by Jahquel J.
“I’m not until my husband gets his orders. You know soon as she knows I’m leaving she’s gonna try and take me off the schedule. I need all my damn coins.”
“True,” I replied.
“Anyway… how’s things with the new boy toy?”
“Cool.”
“Just cool?” she squinted her eyes and stared at me.
I blushed. “He’s cool, Vicky. I’m not trying to get my feelings too involved. For now, he’s cool.”
“Uh huh. Next week you’ll be floating in here talking about you’re in love.”
As cool as Vicky was, she was too nosey, and I wasn’t about to tell her all my business like that. We were cool and shared some things, but that was as far as it went when it came to the both of us. She was great company when I needed to past time while I was on my break. I looked down at my phone and looked at the unknown number.
“Hello?”
“It’s me, baby. I’m home,” I heard Pook’s voice and wanted to vomit. Years ago, I was so in love with this man and now I wouldn’t even piss on him if he was on fire.
Till this day I was still so hurt by the shit he had pulled in that courtroom that I couldn’t function in a real relationship because of my trust issues. “How did you get my number, Pook?”
“I have my ways. Baby girl, we need to link so we can discuss some things,” he told me like the shit was going to happen. I never wanted to see Pook’s pink lipped ass a day in my life.
“Yeah… that’s never going to happen.”
“Why not?”
“When I left your ass to rot in prison, I left you. Go check on home girl that you loved so much… you forget that?”
I could hear him mumbling shit on the phone. It didn’t matter that he was home. To me, it was a regular day. Nothing changed in my life because Pook got his walking papers. What he needed to do was find that girl and check on their kid. He shouldn’t have been tracking me down trying to see if he could rekindle something.
“Look, it’s shit that we need to talk about. I don’t want to hear shit about how you don’t want to see me…. you left me to rot in that prison, Liberty. You owe me something.”
“I already gave you what I owed you,” I rolled my eyes. “You got six minutes of my life that I can’t get back. Stop calling my phone, okay?” I ended the call and put my phone into my scrub top.
Vicky’s nosey ass was all ears when I ended the call. “Trouble in paradise?”
“Girl, bye. I gotta get back to work,” I laughed, emptied my bowl and placed it back into my lunchbox before heading down to the ER.
Being a nurse in the emergency room kept me on my toes. You never knew what was going to come through the doors of Staten Island Hospital emergency department. I usually tried to get earlier hours, so I didn’t have to work night, but by the time I saw the schedule everyone had grabbed the good shifts up. Then Cindy’s ass, I think she gave me the overnight shifts because she had tried many times to get me fired and I was still working here. My days were spent sleeping and my nights were spent working the emergency department. If I was to ever get into a relationship, I knew things would have to change once we grew serious. I couldn’t imagine working the hours I did now while having a boyfriend. It wasn’t practical, which is why all the married nurses grabbed the morning shifts.
I put my lunch box in the locker and then headed to jump right into work. One of the nurses handed me a chart and I went to see the parents. The little girl had broken her finger while playing basketball and needed me to splint her finger.
“Hey… somebody broke their finger…is it you?” I smiled when I saw the beautiful brown skin girl.
“Yes,” she smiled.
“Well, you don’t look sad. You’re a strong girl.. what’s your name?”
“It hurts a little bit,” she revealed. “My name is Jaya.”
“Jaya? Well, I wish that was my name. How old are you, Jaya?” I asked I examined her fingers.
“Ten.” She winced in pain as I touched her fingers.
“Well, I’m going to get the things needed to splint these babies up. No football for the next few weeks, okay?”
“Okay.”
“Mom and dad, I’m gonna splint it. She needs to keep it on all the time. Just put a bag or something over it when she bathes.”
“Thank you,” they both said, and I went to the supplies closet to grab some of the things needed.
“Move Liberty!” I heard one of the doctors yelling as they pushed a hospital bed down the hall at full speed. At quick glance, I saw Staten in the bed unconscious.
“Staten?” I yelled.
“You know him?” one of the nurses asked. “He came in with a little girl. Their car was shot up,” she informed me.
I gasped with tears in my eyes. We had just seen each other earlier and he said he had his nieces with him. “Where’s the little girl?” I questioned. My hands were shaking, and I felt like I couldn’t breathe.
“Down the hall to the right. I was just going there to check her vitals. She had four bullets removed from her. They decided to leave one inside because it would have been too risky to remove,” she informed me as we walked the hall. It felt like we walked miles before we finally came to the room. The shades were down and, on that hall, where there was only one other room. “He was in this room. We haven’t been able to contact any family yet. There’s another little girl, but she’s with social services right now.”
“No, no, she has a family,” I told her as we entered the room. I broke down seeing this little baby attached to so many machines. All you heard was beeping throughout the room. A machine was breathing for her. No one should be in this situation, but it hurt even more knowing it was a baby.
“If you’re family, you can go down there and let them know. It’s been all hands-on deck trying to keep them both stabled. Thankfully, she hasn’t coded. The surgery was successful. The male, he was hit the worst. When they found him, he was shielding the girls in the back seat. His back was riddled with bullets and he had been hit in his left shoulder.”
“Oh my God,” I gasped as I sat down in the chair and tried to collect my thoughts. I quickly left the room and dialed Free’s phone. She didn’t answer so I tried again.
“Dang, what do you want?” she answered. “Mama is praying over Justice right now.”
“Is Ghost with you?” I asked with a shaky voice. I was pacing the hallway because I couldn’t believe this was happening. As a nurse I had to check my feelings at the door. Except, I knew these people.
“Yeah, he right here… Why?”
“Free, just put him on the phone, please,” I begged.
“Lib, why do you sound like that?”
“Free, just put him on the fucking phone!” I screamed and he soon came on the line.
“Yo, what’s good?”
“You need to come to Staten Island hospital. G, what I’m bout to tell you… you need to calm down, check your feelings and get here quick.”
“Yo, you scaring me… what the fuck is up?”
“Staten and Summer have been shot!” I broke down crying. “The car was riddled with bullets and Staten has coded a bunch of times. He’s being brought up to surgery again.”
The line was quiet. “What?” he roared.
“CODE WHITE! CODE WHITE!” I heard over the loud speaker and looked back at the room. Code white meant it was a pediatric emergency. When I turned to the room, the doctor I was talking to had come out the room.
“Liberty pass me the pediatric crash cart!” she yelled to me.
“Ghost, your baby is coding,” I sobbed as I stood there crippled with fear. Everything was happening so fast and slow at the same time. The sounds of people’s voices sounded muffled as I stood there clutching my phone in my hand. I could hear Ghost screaming on the phone and my heart hurt for him.
“Make any decisions you need to for her, Liberty! Make sure my baby stays alive!” he barked through the phone. “I’m on the way. Check your
emotions and feelings and save my baby girl!” he yelled.
“LIBERTY GRAB THE CRASH CART… THIS LITTLE GIRL IS CODING!”
*To Be Continued*
*Sound off in the reviews*
Make sure to join and follow me on all my social media to stay in loop of all things me!
Make sure you answer the questions asked!
www.facebook.com/JahquelJ
http://www.instagram.com/_Jahquel
http://www.twitter.com/Author_Jahquel
Be sure to join my reader’s group on Facebook
www.facebook.com/ Jahquel’s we reading or nah?
Make sure you join my newest group –
www.facebook.com/Babeswithbooks
COMING 02/04!
