She handed me two dollars and kissed me again.
“Come right back, Georgie,” Frank added and pointed up to the signs for the vending area.
“Yes, sir.”
Grandma Sugar and Eugene headed toward the elevators, and I followed the arrows. The hospital floor was so slippery that I wished I’d worn my sneakers. Although I wasn’t hungry or thirsty, I didn’t want to see Mama right away. How could I ever explain to her that Peaches had been taken to the hospital and I wasn’t anywhere to be found? My eyes felt like balloons about to pop with tears. Lights, people, just about everything looked blurry, like Peaches’s finger paintings Mama always hung on the refrigerator.
About two minutes into my sad stroll down the hospital halls, someone sang out, “Look who’s here, the smartest girl in Sweet Apple.”
I recognized the voice, and my steps got tangled up.
“Don’t act like you don’t hear me, Georgie.”
I dabbed at my eyes and wiped the corner of my mouth before I turned around.
“I won’t be at Sweet Apple next year,” I said.
“Well, you know what I mean.”
I didn’t have to walk back but a step or two before I was standing in front of Kept Back Kevin Jenkins. I’d never seen him outside of school or our old neighborhood.
“What are you doing here?” I said.
“Duh…Somebody’s sick.”
He was wearing a short-sleeve shirt with a picture of the Incredible Hulk on it. There was a tear at the knee of his jeans. His Afro was short and neat. At school, the teacher made him take out the tiny diamond in his ear. Nikki said it wasn’t nothing but glass.
“Sorry…Is it somebody in your family?”
“Who are you? A caseworker?”
“Nah.”
“You getting a drink?”
“Yeah, and some peanut M&M’s.”
“Well, you headed the wrong way. The best vending machine is at the other end. Follow me.” We walked down the hall together. “So what about you?” Kept Back Kevin asked.
“What about me, what?”
“Who you know is sick?”
“Now who’s a caseworker?”
Kevin smirked. “I can’t be one. They’re always women.”
“No, they’re not. Men and women can have the same jobs.”
“Bet you don’t even know what one is.”
“Somebody who handles cases, like a lawyer,” which is what Mama told me I’d have to be before I became a judge.
“Just like I thought. Are you gonna tell me who’s sick?”
“My sister.”
“Oh, that’s why you’ve been crying.”
I sighed. “Yeah.”
“That would make anyone cry.”
“Guess so.”
“Is she older or younger?”
“Younger,” I said, and wiped my hand across my eyes, glad tears didn’t fall.
“She’ll be okay,” he said, then nodded toward the vending machines. “They’re right here.” Against the blandness of the hospital halls, they stood out like brightly colored robots.
We stopped in front of a row of them. Kept Back Kevin leaned so close to me that our arms touched. I almost expected Nikki to jump from behind the vending machine and yell, Oooooh. You like him. You like him.
But then I remembered why I was in the hospital in the first place. And what if Mama or Daddy turned that corner and caught me standing arm-to-arm with a boy? I moved over. What would Tangie do?
“Not gonna bite ya,” Kevin said.
I straightened out my dollar. “Didn’t say that you were.”
Not wanting peanuts stuck between my teeth, I only got a Coke. “You never told me who was sick,” I said as we walked back to the waiting area.
“My mama. I ride my bike up here every day to check on her.” He shoved his hands in his pockets. “Don’t bother saying sorry. She keeps doing it to herself. She got diabetes. The doctor told her to stop drinking and smoking, and she keeps doing both. She ’sposed to stay away from junk food and sodas.” He pointed to my Coke. “That’s her favorite. Drinks ’bout six a day.”
“Gosh, that’s a lot. Hope she can go home soon.”
“What for? She never does what the doctors say do and ends up right back. That’s why I can’t wait to go live with my dad.”
“Where is he?”
“Rochester, New York…It’s nine hundred and sixty-two miles away.”
“Wow. I heard of it,” I said, and added it to my list of fibs, but I planned to look it up once Peaches was home and Mama let me get on the internet. “When you going?” I needed to keep talking about anything so I wouldn’t explode again, though every word got harder to say without my voice cracking.
