I glanced at her pretty face and smiled. She was truly the most beautiful little being, inside and out. Her slanted eyes still shined so brightly, and her smile was as big as it always waswhenever she looked at me. It was beyond me how Aldrick could look into her precious face and decide that he didn’t want to deal with her anymore.
I took a look at the iPad and saw that it was still connected to my Hotspot, so it should have been working just fine, but there was also a chance that she used up the battery since she’d been on it since she got up earlier.
Deciding she needed a break from it anyhow, I put it on the charger and said, “How about we let it charge for a while and go get something to eat, baby girl.”
“Yay!” She tossed her arms in the air. “Macaroni! Macaroni! Macaroni!”
I laughed lightly knowing that she was going to say she wanted macaroni. Turning and pointing to her booster seat, I asked her to get in then I buckled her up before getting myself situated again and pulling off. We weren’t too far from Lou’s Soulfood Kitchen, so that’s where we went. Ava loved their macaroni there, and they loved her.
As soon as we entered, she ran to the counter, holding onto it, jumping up and down screaming macaroni. Lou was there restocking some things behind the counter when he heard us enter, so he turned around smiling.
“I know that’s not my favorite little customer.”
“Lou!” Ava pointed then looked back at me. “Mommy! Lou!”
“I see, sweetie.” I smiled at her then him. “Hi, Lou.”
“Hey, Leila, how are you?”
“We’re good.” I lied, doing my best to put on a genuine smile. “Ava was hungry and begging for macaroni, so here we are.”
Nodding, he went to the back to get her food together. He yelled asking what I wanted, and I just asked for the daily soup which appeared to be chicken tortilla. Ava was pointing to the cups, so I took one and allowed her to go over and fix herself something to drink while I waited to pay for our food. They hada footstool under the condiments table that she knew to get. I watched her the whole time in awe. To Aldrick, she was doing simple things that other children had mastered a long time ago, but to me and to Ava they were major milestones because there was a time when we were told she wouldn’t be able to do a lot of them.
With my baby having Down Syndrome and experiencing developmental delays, she started a lot later than other kids. If she had learned to talk at two or three, he would have been proud, but because she didn’t say her first word until she was four, it was a problem. He was like that with everything Ava learned to do, but I didn’t care. I was going to celebrate everything that she did because she worked extremely hard to overcome things that people said would be impossible for her to do.
They’d chalked it to her being nonverbal when she refused to talk, but I knew my baby. I knew she’d let me hear her beautiful voice when she was ready, and she did. She shocked us all when she told me she loved me too one night before bed and now knew how to say a lot more than that. We were still working on her forming complete sentences, but that was fine with me because we’d made so much progress.
She took her time getting her drink then her lid and straw before putting the stool back where she got if from and making her way back to me. By the time she sat it on the counter, Dorothy, Lou’s daughter was approaching.
“Well, if it isn’t my favorite pretty girl.” She leaned over the counter. “How are you, Ms. Ava?”
“Hungry!” Ava exclaimed and we both laughed.
“Well, we better get you fed.” She beamed then pushed herself back up. “How are you, Leila.”
“Trying to stay warm in this crazy weather,” I answered. “How are you guys doing?”
“Girl, busy.” She groaned, ringing up our food. “This is the first time we’ve had a second to breathe in here today.”
“Lou and his daughters shouldn’t be such good cooks.” I grinned, pulling my debit card from my wallet then handing it to her. My smile faded when she tried running it again. “Is something wrong?”
“Oh, girl, this old thing acts crazy sometimes,” she chuckled awkwardly. “Sometimes we have to try to run it a few times.”
My brows furrowed. Their equipment was pretty dated, but they’dneverhad to run my card more than once. When she looked up at me with sympathy swimming in her eyes, my heartrate accelerated.
“What?”
“It’s declining.”
“De-declining?” I repeated. “No. That can’t be right. Try it again.” I suggested while pulling my phone out to check my banking app.
No internet connection?
“What the hell?” I mumbled.
“Mommy! Macaroni!”
“O-okay, Ava, give me a second.” I gently touched her arm then tried to just log in through the internet, but I got the same error message. I went to the phone app and tried making a call, but a message letting me know that my phone was no longer in service began to play. “That bastard!” I cried.
