Loving Dasia

by Ana’Gia Wright

  Dasia thanked her boss for understanding and let him know that she’d get someone in the office to cover the phones. She quickly gathered her things and made her way out of the office. After letting the front desk receptionist, Tara, know that she was leaving, Dasia stepped onto the elevator to go home and get some much needed rest.

  G took the stairs two at a time, trying to get to Dasia’s apartment as quickly as possible. He’d decided to come home early from his business trip, to surprise her. The last two days he hadn’t been able to get her out of his mind. He was getting very little work done, so what was the point in staying? The minute he finished his last appointment for the day, he rearranged his schedule and hopped the red-eye back to the ATL.

  Standing in front of her door, he thought about ringing the bell but immediately decided to just let himself in. He hadn’t had her in his arms in over a week, and he couldn’t wait to pull her close and feel the softness of her lips against his own.

  He expected to hear her humming in the kitchen like she usually did when she got home from work, but instead the place seemed empty. He knew she was home; he’d parked next to her in the lot. G checked the kitchen, the spare bedroom, and the laundry room but found no sign of Dasia. Thinking maybe she’d stayed up late last night or had a long day and decided to go to bed early, he made his way to the master bedroom. To his surprise she wasn’t in bed. He noticed a slight glow beneath the bathroom door and assumed that’s where she was.

  Tapping lightly, he called her name, but there was no response. He knocked a little harder, and the door inched open. He could see Dasia’s body lying on the floor near the tub. He rushed over to her, fearing the worst. He was relieved to see she was still breathing. He called her name, but she still didn’t respond. He reached down for his cell phone to call 9-1-1 and discovered that, in his haste to get to her, he’d left it in the car. He was afraid to move her, but he didn’t want to leave her alone, so he did the one thing he knew would get him some help.

  Banging on the wall as hard as he could, G prayed Katina or her oldest son Marques would hear him.

  “Mommy! Mommy! Somebody bangin’ on the wall,” six-year-old Marques yelled as he rushed to the kitchen, where his mother was washing dishes.

  “Marques, what did I tell you about running in the house, baby?” Katina dried her hands with the dishrag as she turned to face her son.

  “But, Mommy, somebody bangin’ on the wall,” he repeated as he pulled on the bottom of his mother’s oversized tee shirt.

  “Boy, what are you talking about?”

  “Somebody bangin’ on the wall in the other room.” Marques was pulling on her hand now, trying to get her to follow him.

  As she pushed the kitchen door open, she heard the loud banging Marques was referring to. She quickly turned to her son, trying not to show panic. “Marques,” she said, kneeling down so she could look him in the face, “I need you to go across the hall to Ms. Johnson’s and tell her to come over. Can you do that for Mommy?”

  “But, Mommy, what’s wrong? Why is somebody bangin’ on the wall?”

  “Please, Marques, just go get Ms. Johnson. Mommy needs to go next door and check on Ms. Dasia, okay.”

  Nodding his agreement, Marques took one last look at his mother and rushed out of the apartment, and Katina quickly wrapped up her youngest son and grabbed the set of keys to Dasia’s apartment G had left with her.

  Kaleb, Katina’s three-month-old son, stirred in her arms as she inserted the key into the lock. G had always told her, if he was at the apartment and she needed him, to just knock on the wall and he’d come running. But G was out of town, and Katina wasn’t sure he’d told Dasia about their signal. If Dasia was knocking on the wall, then something must be terribly wrong.

  As the door swung open, Katina noticed the lights were out, which was unusual this early in the evening in Dasia’s apartment, unless she was suffering from one of her migraines. She’d spent many evenings with the kids in Dasia’s apartment and immediately got an uneasy feeling about things. She had welcomed Dasia when G had introduced them, and in these past few months, she’d become like family. Katina didn’t know what she’d tell G if something had happened to her.

  “Dasia?” Katina yelled as she placed Kaleb between the pillows on the sofa. “Dasia, you okay?”

  “Katina!”

  The sound of G’s voice startled her.

  “Katina, call an ambulance. Something’s wrong with Dasia!”

  Katina, grabbed the cordless phone from the cradle and followed G’s voice into the master bedroom. “What happened?” she asked after dialing 9-1-1.

  “I don’t know. I wanted to surprise her, so I came home early. When I couldn’t find her in the apartment, I checked in here and found her here on the bathroom floor. She’s got a knot on the back of her head, and I can’t get her to wake up.”

  Katina relayed the information to the 9-1-1 operator, and before she had the chance to hang up the phone, she heard the sirens. The fire station was located at the front entrance of the complex, so she knew it would only take them a minute or two to reach the apartment.

  When the paramedics arrived, G was still cradling Dasia, trying desperately to get her to respond. It took Katina and one of the paramedics to convince him that he needed to let them do their job.

  Katina helped pry Dasia from G’s arms, as the paramedics checked her vitals and loaded her onto the stretcher.

  He looked over at his sister, his eyes desperately wanting her to say something, but they were both at a loss for words. Dasia didn’t talk much about her family, so G wasn’t even sure if she had anyone he needed to call. As far as they knew, they were all she had.