“Soon.”
The word swirled around us and made the time seem magical and faraway.
When we got close to the waiting room, he kept walking with me while I let the unopened Coke sweat in my hand.
I glanced up and there was Mama rushing toward me.
Kevin whispered, “I better go.”
“Okay…bye.”
“See you around.”
“See ya.”
I didn’t really hear the words I said. All I could think about was Peaches and how upset Mama would be. The closer she got, the more her eyes looked like Kevin’s—way down deep sad.
“I’m sorry I didn’t take better care of Peaches, Mama,” I said. She squeezed me and sniffled. She must have come out of Peaches’s room so she wouldn’t be so sad in front of her.
“Mama’s not worried about that, G-baby,” she said. “That’s not your job. You weren’t the grown-up. I called your daddy—I—” She stopped herself and glanced back at Daddy and Millicent, who were standing at the nurse’s station down the hall. Daddy’s hand rubbed the back of his neck again.
“Let’s go have a seat, Georgie.” Mama took my hand. It didn’t feel like walking but standing still while everything changed, like when I stood on that moving sidewalk at the airport.
“Don’t you want to wait for Daddy?”
“He’ll come when he’s done chatting with Millicent.” Mama said her name hard like she used to do right after she and Daddy divorced. “Five seconds it would have taken either of them to call me about my baby girl, but she’s here and admitted before her mama knows a dog-gone thing. This is all my fault. You didn’t want to go with them. I should have listened to you.”
“It’s okay. I just wanna see Peaches.” I couldn’t bring myself to tell her what a rotten big sister I’d been. The anger she had toward Daddy and Millicent, I knew I deserved a heap of it. I no longer felt like just the worst sister in the world, but the worst daughter, too.
Once we got back to the waiting room, Mama sat down and pulled me between her knees. Frank came over and rested his hand on Mama’s back.
“How are you feeling, Georgie?” Frank asked me.
“So-so,” I said.
Before Mama spoke, she held her head down. Then she reached for my hands and squeezed them.
“Mama’s gonna tell you this ’cause you’re a big girl. You’re Mama’s big girl, right?”
“Yeah,” I said, though I felt no bigger than an ant’s eyeball.
“Baby, they’re running tests on your sister,” Mama said. “But they think she might have meningitis.”
I let the word roll around in my head and didn’t even attempt to say it. Not because I couldn’t, but it felt like if I didn’t say it, it would go away.
“Is it a bad cold, like the flu?” I asked.
“Well, it’s—” Mama got that out, then her voice cracked again. “No, baby.” Now Mama’s voice was cracking, and my teeth were chattering like I was freezing.
Frank said, “It’s a little more serious than that, Georgie. It has some of the same symptoms, so you’re right, in a way.”
“When can I go see her?”
“She’s asking for you.” Mama sniffled again and her tears streamed. “But Mama can’t br
ing you in, baby. The doctor won’t allow it.” She dropped her head and cried, soft and sad.
Then I looked at Frank and remembered Tangie not wanting to come.
I stepped back, my fists balled tighter than when I wanted to sock Lucinda Hightower. But now, all I could do was punch my own legs, over and over.
“G-baby, stop that!” Mama said.
“It’s all my fault, Mama,” I cried. “You don’t know, but it’s all my fault!”
“What are you talking about? Stop punching your legs,” Mama said.
“Is she going to die? Is Peaches going to die like Tangie’s little sister?”
Mama reached out for me, but I didn’t wait for an answer and took off down the hall, determined to find Peaches’s room.
Before I could get very far, I ran into Daddy.
“Whoa, whoa!” he said.
I rammed my head into his chest. “You gotta do something. Peaches is going to die. And Mama says I can’t see her. She wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for me. Please make the doctor let me see her.”
“What’s this about dying? Peaches isn’t going to die.”
“Then why can’t I see her? She’s gonna die like Tangie’s little sister. It’s the same hospital, too. They might not be able to save her here.”
Daddy drew me closer to him, which only made me cry harder, because it reminded me of how much I missed him.
