“I don’t feel anything,” I say.
“Because you’re medicated, Mom,” Chi-chi says.
I stand.
The bed starts beeping, and sirens go off in my room.
Sergei throws up his hands. “Always fucking drama with you, Dina. You just don’t fucking listen.”
“Fuck you.”
“Dad, sit down,” Chi-chi says. “You’re making it worse.”
“Me?” He points at his chest. “I’mmaking it worse?”
A pregnant nurse wearing pink teddy bear scrubs rushes into the room. Her dark brown braid hangs over her shoulder. Her large pastel-green eyes are uncommonly pretty. Momentarily, I stare.
“Do you need to use the bathroom?” she asks.
“Now that you ask, yes. Yes, I do.”
When she shows a wide smile with all her teeth, I remember I’ve seen her before.
“I’m happy to help you. Let’s take the IV along with us.”
“Mom, we’ll be there in five minutes,” Chi-chi says.
“Do not come here!” I scream. “They want you here so they can blackmail me into saying things about the Crossbow twins. But I won’t say shit, because this city is full of corrupt assholes who should be behind bars or dead. Let me be clear: if you come here, I will never speak to either of you again. I swear it. You will put me in a position where I will have to choose between you two. They will use the two of you, and I’ll have to make choices I don’t want to make. We will all die, baby.” Tears stream down my cheeks. “Baby girl, my sweet girl, please. I’m begging you, stay away. The other Crossbow twin will come, and he’ll burn the city down if his brother is under the rubble. We’ll all burn with it. Stay away.”
“Jesus, Mom.”
“I’m pulling over,” my dad says.
“I can come back in a few minutes,” the nurse says. “Just sit down and don’t try to get up on your own. I’ll help you to the bathroom.”
“You can stay,” I tell her.
“We’re almost at the hospital,” Chi-chi says.
Having pulled over, my dad looks at the video camera. Kind brown eyes the same shape and color as my own gaze at me. I will never understand how my mother walked away from him. Never. And I will never understand how such a great man could end up with a woman who abandoned him, along with their child. Me.
“You can’t ask us not to come when you’re hurt,” my dad says.
“When I get better, I’ll come find you.”
“Dina, what’s gotten into you?” he asks.
I chuckle. “Life after divorce has gotten into me after I lived a life married to a leech and a bully. So please respect my wishes. For once, I want to do something for me. And if that something is fucking one of the Crossbow twins, then that’s what I’ll do. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m a grown woman, and I want to go pee before I walk out of here. I don’t want to have to sit here with you all when there’s a man dying or dead under the rubble and nobody is moving a finger to help him.” I take a deep breath. “Dad, get a hotel for the night. Stay away from here. People will use you to get to the other Crossbow twin because those two men give a fuck about me and about each other. They’re better than most people. I’ll see you two soon. I promise. Just…just do this for me. Can you do this for me?”
Chi-chi bites her lip and wipes her face. She reminds me of myself. She cries at the drop of a hat, but she has more courage than I had at her age. If I had to go back, I would have raised her on my own. When you have to raise a man along with your child, he’s a burden you don’t need.
“We got you, Mom. We got you.”
Awww. “See what you did now?” I start to cry again. “Love you guys.”
“We love you too, Dina,” my dad says.
My family and I hang up, and I lie back down on the bed, because that was exhausting.