  “Come on, let’s get to the hospital.” Katina hugged her brother. She saw the worry in his eyes and wanted so much to ease his pain, but there was nothing she could do. She grabbed her purse, Dasia’s purse, and the keys with G close on her heels, they walked to the parking lot.

  Chapter 11

  Katina hung up the phone in the hospital waiting room. It only took her a few minutes to check in on her children. Ms. Johnson assured her the kids would be fine with her for the day and told her to just call if she needed her to watch them tonight. Katina had taken a few minutes to talk to Marques, and now she turned her attention back to her brother.

  She watched him pace for nearly an hour. She’d seen this behavior from G before. He was blaming himself for whatever happened to Dasia. They hadn’t heard anything from the doctors, and the waiting was driving him crazy. She tried her best to comfort him, but nothing seemed to work. All she could do was try to be there for him when he finally wanted to talk. Katina hoped the doctor would come in and let them know what was going on soon. She hated to see G like this.

  The door to the waiting room swung open, and a thin black man in a white coat entered. They were the only people in the small waiting area, so the doctor assumed they were there for Dasia.

  The man with the salt-and-pepper sideburns said, “I take it, you’re Ms. Warrington’s family.”

  G had been so engrossed in his thoughts, he hadn’t heard the doctor come in. He turned to face the man, his stomach doing somersaults. He just wanted so much for Dasia to be all right.

  “I’m her fiancé”—G extended his hand to the doctor—“Grimarious Guatreaux, and this is my sister, Katina. So, how is she?”

  The doctor took a moment to look down at Dasia’s chart before answering G’s question. He removed his glasses and hung them on the pocket of his lab coat. “Has Ms. Warrington complained about having double vision or headaches?”

  “She suffers from migraines, and lately she’s been missing work a lot because of them. She said her doctor gave her something for them. She’s had the new medicine for about two weeks now.” G wondered if her headaches had caused her to black out.

  “Do you know what medications she’s been taking for the migraines?”

  “No,” G replied, wishing he’d paid more attention to the pills his
woman had been popping the last few weeks.

  “Wait.” Katina pulled a prescription bottle from Dasia’s purse. “This might be it.” She handed the bottle to the doctor.

  Looking at the label, the doctor scribbled some of the information on Dasia’s chart. “This may be our culprit.”

  “What is it?”

  “Well, nortriptyline is commonly used to prevent migraines, but it does have some potentially serious side effects, including seizures and elevated blood pressure. Her pressure is concerning right now, and we’re working to get it lowered. I’d attributed it to her weight, but I think the medication may have had some added effect.”

  “You still haven’t answered my question.” G felt like the doctor was intentionally avoiding telling him how Dasia was really doing. The only thing that mattered right now was that she was going to be okay. They’d work on her weight and migraines later. He just needed to hear the words from the doctor.

  “Ms. Warrington is going to be just fine, but I’d like for her to stay overnight for observation.”

  G released a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. Hearing that Dasia was going to be okay lifted a tremendous weight from his shoulders. He promised himself he’d never leave her alone again. Sending a silent prayer to heaven thanking God for letting her be okay, G finally allowed himself to relax.

  “Can I see her?”

  “In a little while. She’s getting a CT scan. Once she’s settled into a room, someone will let you know when you can see her. We just want to make sure she didn’t injure her brain when she hit her head. She needs to get her weight under control, and I think she needs to work on stress management. Stress is probably what’s triggering her migraines.”

  The doctor had no idea of the stress Dasia had been under for the past six months. Though she’d tried to convince G she was dealing with being stood up at the altar, he knew she was still secretly hurting. He wanted to help her but just hadn’t figured out how. Finding her on the floor of her bathroom though had scared him, and now more than ever he was determined to figure out how to get through to her.

  G sat down for the first time in nearly an hour as the doctor left them to tend to his other patients.

  “See? You did all of that worrying for nothing.”

  G lowered his head into his hands. “I’m still worried. I mean, seeing her lying there, I just felt so helpless, and you know how I hate being helpless.”

  “I know, I know. But you’re in love. You’ll learn to deal with these things as they come.”

  “But what if I hadn’t come home early? I keep having all of these thoughts about what could have happened if I hadn’t found her.” G cradled his head in his hands, trying to figure all of this out.

  “Look, G, you can’t think like that. What’s important is that you did and she got the help she needed.”

  “But I don’t think I’ll ever be comfortable leaving her again. I mean, what if this happens again and I don’t get to her in time?”

  “G, listen to me.” Katina wrapped her arms around her brother. “You’ll get through this, I promise. How do you think I felt when Tijuan got called overseas? I had all of these thoughts about how me and the kids were going to make it if something happened to him. I got through it, and you will too. I’m not going to say it’s going to be easy, but you’ll adjust.”

  “I can’t lose her, Katina.” G shook his head, realizing what he truly felt for Dasia. “I just can’t. If I lose her, I don’t know what I’ll do.”

  “As long as you continue to support her and treat her like she deserves to be treated, then you’ll never lose her.”

  “But how can you be so sure?” G snapped back, not meaning to sound harsh.

  “Just trust me. Have I ever steered you wrong?”

