34. Love
LOVE
Truth was, I wanted her to come with me because I didn’t know how to handle seeing my mama like this. The last time I talked to her, we didn’t separate on good terms. If anything happened to her right now seeing how we left off, a nigga gone loose his mind. Having Baby around calmed me down.
Auntie Delia already went ahead of me, while I stood at the door preparing myself.
“Can I help you with something?” a nurse asked as she walked by.
“Nah, I’m all good.” Rubbing the back of my neck, I glanced at her awkwardly.
“Thanks, though.” She didn’t move from her spot but peered at me with a look of familiarity.
“Aren’t you the man with the mom?” she smiled, pointing at me.
Tilting my head to the side, I studied her. “Oh, yeah. What’s up?”
She was the female nurse I went to get when mama was tripping about the other one taking her blood.
“Hey,” she giggled, her eyes moving down to the chart, then to the door number. “You know this patient?”
I nodded. “That’s my mama. You her nurse?”
She gave me a curt nod, looking back down at the papers. Another nurse passed us, and she waited for her to disappear out of sight before turning to me.
“You wanna go inside for more privacy?” she suggested.
I didn’t really want auntie to get involved with this. “Nah, I’m alright here. Just give it to me straight.”
“Well, we must run more tests to be sure, however, we believe she has a condition called Hypoglycemia. She may not have known she was experiencing low blood sugar.”
“Hypoglycemia?” My eyebrows knitted in confusion.
“Yes,” she replied, looking down at her chart to double-check.
I wondered why the doctor ain’t mention this shit to us earlier. “Can she recover from this?”
She shuffled from one foot to the other. “She’s going to make a full recovery, but her diet needs to change.”
“Like, she needs to eat more fruits and shit?” I asked, confused because mama ate like that already. Rarely did I see her eating junk food.
Her head rocked side to side. “More or less. Keep her away from foods high in fat, and high in sugar.”
I nodded, taking everything in as I rubbed my hands together.
“Mr. Hamilton, we will do everything we can to help your mom,” she proclaimed, leaving me alone.
When I got myself together, I finally walked inside the room. Auntie Delia was sitting on the side of her bed, head bowed in prayer. My mama was hooked up to wires everywhere. She didn’t look like herself.
I took a seat, and just stared at her.
“I know this is a lot for you to handle, Love.” As auntie spoke, I went to the empty seat. “First your brother and now Trish.”
I sat my hand under my chin. “Yeah.”
The room grew quiet. I was so lost in my thoughts, I didn’t know auntie was talking to me until I looked up.
“Huh?” I inquired.
She looked towards the door. “Where’s Baby?”
“In the waiting room. She told me I should do this by myself,” I replied, relaxing my elbows on my knees.
“What you think?” Her question caught me off guard.
“I think she makes everything easier to handle,” I said truthfully.
Shit been thrown at me all day, but Baby gave me peace enough to deal with all this bullshit.
She smiled softly, nodding. “I like Baby.”
I sensed she wanted to say something else. “But we had a conversation and she told me you were her parole officer when she first got out of jail.” I nodded, staring at her, so she could get to her point. “You don’t think being with you is going to be a problem for her?”
“Nah, why would it? I ain’t going back there,” I voiced, licking my lips, then leaned back against the chair.
“Ok, but you were still assigned to her, Love.”
I sucked my teeth. “Auntie, I’mma make sure she’s good, alright. Don’t nobody care more about her freedom than me.” I ain’t mean to blow up like that, but I didn’t wanna hear this right now. The last thing I needed was someone giving their opinion on me and Baby’s relationship.