JADE

JADE [45]

(Wednesday)  (February)

-JADE-

I'M SCARED.

My legs are bouncing up and down. I feel as if I'm losing my mind. It's been nearly an hour since I've been in this waiting room. I don't know what's happening to my daughter.

"Hey Chunk, can you get up baby? Mommy has to use the bathroom" the lady next to me says and I turn my head. The name of the kid sounds familiar.

"C'mon baby. I'm gon' put you this chair. You gon' be able to sit up by yourself?" She tells the boy again. He's laying in her arms sweating.

She drops her head back against the chair and release a deep breath and that's when I notice her. She's the woman that I almost fought at the carnival. The little boy that's laying in her arms right now, sick, is the boy that pushed Lehi.

What kind of sick joke is this?

"Oh God, I'm gonna pee on myself" I hear her say.

"I-I'll hold him for you" comes out of my mouth before I can stop it. She quickly turns at my voice. I don't think she expected anyone to be listening.

"Excuse me?"

I swallow. She looks so tired and drained. Her eyes are nearly shut closed. She has a nasty, purplish bruise on her cheek that looks as though someone punched her. "I'll hold him for you so can go use the restroom" I repeat.

She wraps her arms tighter around her boy as if she doesn't trust me to not snatch him from her arms. "No thank you. I'm good"

"Trust me. I'm not gonna hurt him"

I don't know why I'm saying more after she obviously declined my offer, but I see myself in that woman. I've looked this tired and drained before. She doesn't look younger than at least twenty, so I've been where she is. A teen mom. A child taking care of a child.

"Don't I know you from somewhere?" She frowns.

I nod. "Carnival. We got into an altercation"

"Oh, um" she swallows. "I'm s-sorry about that. I was um–" she wipes her eyes as soon as her tears fall.

"It's okay. They haven't seen him?" I look down at the little boy that is trembling in her arms.

"No"

I slowly, with a questioning look, reach out to touch the boy. He's burning up with a fever. "Oh, he needs to be seen right now. He's burning up"

"I know" she wipes her eyes again.

"Let me hold him so you can go get a nurse. I promise I'll take care of him. I won't hurt him" I assure her with a concerned look.

After a few seconds, after staring deeply into my eyes and seeing that my words are genuine, she gets up with the boy in her arms and places him in mines. The heat from his body instantly transmits to mine. "I'll be back, Chunk" she kisses his forehead and turns on her heels to leave.

The little boy whines in my arms and I draw him closer to my chest. "It's okay, baby boy" I rock him. He looks so fragile and innocent. His eyes flutter open and close. Beads of sweat scatter all over his face and I wipe them with my hand. He looks like his mother.

"Here. I brought you some sandals and a jacket" Kiana rushes into the waiting room and stands in front of me. "Who's that?"

I look up at her. She's staring down at the boy with a look of concern. "His mom went to get a nurse. He's real sick"