2. August 12, 2024
Daleyza
“Easton, it’s time to go inside.”
The grass was still damp from the early morning shower, and Daleyza stood at the edge of the yard, looking toward the six-year-old drawing in the mud with a stick. The child was so engrossed, he obviously didn’t hear her calling to him.
None of this helped with the monster headache forming.
Looking down at the grass and sighing, she realized there was nothing for it except to step into the wet grass and go collect him. She called out to him again softly when she was about two feet behind him. “Easton?”
The boy ignored her.
Due to the rain, the August weather was unseasonably cold and grey. By afternoon, the day would be humid as hell. She shrugged her arms further into her sleeves and hugged her long brown cardigan closer around her. “Easton.”
The boy still didn’t turn around or respond. Slowly, she leaned down and touched him lightly on the shoulder. “Easton, it’s time to go inside.”
This time, he shrugged her hand off and continued to draw in the mud.
With a sigh, she was about to be firmer with the child when something out of the corner of her eye distracted her. A town car pulled up to the only free space at her curb, executing perfect parallel parking on the crowded street.
A tall woman with red hair pulled back in a French twist exited the driver’s side door and came around the front of the car. She wore a designer raincoat and heels, and she carried a briefcase that was likely worth more than Daleyza’s bank account.
Using every ounce of control she had within her, she kept her body in the pose of a frustrated day-care worker as she spoke to the boy. “Easton, you need to go inside. Now.”
Something in her tone reached the child because he stopped what he was doing, threw the stick at the ground, and ran into the house, the door banging shut behind him before she could even move to follow him.
“Senora Ortiz?”
“Who’s asking for her?”
“My name is Esmerelda Worth. I’m here regarding Livia’s medical care. Can we speak inside?”
Daleyza carefully considered the woman. “I don’t recognize you.”
The redhead removed her unnecessary sunglasses, then pulled a black wallet from her raincoat. She flipped open the wallet and revealed a US Marshals badge and photo identification.
Daleyza took the wallet held out to her, looked at the photo, then at the woman in front of her. It was the same woman.
“Can we go inside, please?” the woman asked.
With a single nod, Daleyza turned and headed into the house. Once inside, she led the marshal into the dining room. “Can I get you something to drink?”
Esmerelda set down her briefcase. “Do you have tea?”
She nodded. “Yes.”
Daleyza went into the kitchen, and the marshal followed behind her. As she put the kettle on to boil, her visitor leaned against the kitchen counter.
“How are you holding up, Senora Ortiz?”
She shrugged as she reached up into the cupboard for two cups and two saucers.
“As well as can be expected.” She handed one set to Esmerelda, noticing the black nail polish the woman wore, the ring fingers sporting hand painted yin/yang designs.
Rather odd for a US Marshal. She also noticed an expensive looking ring in the shape of waves where a wedding band would go. “Do you take milk?”
“Yes, thank you.”
Crossing to the refrigerator, Daleyza retrieved the container and brought it to the counter, pouring some into a miniature pitcher, then returned the carton to the refrigerator. The two women stood quietly in the kitchen, waiting for the water to boil.
After a few minutes, the tea kettle whistled. Daleyza poured water into the two teacups, then put a tea bag in each. Grabbing the small container of milk and two teaspoons, she led Esmerelda back to the dining room, where they sat down on opposite sides of the table.
“You said you were here about Livia’s health.”
The red-haired woman bounced her tea bag in her cup. “We’ve been watching Livia’s condition. It’s worsening.”
She didn’t bother to ask how the US Marshals would have access to that information. “Yes. Testing showed that her condition has deteriorated exponentially since her last doctor visit.”
The marshal reached for her briefcase, opened it, and extracted a folder. After closing up the case, she slid the folder across the table.
Daleyza stared at it, and her stomach churned. Her hands retracted into her lap. Even though she was sitting against the back of the chair, she sank further into it. Something about the folder felt wrong.
“What’s that?”
“Livia’s care has been stressful.” Esmerelda removed the tea bag from her cup, poured in a small amount of milk, and stirred the mixture, all her focus on what she was doing.
“You’re taking care of an elderly woman with dementia.
Her condition is worsening and is going to require much more extensive care.
You’re running a day care for cash out of your home, which means you’re pulling longer hours than what is technically allowed.
Between the long hours you’re working and the physical care she requires, you’re burning the candle at both ends. The burdens are heavy.”
“Livia is family. Family is never a burden.” The words spilled from her mouth in quiet desperation. She loved the elderly woman, even though they weren’t blood relatives.
Esmerelda took a sip of her tea. After placing the cup back on its saucer, she folded her hands on the table in front of her.
“Your desire to care for her is admirable. Truly. I respect it. But she needs more care than you can provide.” She gestured to the folder on the table.
“The place you discussed with my predecessor last year has an opening, and I’ve secured her the spot.
It’s the best in the state, and there she will get the round-the-clock care she needs.