Mama’s voice surrounded me. “Georgie, I’m so sorry to scare you like that. I should have gotten myself together a bit before I talked to you.” She rubbed the hair that had come loose from my ponytail. “Everything is going to be okay. Let’s go back into the waiting room.”
I didn’t let go of Daddy. He walked with me, almost like when he was teaching me how to waltz before we went to the Sweet Apple Father and Daughter Valentine’s Day Dance.
It was comforting walking in between Mama and Daddy again, even if I knew Millipede was lurking right in back of us.
As soon as I sat down, Daddy kissed my forehead, and Mama took my hand in hers like she does in church sometimes.
“Anybody need anything?” Frank said.
Everyone shook their heads.
“If I can’t see Peaches now, Mama, then when?”
“Soon, Georgie. I promise.” I remembered Kevin Jenkins’s voice, and Mama’s “soon” sounded even far-ther away.
I’d left my soda with Frank and started drinking it just to have something to do.
Daddy kneeled in front of me and patted my knee, like a puppy’s head.
“Your mama and I will always do whatever we can, and then some, for you and Peaches. You believe that, right?”
“Yes,” I said.
“I know you’re upset about Peaches. We all are, but you gotta know that you can’t go sneaking off.”
“Yes, sir.” My lips must have moved, but every other part of me was frozen solid. If I had a do-over, I wouldn’t have never, ever asked to go over to Nikki’s.
“Wait, what do you mean ‘sneaking off’?” Mama glanced at Daddy like she’d do when he’d say he had to work late.
“Kit…I mean, Katrina, I told you when I called that I thought Georgie was over at Nikki’s.”
“But you didn’t say anything about her going without your permission.”
“Baby,” Frank said to Mama. “I went to go get her. So he had to say it. Remember?”
Mama rubbed her forehead and shut her eyes. “If I remembered it, why would I be asking?” she shot back at him. Mama and Frank seldom argued, but when they did, it was never the type of argument that ended with Frank sleeping on the couch, or Mama hauling off Peaches and me to go stay with Sugar.
“Frank, I said that he might have said it, but this is the first I’m hearing that Georgie ran off without anyone knowing. What kind of supervision is that?” Mama said, scanning between Daddy and Millicent. Then her eyes zeroed in on Daddy. “So just how long was she missing?”
Daddy just shook his head but didn’t speak.
“I don’t think that’s fair, Katrina,” Millipede said, and that gave me chills because I’d never heard them say nothing but short, nice words to each other, face-to-face anyway. “It’s not like we weren’t there. Georgiana snuck out. I wouldn’t stress about it right now.” Millipede squeezed Daddy’s shoulder. “I’m sure Georgiana knows it wasn’t the right thing to do. Maybe we just all need to discuss this another time.”
“No, first what I need for you to do is not add your two cents when I’m talking to my ex-husband about our child.” Then Mama’s finger swayed like a windshield wiper between Daddy and Millicent. “When you two have one, I’ll show you the same respect. Second, what I need is to know that when my kids are out of my sight, one doesn’t end up in the Emergency and the other doesn’t go sneaking off, roaming the streets. You two barely make time for them, and when you do, all this happens. On your watch!” She slapped her hand on her shaking knees. “I told you before you left to take care of my girls, and you said, ‘They’re in good hands,’ like you were the Allstate man. I even called to see how everything was going and you rushed me off the phone. Now look. Look!”
“Don’t put this on me like that, Katrina.” Daddy tilted his head back and blew a loud breath toward the yellow ceiling, then he stared straight at Mama. “We don’t know what made Peaches sick. And I didn’t move them out to Timbuktu. That’s why G-baby wanted to see her friend in the first place.”
If my lips weren’t glued shut, I would have spoken. All I could feel was the Macy’s box poking me in my side.
Mama’s voice raised. “Are you serious right now? You left Georgia! Didn’t see them for months at a time. Barely called.”
“You know what we talked about.”
“Please don’t say because you two are living in our old house that makes everything okay. Why did we lose it in the first place? Answer that, George!”
