Chapter 43 – Amber
Chapter Forty-Three
AMBER
E lijah had to leave the night after he arrived to get back to work, and I bid a fond farewell to Granny Lucille a few days later. She was smug about being right, and I was too happy to mind. The fact that he left his family and flew all the way to see me proved he wants to rebuild our relationship from the ground up. This time last year, he never would have done that.
Like Lucille said, this has all been a wake-up call. No matter how difficult the road ahead might be, I believe Elijah and I are better off together.
I’m both excited and nervous about what the future holds. There are a lot of challenges ahead. When I first ran to Charleston back when all of this began, Granny told me I needed to be brave and bold. I had no idea then that being brave and bold would mean agreeing to a fresh start with my own husband.
Now here I am in Queens, where I’ve just finished leading my first dance class of the new year. It was for the younger age group, and as ever, it was a blast, and I was surprised and pleased by our special guests, Melanie and baby Luke.
Luke loved every second, slamming his chubby fists down onto the mat with the music and struggling up onto wobbly legs to join in. He’s a joy to be around, and Mel and I are laughing at his playful antics as we chat.
Mel looks a little tired and seems grateful for the chance to sit and let Luke enjoy himself with the other kids. He’s big and active for his age and is sitting in a circle with some other toddlers, bashing the floor with a large Duplo until it’s abandoned in favor of the rice cake he’s gnawing on. Guess it’s so good it requires all his attention.
Mel and I keep our conversation surface-level, and I feel rotten for not being able to open up to her. Despite her dubious taste in men, my sister-in-law seems like a lovely woman, and I’m hoping that we’ll become friends. For now, though, she avoids the subject of Elijah and me with admirable diplomacy. Instead, we talk about Drake and Amelia’s engagement, which is safe and pleasant ground.
“Sorry. I’m not sleeping well,” she says after a big yawn, looking embarrassed. “It’s great here, isn’t it?” She gestures at the bright, cheerful room.
“It is, yes. I really enjoy it. You know my history, I’m sure. It’s taken a while for me to feel comfortable around children. Now it seems like they’re everywhere I look.”
She pulls a sympathetic face. “I… I had miscarriages. One before Luke, and two when I was younger. It’s not something I talk about much, but for a while, I wasn’t sure if children would ever happen for me. And now, I’m… Well, here I am.” She clearly stops herself from saying more, and I suspect I know what it is. The tired eyes, the yawning. The decaf coffee. I won’t put her on the spot—she’ll tell people when she’s ready—but it seems the James clan is about to get even bigger.
I do a quick emotional triage to see if that upsets me and find that it doesn’t. It appears that I no longer feel these things so deeply or personally. “That sounds terrible, Mel. That kind of loss must be devastating. I’m so happy you ended up with this little tank at the end of it all.”
We both glance at Luke and notice at the same time that his color is off. Mel immediately goes to him and checks his mouth, then pats his back firmly. She talks soothingly to him, but he isn’t breathing, and his face is turning darker, tears dripping from his eyes.
“Luke!” she cries. Other parents start to notice, and other children begin to wail. Mel pats him again and looks around the room. “What should I do?” she begs. “He’s choking. Call 911!”
Without pausing to think, I grab Luke and place him face down on my legs, then slap him sharply with the heel of my hand, right between his shoulder blades. Mel hovers at my side, shaking and crying. On the fourth blow, a big blob of half-chewed rice cake flies out of his mouth and goes splat on the floor. He immediately sucks in air and starts screaming, slamming his fists into my thighs. Mel grabs him up, strokes away his tears, and does that mom thing where she checks him over for damage.
“Is he okay?” one of the other mothers asks, clearly on the phone to 911. “They’re asking if he’s conscious.”
“Well, he’s yelling his head off, so I’d guess that’s a yes,” another quips in response. This information is relayed, along with a few details about if he stopped breathing completely and for how long. We’re told he’s probably fine now, and that because it only lasted a matter of seconds, his brain was not deprived of oxygen long enough to do any damage. The parent relays that we should take him to the ER if we have any concerns.
There’s a communal sigh of relief as Luke continues to demonstrate how powerful his lungs are, and one of the parents comes over to pat me on the back—a lot more gently than I did to poor Luke. “Well done, Miss Amber. That coulda got real nasty.”
Once she is sure her boy is okay, Melanie comes to me. My adrenaline levels are still high, and I barely notice as she takes hold of my hand and squeezes it. Her green eyes are shiny with tears. “Thank you, so much. You might have just saved his life. How did you know how to do that?”
“Um, this is kinda embarrassing, but I think I saw it on an episode of Grey’s Anatomy … What can I say? I watch a lot of late-night television.”
She laughs and kisses the now much-calmer baby on his round cheeks. “Well, thank God you do, Amber. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate what you did. Some use I was, huh?”
“Seeing your own child choking would be enough to send anyone into a blind panic, Mel. But you’re very welcome.”
Seeing her snuggle her baby and close her eyes as she takes deep, relieved breaths, I feel a little glow of pride, and then a far less noble emotion takes its place. Try to hate me now, Nathan James.