All you have to do is sign the paperwork. ”
“I can’t afford that,” Daleyza said with a shake of her head.
Not only that, to be separated from Livia?
She wouldn’t know what to do with herself if she no longer had to care for the woman.
Yes, she was tired. So tired that her body ached with exhaustion almost every minute of the day.
But to allow others to care for her in these last days of her life?
It would feel disloyal. Not to mention, the elderly woman was her last connection to the past. She wasn’t ready to let go yet.
“She’ll have the best of everything. Doctors and nurses on-site, twenty-four seven.
You’ll never have to worry about running out of her medications or missing doses.
In fact, she’ll have access to even better medical care as part of their patient roster.
Everything will be taken care of as part of your protection plan, and you get a rest from caring for her. ”
“Why now?”
“Excuse me?”
“Livia was already diagnosed with dementia before we were put into witness protection, Ms. Worth. Why wasn’t an offer for her medical care made back when we were placed?”
“When you first entered the WITSEC program, you were adamant that you and Livia stay together. She was in the early stages at that time, and her care was easier for you. With her diagnosis upgraded to the late stages, her care will quickly go beyond what you can provide.”
Daleyza tensed, the hand on the tabletop clenching into a fist. “I’ve done everything I can.”
Esmerelda reached across the table and opened the folder, pulling out a copy of a doctor’s report, one that Daleyza had already been given but refused to delve into. It hurt too much.
“No one’s calling you out. She’s uncommunicative, and she requires physical assistance at nearly every level. Soon she will be bedridden. It’s not a failing on your part. It's simply the progression of the disease.”
“It’s a monster. It takes away all of one’s dignity. I can’t imagine how frightening it is to not know what’s going on around you. Who people are. Where you are.”
A hand lay on top of hers, giving a gentle squeeze of comfort.
“I understand. Watching her go through this has got to be heartbreaking. That’s why now is the best time to move her somewhere that can care for her.
You’re young yet, Daleyza. You deserve to live your life as well as you can under the circumstances.
To wait until she’s too far gone, to see her in the stages of anger, paranoia, slipping into even further decline, will rob you of any chance to separate.
You’ll feel even more guilty about placing her in a facility than you do now. You don’t want that.”
She paused a long time, her teeth making indentations in her lower lip until she tasted blood. Working hard to let go, she quickly swiped her tongue across the offended flesh, licking it away and leaving behind a metallic tang in her mouth.
Her eyes went to the woman across from her. “Could you do it? Could you resign a loved one to the hands of strangers when the only tenderness they’ve received in over a decade is from you?”
“I don’t know,” Esmerelda confessed. “My mother died when I was barely in school, and my father died when I was eighteen, so I’ll never have to face that decision.
I’d like to think I’d do what was best for either of them, even knowing it would hurt me to do so.
What any of us will do in any situation can never be a certainty until faced with having to make a choice. ”
She knew the agent was right. She just wished she didn’t have to make this decision alone. But wishes didn’t change her situation, and she’d been alone a long time. Making decisions for Livia had become her responsibility alone since the death of her son. There was no one else to do it.
Esmerelda flipped over the doctor’s report. Behind it was the lengthy document Daleyza had refused to read. Sticking her head in the sand was no longer an option.
What would her son have wanted? What would he have done? It was useless to wonder, given that he was dead.
With a sigh, she picked up the pen. Page by page, she flipped to the sticky tabs marking where she needed to sign.
She’d still have power of attorney. She’d still be able to visit.
However, with each stroke of her pen, a weight seemed to lift as she handed over Livia’s day-to-day needs to a group of medical professionals who would be strangers, yet far better suited to care for her than she could.
It wasn’t until the final signature was completed that she realized just how hard she had been gripping the pen, her fingertips white with blood loss. Carefully and calmly, she set down the pen and sat back in her seat. The guilt was still there, but she knew it was for the best.
The papers disappeared from in front of her and slid back into the designer briefcase.
“I know it doesn’t feel like it right now, but you’re doing the right thing,” Esmerelda said softly.
The woman stood, put on her raincoat once again, and belted it tightly before securing the sunglasses over her eyes.
“A private service will be here to pick her up tomorrow at ten o’clock.
She can have as many of her things with her as will fit in her room.
It’s a good size, comes with a television so she can watch her stories, room for her personal furniture, and it has a wonderful view of the gardens.
I’ve even sampled the food there, and it’s very, very good. ”
“I can go with her to settle her in?”
The woman nodded. “I think that would be wonderful. It will likely make the transition easier. I’ll make sure to arrange for a car to pick you up when you want to come home.”
Daleyza escorted her to the front door.
Before the agent walked through it to her vehicle, she turned once more with a final reassurance. “She’ll be well cared for. It’s time to focus on you now, Senora Ortiz.”
Daleyza watched the woman walk down the porch steps and to her car as she wondered how to begin focusing on herself and what that even meant.