed and the day is finally here. Well, it'll be here in 14 days.

"Really good, I got up to use the bathroom today myself!"

She was so happy. On other days she would have to call me or another nurse to come help her because she has moments where she would fall due to getting dizzy. I hate how someone so young and beautiful with so much life ahead of her had to go through something like this.

"Oh wow! I'm so proud of you, Danny," it was true, I really am.

"And guess what Ms. Aaliyah," she said with the biggest smile on her face while jumping in place.

"What's that babygirl?"

"Come here. I wanna tell you a secret," she looking like she was about to explode from happiness. So I squatted down next to her, so we were the same height and faced my ear to her. She cupped her little hands around her mouth and brought them to my ear, "my daddy's coming to visit me and-and he's going to spend the night with me and he's going to bring food and candy and movies and we're going to stay up allllllllll night." She said with a big kool-aid smile.

"Well, I hope I get to meet him, you look so excited."

"That's because I am Ms. Liyah!"

In the course of these 3 months, Danielle has been here I've never seen her father. See I work day shifts and maybe once every blue moon I'll work the night shift, he comes at night and when I come to check on her in the morning she'll tell me about him and everything that they do. She'll talk for hours about the man and you could just look at her and actually see the love she has for him. It's really something I wish I could've experienced with my dad.

"Hey, Danny, since when did you get a cellphone," I asked her while I made sure to check all her vitals since that is what I initially came in here to do.

"My daddy bought it for me. He said it's so I can still talk to him and call him and facetime and text and take picture and.." she said going on and on while I giggled at her naming every single thing she can do on her phone, "even while he's out of town cause he said he be missing me," she finished without even looking up from her phone.

"Here let me see so I can put my number in. That way you can call me if you need me and I'm not here."

After typing my number into her phone, I left her room to check on my other two patients until my lunch break.

"Hey, Tony, how you are you feeling today, sweetheart?"

King

"Your total is $45.80"