  “No, you haven’t.” G pulled his sister in close. It was comforting to be in a woman’s arms, even if she was family.

  Chapter 12

  In all of her life, as much as she tried, Katina never remembered seeing her brother cry. Even when their parents died he was there, head held high and steadfast, for her and the family. She knew he mourned them and that secretly inside he was bawling his eyes out, but he never showed it. Now though things were different. She saw the love in his eyes for Dasia and understood what he was feeling.

  Loving someone took courage and strength, and until now he’d never known how much. He’d thought he was in love before, had probably convinced himself of that, but he now knew what love was truly about. You couldn’t appreciate love until you learn its wrath. He’d learned that lesson today. Experiencing the helplessness when love threatens to walk out of your life is always a wakeup call.

  G stood at the window watching Dasia, unable to bring himself to enter the room. Katina rubbed his back as his tears began to fall. “Why so sad? The doctor said she’s going to be fine.”

  “I know.” G wrapped his arms around his sister. He was glad she was there. “Can you give us a few minutes?”

  “Sure. How about I go get us something to eat?”

  “That sounds great, and, Katina”—G stopped her as she turned to walk away—“thanks.”

  “Hey, that’s what family’s for.”

  As Katina walked away, G turned his attention back to the window. He took a couple of deep breaths and turned the door handle. After inching his way through, he moved as quietly as possible around the room and took a seat in the chair next to the bed. He watched Dasia’s chest rise and fall as she slept comfortably.

  “Baby, I’m sorry I left you alone. I promise to never leave you again.” G moved a stray hair from Dasia’s cheek as he continued to talk to her in her sleep. “The doctor says you’re going to be okay. You gave me quite a scare, but everything’s going to be just fine.” He wrapped his fingers around one of her hands and gave it a gentle squeeze. He was sure she was asleep, but as soon as he started to let her hand go, she tightened her grip.

  Dasia turned her head slowly and looked over at the man who’d become a very important part of her life. He looked sad, and she wondered why. “What are you doing home so early?” Her voice was raspy from a dry throat, since she hadn’t spoken in a few days.

  G looked at Dasia curiously. He wondered if she knew what had happened. “Baby, do you know where you are?”

  She opened her eyes a little wider and looked around. The setting sun shined through the window, casting an orange glow against G’s profile. She realized she wasn’t in her cozy little apartment. The place was bright, and the walls too white. She looked down at the white sheets and over at the tubes taped to her arm.

  “Looks like a hospital. What am I doing here?” Dasia reached up to where the bump on her head was. “And why do I have a killer headache?”

  “You don’t remember what happened?”

  “No, can’t say I do. Care to enlighten me?”

  “Well, according to the doctor, your medication caused you to black out. You must have hit your head on the tub.”

  “Who found me?” Dasia closed her eyes, trying to remember what happened. She did remember having a migraine and taking the medicine, but not much after that. The medicine usually made her drowsy, so she wasn’t surprised she didn’t remember much.

  “I did. I came back early to surprise you, but I was the one that got the surprise.”

  “Well, I guess I should thank you again for saving my life.”

  “You don’t have to thank me. That’s what I’m here for—to make sure you’re taken care of. You should’ve told me about your condition. I would’ve had Katina checking on you a little more.”

  The sound of the door opening drew their attention.

  Katina entered the room with two McDonald’s bags and two drinks in hand. “I see someone’s awake.”

  “He dragged you down here too?”

  Dasia was glad Katina was here. She didn’t really have any other friends in Atlanta. Dasia hadn’t spoken to any of her friends since the fiasco at the wedding. They all seemed to be avoid
ing her like the plague, but she was okay with that. She didn’t need their staring eyes or their pity.

  “He didn’t have to drag me. I wanted to come. Had to make sure my girl was okay.”

  “Where are the kids?” Dasia asked, wondering now how long she’d been in the hospital.

  “With Ms. Johnson. She sends her prayers.” Katina handed G one of the bags and a drink. “Has the doctor been in yet?” She plopped down in the empty chair.

  “No.”

  Dasia leaned back against the bed and closed her eyes. “Somebody mind closing those blinds. The light is giving me a headache.”

  G reached up and closed the blinds.

  As the room became dim, the doctor stepped through the door. “Ms. Warrington, I’m Dr. Frazier. You’ve given us all quite a scare.”

  “So I’ve heard,” Dasia replied without opening her eyes. She still had the migraine that started all of this.

  “So I guess you’ve heard you’re going to be okay?”

  “Yep.”

  Looking down at her chart, the doctor explained as much as they’d been able to deduce. He told her about the medication and suggested that she make an appointment with her regular doctor to get it changed. In the meantime he’d give her something to take for the night, and he’d let her know that she’d be there overnight and should be able to go home in the morning.

  He checked her pupils and the bump on her head before deciding she was stable for now. “Does anyone have any questions?”

  G and Katina looked over at each other and then at Dasia. Both of them shook their heads no, and Dasia agreed.

  “Well, then I’ll see you in the morning.” The doctor made his way back to the door. He turned once more to face them. “You should be glad your fiancé found you. Another few hours and the outcome might have been different. I’ll send the nurse in with something for your head.” Then he was out the door.