“Don’t do this. Not now.” Daddy shoved his hands in his pockets and walked away.
“He loves his girls, Katrina,” Millipede said.
“You are the last person I want to hear from. I don’t even want to—”
“Enough of this, Katrina,” Frank said. “They’re right. This isn’t the time or place.” Frank put his arm around Mama’s waist and hurried her to the opposite side of the waiting room. Millipede slunk over to the corner.
I sat there with a dunce cap higher than the ceiling. Crying again would only make matters worse. That’s the last thing I wanted.
A nurse stepped in. “Mr. and Mrs. Matthews. Everything okay?”
“It’s fine. A little emotional is all,” Daddy said. Frank and Mama stepped out of the waiting room. Then Daddy walked over and sat beside me. I tilted my head to lean on his shoulder.
“Sorry for all that, Georgie. Shouldn’t have brought up your leaving. Don’t know what I was thinking.”
“Not your fault. Mama just extra mad ’cause Peaches is sick. When she comes home, maybe we can come back over. I won’t leave her alone, I promise.”
Frank returned to the waiting room without Mama and motioned for Daddy, who patted me two times on my knee and stood.
“Be right back, Georgie.”
Millipede eased down and sat a seat away. “It’s going to be okay,” she said gently.
I nodded. Even though she wasn’t my favorite person, I hoped Mama didn’t hurt her feelings too much.
After about ten minutes, Frank marched into the waiting room. He clapped his hands once, then rubbed them together, smiling at me the whole time. Just like Mama, he didn’t know that I could tell a fake smile from a real one. Mama and Daddy’s separation made me an expert, especially when we’d have family dinner and they’d wear their mannequin smiles.
“Did you hear me, G-baby?” Frank’s voice brought me out of my thoughts.
“No, sir.”
“Your mom and dad are in with Peaches. But your mom says I should take you home. We can stop and get something to eat, then go for ice cream.”
&n
bsp; “You mean I can’t see her before I leave? She’s gotta stay here…by herself?” The hospital seemed to grow to a hundred times its size. “She don’t even like to sleep in her own room by herself. I gotta tell ’em!”
“Your mom and dad are with her. They know exactly what to do.”
Millipede put her hands on my shoulder again. I guess that was her thing. “Your mom and dad will stay with her.”
“They won’t keep her in the hospital a second longer than they have to, Georgie. Your mama wants me to get you on home,” Frank said.
“No. No, I gotta see Peaches. Please. She needs me.”
“Stay with her, Millicent. I’ll be right back.”
Millipede rubbed my back and I flinched.
She was talking, but my brain turned her voice into something close to Charlie Brown’s teacher—I could hear sound, but the words were jumbled.
Frank was back in a few minutes with Mama at his side. Mama’s mask that was supposed to go around her mouth dangled from her ear. Millipede got up and walked away.
“Georgie, let Frank take you home now so you can get some rest.”
“Can I see Peaches tomorrow?”
“We can’t say for sure, baby,” Mama said. “I need to get back now, okay?”
“Okay,” I said, and stabbed my elbows into my legs. Something crunched.
That Macy’s box. I wanted to snatch it out of my pocket and throw it against the wall. I could tell Mama and Frank the real reason I snuck off, but they might force Tangie to talk to me and she’d hate me more. I took it out and dropped it between the chairs. Somebody would find it and have better luck with those earrings than I did.
While the grown-ups talked about what to do with me like I wasn’t even there, I lowered my head and squeezed my eyes tight. God, I know I want a big sister, but Peaches is the best little sister in the world. Please, don’t let her die like Tangie’s little sister. I’ll do anything to make Peaches better, anything.
As I prayed, I held on to the edge of my chair as if that would stop the feeling that I would never see Peaches again and my world was about to spin out of control…forever.
After Peaches had been in the hospital three full days, Mama woke me up in the morning, smiling like those old-timey TV mamas. Her hair, up in a ponytail, sprouted gray strands like cat whiskers. The skin underneath her eyes was sagging more than the time she’d stayed up all night studying for her insurance exam.
Love Like Sky Page 6
