9. Bronx’s Tale #4
Toni arrived in the emergency room and gave them her mother’s name.
She was then told to wait while they got an update for her on her condition.
Grabbing a chair near the windows, she watched as a slow pattern of rain fell and set her Fendi purse on her lap.
Some of her anxiety released when she spotted her husband entering the waiting room and looking around for her.
His eyes landed on her worried face, and he started toward her.
Toni stood, and Bull greeted her with a kiss on the forehead.
“What’s going on? They tell you anything yet?”
“No.” She shook her head. “I’ve been waiting since I called you. With Urso in surgery himself, I’m the only family she has, so they want me to stick around.”
“This is crazy.” Bull shook his head as one of the doors from the back opened, and Rhema strolled out in her burgundy scrubs and crocs.
She waved them over to the door, and Toni turned with Bull right behind her. Rhema fell in stride with Toni while leading her to Onika’s room.
“Hey, I’m sorry,” Rhema greeted her sympathetically as she shoved her hands in her pockets. “I saw your name on the form, and it tripped me out.”
“Girl, it’s fine. What happened? How are they?”
“Apparently there was a four-car pileup. Looks like your stepfather was the driver. His blood alcohol level was well over the legal limit, and they found traces of heroin in he and your mother’s system.
He wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, so he went through the windshield.
The police said he was ejected at least eight feet from the car onto the pavement.
He’s got internal bleeding as well, so they’ve got a lot to work on. ”
“And Onika?” Toni asked when Rhema stopped in front of the door to trauma room 501.
The curtain was pulled around it and everything for privacy. Rhema paused when she faced her. Her gaze landed on Bull when he came up behind his wife as well.
“I want you to be prepared for the extent of her injuries. Onika wasn’t wearing a seatbelt either.
She’s got severe scarring to her face and neck from the glass of the windshield she went through.
While she wasn’t thrown as far as your stepfather, she did sustain head trauma, several broken ribs, other contusions, and a severed spine,” Rhema detailed.
“Oh, my God.” Toni covered her mouth.
While she and her mother hadn’t been mother and daughter for quite some time, for some reason, hearing Rhema’s description rattled her.
Immediately, she was brought back to a little girl.
Five or six years old, one of the last times her mama felt like a mama, before Urso took over their lives and turned her against her.
It took everything to hold onto those memories, but even they were starting to fade.
“She’s under critical watch for the next twenty-four hours. She’s coded twice now. Currently only sustaining oxygen through a machine.”
“I want to see her.” Toni nodded.
Rhema took a breath before she slid the glass door open to the room and pulled the curtain back.
Toni sputtered and stumbled back into her husband from the vision in front of her.
Bull caught her in both arms and held her up.
Body shuddered, breathing sharp, Toni whimpered a little as tears flooded her eyes.
The woman lying in that bed was not her mother.
Weak, battered, severely bruised by injuries, Onika the bad bitch was no longer present.
Now only a broken shell of her remained as a machine pumped air into her lungs, which made her chest rise and fall steadily.
Toni’s hand fell over her mouth, and she sobbed into it before turning to Bull and burying her face in his chest. Arms around her, he stroked her back and let her sob into him as she fisted some of his shirt.
“Damn you, Onika.” Toni breathed.
After a moment, she was able to collect herself. She pushed away from her husband and approached one side of the bed for a closer view.
“What happens in twenty-four hours if she doesn’t improve?”
“The doctors will run more tests to check for brain functionality and to see if the swelling is subsiding at all. If irreversible loss of brain stem function has occurred, then—”
“Then that’s it.” Toni finished for her. “She’s gone, gone. Right?”
“Pretty much,” Rhema responded sadly.
“Okay.” Toni nodded and took one last look at Onika. “What about Uma?”
“I was going to check on her now. She was conscious when they brought her in. Luckily, she was in a seatbelt, but it didn’t stop her from getting knocked around a bit too.
She’s got some contusions from the glass, but her placenta ruptured, causing her to hemorrhage.
That’s why they had to do an emergency cesarean.
That wasn’t from the car wreck. Just bad timing,” Rhema reported.
“This is so crazy,” Toni whispered, stroking her temple.
“I’m going to check in with the doctors and make a few other rounds. You are welcome to sit in here with her if you want. I can have the doctors find you if there are any updates.”
“Thanks, Rhema. I appreciate it.”
“No problem. I’ll be praying for everyone.”
Bull went up to his wife and rested his hands on her shoulders before massaging them gently.
“I know I’m supposed to hate her. I have every reason to, but—”
“She’s your mother,” Bull said in her ear. “Trust me. If anybody gets it, it’s me.”
“I guess so. Brenda is actually at the house now. She was drunk when she pulled up as I was leaving,” Toni informed him. “I put her in the guest room so she could sleep it off.”
“I gotta get her some fucking help.” Bull sighed and nudged away from his wife. “Especially if she thinks she’s going to keep coming around the kids.”
“Maybe this can be a wake up call for all of us.” Toni reached out to stroke some of her mother’s rich, dark brown hair. “Urso risked all their lives. Brenda can’t keep using drugs and alcohol as a crutch and expect to be in Breeze and Bijou’s life where she could possibly endanger them.”
“Exactly,” Bull agreed.
Something outside the hospital door caught Toni’s attention. A voice. Low, sultry, but familiar as her face balled into a frown. A woman stood at the nurse’s desk outside Onika’s door. Black tights, a red t-shirt, sneakers and a red Kansas City Chiefs snapback on her head. Chai.
Toni moved toward Bull so she could hear.
“I’m here for my sister, Uma, and my daddy, Urso Chambers,” she told the nurse at the station, keeping her head low.
“This punk ass bitch,” Toni said under her breath.
Bull turned and caught his wife before she charged at Chai in the hallway in front of everybody. She’d fallen off the face of the earth in the last few months. Toni fantasized about finding that bitch and finishing what she started.
“Not here,” Bull told her, looking up and down the hallway.
“One moment while I check on that for you,” the nurse replied, tapping at the keyboard and studying the screen in front of her.
Chai held her hand against the hat on her head and pretended to study a brochure for childhood immunizations while she waited. After looking at the screen, the nurse picked up the phone and made a call. She spoke low, not even Chai could hear her. When she hung the phone up, she looked at her.
“The doctor is actually on his way down to talk to you about everything. You can have a seat over there in those chairs.” She pointed to a wall about eight steps from where Toni and Bull stood in Onika’s room.
Chai looked at her funny but took a few steps back and went to sit down as she’d been instructed. Minutes later, the doctor arrived and Toni moved to the other side of the open door to eavesdrop.