Kahlani
I was a nervous wreck.
The emergency room was full of me and Moses’ family and our friends.
There had to be at least thirty people posted all over the place in the small emergency room.
The security guards were on high alert, as if terrorists were in the hospital with a bomb.
There had to be ten of them making their presence known to the anxious family members and the pissed off block boys that wanted to know who had shot their beloved prince.
Even cops had arrived, sitting outside of the emergency room at least three squad cars deep.
I wished that they would make his friends leave. They were making my anxiety ten times worse. They were doing the most, threatening to kill whoever shot Moses and crying. I’d never seen men that ruthless fall apart like that.
I fought the urge to roll my eyes into the back of my head as Rah motioned for me to follow him.
Solae was curious. However, she was doing her best to ignore Rah since he was acting out because of Priest’s presence.
I was shocked myself that she had the balls to sit in that room with Priest under her.
Yet, after the shit that she had been through with Rah, I figured it was about time that Solae showed him that he wasn’t her end all be all.
“I got something for you.” Once I was in the furthest corner of the room, Rah reached in his pocket and handed me a wad of cash. “That’s about two grand. That should be enough to get you a lawyer to fight that case. I was supposed to give it to Moses’ to give to you, but…”
I took it, wondering where Rah’s sudden compassion had come from. He had always looked out for Moses in little ways, but never like this.
Rah answered my curiosity with, “I feel bad for you getting locked up. I had set that up for Moses. You weren’t supposed to be involved. But luckily it was you and not him.”
The audacity of this motherfucker threw me for an angry loop.
“You know what, Rah? I’m not even about to respond to that right now. It’s enough going on.”
I stuffed the wad into my pocket and walked away just as the doctor emerged from behind the double doors marked “Employees Only.”
Moses’ mother and father met him in the middle of the floor. Many other family members and close friends gathered closely around as everyone else fell so silent that we could finally hear the infomercial playing on the small flat screen on the wall.
When Rah took me by the arm and brought me into the circle so that I could hear the doctor, I cringed. His sympathy and compassion just felt phony as hell to me for some reason.
The first thing the doctor said was, “He’s stable.” We all let out sighs of relief that could have been heard all the way down the street.
Everyone started to fire questions at the doctor.
“Is he okay?”
“When can we see him?”
“Is he awake?”
The doctor, who I then realized was actually the surgeon, held his hand up to silence everyone. He was a white younger guy. He didn’t look more than thirty and no taller than me. I envied the hand that he was dealt that led him to stand where he was, instead of where I was.
“He is in critical condition. He suffered multiple shots to the torso. Both ruptured his stomach. We removed the bullets and were able to repair the abdomen successfully. He will be in an induced coma to ensure that he doesn’t disrupt recovery.
He’s being moved to the ICU. Then immediate family will be able to visit.
His doctor will be out shortly if you have more questions. ”
He was not trying to get into too much with these black folks. He exited stage right while I moped back over to my seat, thanking God that Moses was still alive and eagerly awaiting the moment when I could see his face.