CARRYING HIS BILLION DOLLAR BABY

Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE

NYROBI

“Momma, stop sneaking salt on your food,” I called out from the couch, not even looking up from my phone.

Another job rejection email slid across my screen.

Unfortunately, we’ve decided to move forward with another candidate.

I sucked my teeth and tossed my phone on my lap. That made number seven this month.

Between my mama’s medical bills and my dead-end job at Walmart, I was one emergency away from losing my damn mind.

“Nyny please okay! I only used a little bit,” she hollered back from the kitchen.

I rolled my eyes. She was so hardheaded and it was already bad enough my older sister was out there on molly somewhere, strung the fuck out, so I was truly the only mothafucka my mama had.

A little bit, she always said that shit, I shook my head.

My mama had congestive heart failure and still treated seasoning like it was optional. I was trying, like dead ass trying but Juanita made shit hard doing everything her doctor told her not to do like this shit was a damn joke.

Before I could say anything else, a loud crash echoed from the kitchen and my stomach dropped instantly.

“Momma?”

She aint respond. My chest tightened.

“Momma!”

I jumped up from the couch so fast my phone slipped right out my hand and hit the floor.

Running to the kitchen, I halted in my step finding my mama on the floor, not moving. That same helpless feeling hit me again, the one I knew all too well lately. Her eyes were barely open, lips pale, her whole body looking like it was fighting to stay alive.

“Momma! Momma, wake up!”

My hands shook as I grabbed her phone off the table and dialed 911. They picked up almost immediately.

“911, what’s your emergency?”

“My mama just collapsed! Please she got heart problems and she not waking up!” I yelled.

“Ma’am, I need you to stay calm.”

“How the hell I’m supposed to stay calm?” My voice cracked.

Tears burned my eyes as I pulled her head into my lap.

“She not responding!”

“Well, is she breathing?”

I pressed trembling fingers under her nose.

“Yes…but it’s weak.”

“An ambulance is on the way. Keep her airway open and stay with her.”

I looked down at her. The woman who sacrificed everything for me. The woman who raised me and my sister alone was now the woman I was slowly losing piece by piece. And shit I had already lost my daddy years and years ago.

I’d already taken enough L’s in life. Starting with losing my sister to her addiction. Jobs, opportunities, peace of mind…gone because I always had to choose my mama first. But one thing I refused to lose…was her.

I sat there on that kitchen floor, rocking back and forth with tears sliding down my face, waiting on sirens that felt too damn far away.

In the back of my mind, I already knew what was coming; my phone blowing up, work chat full of messages, another call out I couldn’t afford. But on some real shit Walmart could kiss my ass when it came to my mama.

The sirens got louder before I even saw the lights. Eventually, red and blue bounced off the kitchen walls like my life was already on fire.

“Ma’am step back!” One of the neighbors yelled from my doorway, but I couldn’t move. I was still holding her hand and begging her not to leave me.

By this time people were coming out of their homes to see what was going on and everybody loved Ms. Juanita so it was expected.

“Ma c’mon please don’t do this to me right now,” I whispered, my voice shaking so hard it didn’t even sound like mine.

The paramedics rushed in like everything was routine for them. Like my world wasn’t collapsing in real time.

“She’s got a history of congestive heart failure,” I blurted out, grabbing one of them before they could even fully assess her.

“She’s been in and out of the hospital. Please, please don’t let her die,” I cried.

“Ma’am we’re gonna do everything we can,” the guy said, already checking her pulse.

Everything after that seemed to be moving too fast. They quickly put on her oxygen mask and started with questions I couldn’t answer fast enough.

“Has she taken her meds today?”

“I think…yes, umm no mannn I don’t know.”

“Ma’am, we need clear answers.”

My chest tightened. I wasn’t no fuckin’ nurse, no doctor, none of that shit. I was just her daughter watching the only person I had slip away in front of me.

They lifted her onto the stretcher, and I followed them out the house barefoot, not even realizing my shoes were still inside.

The ambulance doors swung open and I climbed in without asking. And nobody stopped me either, maybe because they could see it on my face, I wasn’t leaving her side.

Inside, everything felt smaller, louder and definitely more real.

One of the paramedics started chest monitoring while the other adjusted her IV line.

