i'm only given clues

Chapter 11a

"Normani Hamilton?" an older female voice asks down the phone. "Am I speaking to Normani Hamilton now?"

Normani clears her throat. "Yes, this is Normani Hamilton."

"I'm from the University of Miami Hospital," the woman says instantly. "It's about your grandmother, Barbara Hamilton. She's asking for you."

Her eyes narrow and she shifts Ryan's body in her arms to clutch the phone closer to her ear. "I'm sorry," she says, sure she must have heard the woman wrong because of the quiet volume. Her grandma was always knocking the volume button and forgetting to turn it back up. "Can you repeat that, please?"

"My name is Debbie Stanley," the woman says instead and Normani finds herself nodding a little, curious. "I'm a nurse at the University of Miami Hospital. I'm calling about your grandmother, Barbara?"

Normani gulps, her throat dry. "Okay..." she mumbles.

"She's at the hospital and she's asking for you," she goes on, raising her voice. Normani gets the feeling that she spends a lot of time on the phone calling people like this. "Shall I tell her you're on your way?"

Normani shakes herself out of it a little. "Uh, I'm in Key West," she explains dumbly. "Wait. Can you tell me why she's in the hospital first, please? Can I talk to her?"

"She's with the doctors." The line crackles, a whirlwind of frantic sounds and voices filling Normani's ears almost as quickly as her chest fills with terror. "They don't know what's wrong yet but she wants you here," the woman repeats. "Can you get here soon?"

"Yeah. Sure," she nods, a million things rushing around her head.

She's exhausted and her hangover is already present behind her eyelids, even after just a few minutes of sleep. She's glad when the woman asks her to hold a second and turns around to find Camila, before lifting her hand to gesture that she needs a pen. Camila jumps at the request and frantically looks around for one, not knowing where to start. Normani's pretty sure this is only the second time she's been up on the top floor and she rolls her eyes until Camila returns a second later with a pen and notepad.

She pauses when she sees post-partum depression symptoms written at the top in her own handwriting and stares before hastily scribbling it out as the woman returns to the line. Normani clicks the pen and shifts Ryan again so that she can rest the notepad on the floor.

"Sorry, Ms. Hamilton," the woman says kindly. "I was just trying to find out where you'd need to go once you got here but they're moving her so I don't have that information yet. Do you have a cell?" Normani reels it off from memory. "Excellent. I'll call you once I know where they're taking her but, if not, you can find me at the emergency room reception and I'll let you know where you need to go."

"Thank you," Normani manages to say before the line clicks and the woman's gone. She blinks at it for a second and feels like she knows less now that she's come off the phone than when she answered it. Camila takes it from her with an offering hand and Normani frowns, not sure what the hell is going on.

"Are you alright?" Camila asks quietly.

Normani resumes her hold around Ryan, automatically pulling her closer now that she has both arms. She nods, blinking sleepily. "It's... my grandmother," she starts. "She's in the hospital and I have to go be with her. She wants me there."

Camila looks at her, expression pulling like it isn't sure what it's meant to be doing. "What are you going to do?" she finally asks.

Normani just ignores her for a moment and stares at the words emergency room and debbie somebody written on the notepad. She sits in silence, not sure what she should do, given the circumstances, and rests her chin against Ryan's shoulder, just because. She thinks and tries to decide what her best option is before she turns to Camila.