Our Child

Chapter five

The return of Annie always brought relief and normality in its wake. They had gone straight home from school, and ate the best dinner Jennie could afford to prepare. Though, the mother hardly ate anything. The majority of the food went to Annie, Jennie struggled to eat her portion. Her stomach had not settled.

It took a few days for Rosie to catch on, the mother had always been quite the actress, but when she did there was trouble. Forcing Jennie to stay seated after her shift, the Aussie had gone to fetch Annie herself. The little girl had, of course, been ecstatic to see Rosie again so soon.

Due to it being a Thursday, the afternoon lull went on for a tad longer than normal. Whilst Annie sat quietly at a table, working on her math homework, Rosie sat down opposite Jennie, at a table far away from the girl.

She raised an eyebrow, "What's wrong?"

Jennie's stomach once again churned, each more painful than the last, "Nothing, I'm fine."

"The sweat running down your forehead begs to differ," Rosie said, rather thoughtfully.

Groaning, Jennie glanced over at her daughter. The little girl was hard at work, practically snapping the table in half with how hard she pressed her pen into the yellow jotter. They would need to get home soon for dinner.

Jennie's closed for a moment, then peeled open, "I was going to make lasagna-"

"You'll be lucky if you make it to the bus stop," Rosie snapped, no longer playing nice, "With how hard you work, I think there could be something seriously wrong."

Feeling a little drowsy, Jennie shook her head, "No no no, I can't. Who will look after Annie?"

Rosie softened, "I can sort something-"

It was that this excessively inconvenient moment Jennie fainted. Bemused, Rosie sat staring for thirty seconds before running to call an ambulance. Holding on the line, and finding her common sense, the ice cream lady hurried back to check Jennie's breathing; faint, but regular.

"What's wrong with Mummy?"

Her eyes shooting over, Rosie watched in muted horror as Annie looked at her corpse of a mother. Her legs swinged back and forth, face mildly curious. She had no idea how serious this was.

"Mummy's just taking a little nap," Rosie smiled as best she could, "I'm calling some people at the hospital to help look after her."

Annie's face scrunched up, "Why?"

"Well," Rosie searched for any excuse, "You know how when you get tired, Mummy looks after you?"

Annie nodded.

"Sometimes, someone needs to look after her too."

"Oh," She looked back down at her work, "Can I come with you?"

"Miss Park? Are you still there?"

"Of course, sweetie."

"Someone will be with you shortly."

Finally, the ambulance arrived. Rosie made the little girl wait in the car, going to ask them about Jennie. It was a man who greeted her, in a old uniform jacket and with a worn face to suit. His smile was small, teeth crooked, but there was still that indestructible warmth in his eyes. Rosie felt safe leaving her best friend with him.

It was the 'new guy' she was worried about.

The newbie's hands shook as he held the clipboard, "From what we can tell, it's just a small infection."

"Infection?"

"We'll- we'll have more information at the hospital."

He scurried off as quickly as he came. Rosie was about to sulk when the original man returned, the same look in his eyes, "We won't know what's wrong until we can get her to the hospital."

"...fine."

The waiting room was as sterile as it was boring. Poor Annie had fallen asleep several hours ago, leaving Rosie to her own devices. Having read all the magazines, and watched the clock tic by for several minutes, she was forced to face a terrible thought. How were they going to pay for this?

Obviously Jennie was incapable. The woman poured every penny she had into Annie, securing both her life now and hopefully for the future. Rosie supposed that her parents would be a second option, but they had been out of touch since before Annie was even born. That left Rosie. Rosie had ice cream, not money.

She sighed, wondering if Lisa would be willing to sell one of her many overpriced cameras. The answer was a resounding, yet obvious, no. Annie had woken up, looking a little too bored considering the predicament.

"Is everything alright, sweetie?" Rosie asked.

Annie yawned, "When is mum getting here?"

"Mum?"

"Who else would look after Mummy, they love each other."

Sorry this took a while. School has been insane and shows no sign of slowing down, even for Christmas . I'll try post when I can.