“Blood pressure’s dropping,” one of them said.

“Come on, come on,” the other muttered.

I sat there frozen, holding onto the edge of the stretcher like if I let go, she’d disappear.

“Momma..you gotta stay with me, you hear me? I can’t do this without you. Sheca aint gone never get clean if you leave us,” I cried.

The ambulance hit a bump and I almost fell forward. We were moving fast as hell.

I pulled out my phone with shaking hands, not even knowing why I did it. Maybe I needed something to anchor me, shit I don’t know.

My notifications lit up again, it was another rejection email. I laughed once broken and fuckin’ breathless then immediately started crying harder.

“Wrong time…wrong damn time,” I whispered to myself.

The paramedic glanced at me but said nothing.

The second the ambulance doors swung open, cold air smacked me in the face.

“Move, move, move!”

The paramedics pushed my mother’s stretcher down a bright hallway so fast I almost lost sight of her.

“Momma!” I called out, stumbling behind them, trying to keep up.

One of the nurses stepped in front of me before I could go any farther.

“Ma’am, you can’t come back there right now.”

My chest tightened instantly.

“That’s my mama”

“I understand, but the doctors need room to work.”

Needed room to work? Stay calm Nyrobi not right now.

I swallowed hard and balled my lips up refraining from cussing this bitch the fuck out. I was trying not to lose my damn mind.

“Can you at least tell me if she gon’ be okay?” I asked, my voice cracking right down the middle.

The nurse gave me that same sad little look hospital workers always gave when they aint got no real answers.

“They’re doing everything they can. As soon as we know something, someone will come update you.”

And just like that, my mama disappeared behind a pair of double doors.

I stood there for a second staring at them like if I looked hard enough they’d open right back up and she’d come rolling back out cussing everybody out for making a fuss over nothing…but they stayed shut.

My body finally gave out then.

All that adrenaline I’d been running on since finding her on the kitchen floor disappeared at one, leaving me shaky, lightheaded, and way too aware that I was standing in the middle of a hospital with no bra on, and mismatched socks. I looked a mess and felt even worse.

Dragging my hand down my face, I walked over to the waiting room and dropped into one of those stiff blue chairs that never got comfortable no matter how you sat in them. I hated everything about the hospital, I swear I did.

A toddler was crying somewhere near the vending machines.

An older man snored with his arms folded across his chest. A woman in scrubs walked past carrying coffee like it was the only thing keeping her alive.

Meanwhile, I sat there staring at my phone trying to think of who I could call that would possibly be around Sheca.

Even though my sister was so far gone she still deserved to be updated about her mother.

I didn’t know who the fuck to call though and she didn’t even have a phone for me to attempt to even reach her.

Fuck it. I shrugged.

My screen was cracked in the corner, the battery was on twelve percent, and my bank account was sitting so low I aint even wanna look at it.

Between rent being due next week, my mama’s medication refill, and the light bill sitting in my email, I was already hanging on by a thread.

Tonight, had just taken a pair of scissors to it.

I rubbed my temple and leaned forward, elbows on my knees.

This couldn’t be happening again. It felt like every time I got my mama back stable, life found another way to knock us right back down.

I was tired of all this shit, the hospital wristbands, the doctors using big ass words I had to google to understand.

I was tired of pretending that I wasn’t drowning.

My stomach growled loud and embarrassing.

I had been so busy panicking I hadn’t even realized I hadn’t eaten since earlier that afternoon.

With a sigh I pushed myself up and walked to the vending machine.

A dry laugh left my mouth, of course I didn’t have enough for the sandwich. Shit, I barely had enough for a pack of crackers and a sprite.

I was standing there debating on if I should spend the little bit I did have on something to eat or should I save the lil’ money I had, when I heard a woman’s voice.

“Get the sandwich.”

I turned around. She was pretty in a way that didn’t even seem real. Tall, dark skinned, slim with a good amount of hips and ass. Her eyes were slanted and her cheek bones complimented her eyes very well. A bracelet on her wrist looked like it cost a fortune.

Damn this bitch badder than Keisha on the movie Belly, I thought.

I didn’t like women, but she was fine as hell.

While admiring her my attention was stolen by the man that walked up behind.

Well damn, I thought.