Maya's Choice

by Earl Sewell

  “What color?” I asked.

  “Strawberry,” she said. I gave her a blank stare.

  “No, you’d look crazy with strawberry hair,” I said.

  “I don’t know. I think I have the right skin tone for a color that bold,” she said, unwilling to admit the hair color would turn out to be a horrible disaster.

  “I just want to go in the house and eat a gallon of peach-mango ice cream, and listen to sad love songs,” I said before exhaling a long, depressing sigh. I thought about Misalo’s hatred for me and started crying again.

  Keysha and I briefly turned to glance behind us when we heard the wail of an ambulance siren approaching us. The noise it made was enough to give anyone a massive headache. Once the emergency vehicle zoomed past us, Keysha noticed that it had turned down my block.

  “I wonder who is sick on your street?” she asked.

  “Probably one of our elderly neighbors,” I said, thinking about how good the ice cream was going to taste. We made the turn onto my block, and my heart nearly stopped beating when I saw the ambulance in my driveway.

  “Oh, my God, Maya!” Keysha said as she and I both instinctively began running toward my house to see what had happened.

  “Maya, get in the car,” my father ordered before I could even ask him what was going on.

  “What’s happening?” I screamed nervously.

  “Get in the car, Maya!” my father once again ordered. The next thing I saw was Anna unconscious and strapped down to the gurney and being wheeled to the back of the ambulance.

  “What’s going on?” I asked again.

  “Maya, you should get in the car like your father said,” Keysha said, pulling me over to the car. She opened the rear door and I got in.

  “Call me and let me know if I can do anything,” she said.

  “I will,” I said, watching my mom hop into the back of the emergency vehicle. Keysha closed the door and moved out of the way as my father rushed over and got into the driver’s seat.

  “Is she okay?” asked Viviana. I hadn’t realized that she was already in the car.

  “I don’t know. I just don’t know yet,” I said as Dad put the car in Reverse and sped toward the hospital.

  I sat in the emergency room with my family waiting to hear any news about Anna’s condition. I didn’t know if she was alive or dead. The only thing that we knew was that she came home, collapsed on the kitchen floor, had a seizure and became unresponsive. Both of my parents paced the floor nervously as we waited to hear news of her condition. My phone rang and I glanced down at the caller ID and saw that it was Keysha. I was about to answer the phone, but my mother walked over to me and said, “Give it to me.” Without even asking her why, I did. She powered my phone off and tucked it in her purse. “Give me yours, too,” she asked for Viviana’s phone. “You both need to be focused on praying for Anna, not talking to your friends.”

  “What did you do to my sister?” I leaned over and whispered to Viviana, who was sitting next to me.

  “You can’t blame this one on me. I didn’t do a damn thing,” Viviana whispered back.

  “Yes, you did! This drama has your name written all over it. Every place you and your mother go you cause chaos,” I snarled at her.

  “You can go to hell, Maya!” Viviana’s voice boomed. My mother was on us quicker than funk on crap.

  “I don’t want to hear another damn word out of either of you!” My mother wasn’t playing. I decided to leave Viviana alone for the time being.

  Grandmother Esmeralda arrived as soon as she could and waited for any news along with the rest of us. It was well past midnight before a doctor came out to give us an update on Anna.

  Tori Grant was the head doctor taking care of Anna. She was a decent-looking woman in her late thirties with brown shoulder-length hair, full rosy cheeks and a warm smile. Dr. Grant took us into a private room, where she began explaining what had happened.

  “I’m going to be very frank with everyone and let you know that Anna nearly died tonight.” We all gasped.

  “She’s not out of the woods yet, but I’m confident she’ll make it,” Dr. Grant explained.

  “What happened to my baby?” my mother asked.

  “Mrs. Rogers, are you aware that your daughter has been using meth?”

  “No, Anna doesn’t do drugs. No one in our house does drugs,” my father said, absolutely positive of this fact.

  “Well, Mr. Rogers, I hate to tell you this but Anna is.” The room grew silent.

  “Anna overdosed on meth, which caused her to have a seizure and her kidneys began to fail.” I was in total shock.

  “Do you have any idea where she got it?” asked Dr. Grant. No one said a word but my mother, grandmother, father and I all looked at Viviana and passed judgment on her right then and there.

  “It wasn’t me. I swear it on my father’s grave. I don’t know where she got it.” Viviana immediately denied having anything to do with this incident. Dr. Grant went on to say, “Sometimes meth overdoses are a suicide attempt. Inexperienced meth users may overdose because they are not sure how much meth they need to get high, while more experienced users often develop a tolerance to the drug and need more of it to get high, resulting in an overdose. Because street meth is often cooked in illegal labs, its composition can vary from one batch to another. This means that every time a person uses meth the drug will be different. A person who has used meth before without overdosing can use the same amount again and suffer an overdose, because the meth contained different concentrations of chemicals. A person who has overdosed on meth may not be immediately aware of it. Once symptoms do appear they can progress rapidly to death. As the drug begins to affect their body, it may cause symptoms such as dilated pupils, hyperthermia, dehydration characterized by dry mouth and lips, and lack of urination. They can also experience chest pain, difficulty breathing, muscle twitches, seizures, hallucinations or go into a coma.”

