“We tried, and we left a message with your aunt. I figured you were out of town.”
“Wait.” Tyler rubbed her temples. Another pill was definitely needed. “My number should be the only one on file.”
“Um, I apologize for the inconvenience, but your aunt switched the number when she came to visit a couple of months ago. We have her as the primary contact. She told us not to bother you with anything, to call her if we had a problem,” Nurse Hawkins explained. “And if I’m being honest, when your aunt comes to visit, it sets your mother off and we have a hard time calming her down.”
Tyler closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. She didn’t know why Carla was visiting her mother, and furthermore, what possessed her to make changes when her name wasn’t listed on shit.
“All changes go through me. I am my mother’s guardian, and my aunt doesn’t have any say so. Please do not call my aunt concerning my mother.”
“I’ll make sure we get that noted.”
“Could you please have her food delivered and I'll make sure she eats.”
“Will do. Would you like anything?”
“Just a bottle of water, please.”
“Coming right up,” Nurse Hawkins replied, while making the necessary changes in the computer system.
Tyler made a mental note to confront her aunt. She didn’t appreciate Carla making changes without her knowledge. Tyler was very hands-on with her mother’s care and wanted to know everything as soon as it happened. Finding out that Maple wasn’t eating bothered her. Normally, when she stopped eating, it had something to do with her emotions, which explained why she was moody.
Stepping into the room, Tyler spotted her mother sitting by the window. She was in her wheelchair with a blanket thrown across her lap. A scarf covered her head, but Tyler could see her long braids sticking out the back. From where she was standing, Tyler could see Maple’s fingers digging into her arms.
She’s irritated, Tyler thought, walking closer to her.
“Hey,” Tyler spoke softly, touching her shoulder.
“No touching,” Maple muttered, dropping her shoulder so Tyler’s hand fell off. “I don’t wanna play today,” she said, not recognizing Tyler as her daughter, but as the woman who often came to play with her.
“What’s wrong?”
“Everything!” Her childlike voice rose. “The tape broke, food nasty, and I peed in the bed,” Maple whispered the last part. Her pretty brown face was flushed, and Tyler could see the stress lines in her forehead. “I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do.” Maple dug her nails into her arms. “I don’t know what to do,” she chanted.
“Hey, hey, don’t do that. Let me help you.” Tyler squatted in front of her, gently taking Maple's hand into hers. “Let me help, ok?”
“Ok,” she whispered.
The hammer that smashed into Maple’s head severely damaged her frontal lobe. It ruined her ability to walk, talk, remember, and communicate her feelings. Maple went from being a capable adult to a child in a matter of seconds. It took years and thousands of dollars, but Maple learned how to walk and talk for the second time in her life. Even then, she still had trouble walking and at times she stuttered. Her memory was a different story. Maple didn’t remember anything abouther former life, including the child she had given birth to. Had the hammer been a couple of inches to the left, Tyler would’ve been mourning her mother’s death rather than watching her life slowly slip away. Sometimes she didn’t know which one was worse.
“Can she hear me?” Tyler whispered, standing next to Maple’s bed. Tubes were coming from her nose and mouth, needles in the side of her neck and all up her arm. The sight made Tyler’s stomach churn, and the uncertainty of Maple’s situation made her sick. Every time a doctor walked in the room, they gave her a sympathetic look, and Tyler hated it. She didn’t need them to feel sorry for her. What Tyler needed was for her mother to wake up and take care of her. Staying in a group home was horrible. The food sucked, the kids were mean, and she had to sleep on a pullout sofa.
“Yes,” the nurse responded with a warm smile. “It might give her the strength to wake up and talk back.” She patted Tyler’s back before leaving the room. The nurse knew she was giving Tyler false hope, but the little girl standing in front of her was broken and needed to hear some good news.
Moving closer to the edge of the bed, Tyler picked up Maple’s hand and placed her palm to her cheek. She couldn’t form the words to tell her mother how life was so messed up, so she started singing. Tyler’s eyes were closed, and the soft voice that slipped from her lips captured the attention of everyone walking by. Before long, there was a crowd of people standing by the door with tears rolling down their faces. Their heart went out to the broken girl with the beautiful voice.
“Ok, let’s start with food. What do you want to eat?” Tyler asked, wiping the tears that slipped from her eyes.
“Chicken nuggets,” Maple whispered. “The ones that look like a dinosaur. The ones we had last time.”
“Ok, I can do that.”
“How? You have money to buy them?” Maple’s eyes bulged. “We can’t have real money. Just this fake money for when we go to the stores at the end of the hall. I don’t know if you can buy chicken nuggets with fake money though,” she sighed.
“I have real money,” Tyler assured her, pulling out her phone. She started texting Aria a list of things to order and have delivered to the nursing home. “What else do you want?”
“I want cheese popcorn and sour patches too. ‘Member last time,” Maple gasped. “So many popcorn, some many gummy worms and fish,” she beamed, clapping her hands together like an uncoordinated toddler.
“I went home with a stomachache,” Tyler joked, looking up from her phone.