  “Oh, Jesus!” My father pressed his back against the wall and squatted down. This news literally knocked him off his feet.

  “I think Anna was lucky this time. We’re treating all of her symptoms. We’re giving her medication to stop the convulsions, rehydrating her and looking for signs of any damage. So far she’s responding well.”

  “When will we be able to see her?” asked Grandmother Esmeralda.

  “We’ve got her sedated now. She probably won’t be able to communicate with anyone for a few days. She’s been moved to intensive care. Once they have her all settled in, I’ll have someone come down and get you.”

  For the next two days, my family hung out at the hospital. We went home in shifts, but only stayed long enough to shower, change our clothes and head on back. When Anna finally did come out of the woods and open her eyes, my father, my mother, Viviana and I were in the room. The first thing she did was look at my father and smile. He held her hand and smiled back.

  “How are you doing?” he asked.

  “Okay,” she said. “But I could use something to drink.” My mother brought Anna a cup of water, which she sipped slowly.

  “Anna, baby.” My mother stepped around so that Anna could see her. “I need you to tell me something and I want the truth.” Anna nodded her head, agreeing. My mother glanced at Viviana briefly and then back at Anna.

  “Where did you get the drugs that you took?” she asked. Anna closed her eyes and started crying.

  “I’m sorry, Mom. The pot you found in Viviana’s bag was mine. I didn’t smoke it—it was just given to me.”

  “Was the person who gave you the pot the same person who gave you the meth?” my mother asked.

  “I didn’t know it was meth. I took it without asking,” Anna said, crying.

  “Okay, honey, where did you get it?” My mother pressed Anna for the truth.

  “At Carlo’s house. His cousin gave me the pot. I don’t know why I kept it. I just stuck it in Viviana’s things until I could get rid of it.”

  I glanced over at V
iviana and she’d turned pale, looking as if she’d just been kicked in the gut by a mule.

  “Anna.” My mother made Anna look at her. “Did Carlo force you over to his house?” Anna turned her head and met my gaze. I could see tears in her eyes.

  “No,” she whispered. The room was silent for a long a moment. “Please don’t make me say it.”

  “Were you having sex with this boy?” my mother asked.

  Anna’s tears began flowing, “No, we came close but I got scared.”

  “Why, Anna?” My father looked even more wounded than when he’d seen the photo of Misalo and me making out. The lines in his forehead seemed to have gotten deeper within the past few hours.

  “I wanted him to like me more than he did Maya,” Anna confessed, turned her face into the pillow and sobbed.

  When I got home that evening all I wanted to do was take a shower and crawl into my bed. Viviana, my grandmother and father all remained at the hospital with Anna. As soon as my mother and I entered the house I asked her if I could have my cell phone back. She reached into her purse and handed it to me as she walked off toward her bedroom. I took a shower, put on my pj’s, crawled into bed and immediately went to sleep. Waking up the next morning the first thing I did was reach for my cell phone. I turned it on and watched as a slew of text messages and voice mails appeared. Most of them were from Keysha. I sat upright in my bed and gave her a call.

  “Hey, girl,” I said when she answered.

  “Maya! Oh, my God, girl. Is Anna okay? What happened to her?” Keysha sounded as if the world was ending.

  “It’s a long story, but to answer your question, Anna is going to be just fine,” I said.

  “I’ve got nothing but time.” Keysha offered a willing ear.

  “No, really. She’s going to be okay.” I exhaled as my mind drifted to thoughts of Misalo.

  “Are you sure?” Keysha asked once again.

  “Yes, I’m positive,” I answered.

  “Well, at least that’s some good news because, girl, you’ve got a big problem,” she informed me.

  “Keysha, I don’t need any more problems,” I griped. “I have to figure out how to make up with Misalo.”

  “I’m not sure that’s going to be all that easy,” Keysha said.

  “Huh? What are you talking about?”

  “Maya, I don’t know how to tell you this so I’m just going to say it.”

  “Keysha, what is it?” I wanted to get to the point.

  “Misalo has snapped on you.”

  “You’re still not making any sense to me,” I said.

  “Did you take some pictures of yourself in your underwear and send them to him?” When Keysha asked me that I swear I thought time had frozen and the world had stopped spinning.

  “I’ll take the silence to mean yes. I don’t like being the one to tell you this, but he forwarded your pictures and a mean text message to all of his friends. Everyone in the neighborhood is talking about you, Maya. All of your personal business is in the street.”

  MAYA’S CHOICE

  ISBN: 978-1-4592-1535-1

  Copyright © 2011 by Earl Sewell

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