He nodded, trying to smile. “She’s doing better. She’s stable now. We have her on some pretty heavy pain meds right now to help her rest. She should hopefully be able to go home tomorrow if nothingchanges.”
“Thank youdoctor.”
Exhaustion started to take its toll while I sat in the arm chair in the corner of the room, watching my mother take shallow, labored breaths. The next thing I knew, it was the middle of the night and a blaring alarm was going off. I shot up out of the chair and ran over to my mother’s side as the night nurse came rushing through thedoor.
The nurse pushed some buttons, fixed a few things. My mom groaned as the nurse put the oxygen tube back in her nose. “Your oxygen levels started dropping. You need to keep thison.”
Through slits, my mom glanced at me. “What are you doing here?” she muttered, but before I could answer she was falling back into her drug fueleddaze.
The nurse patted my shoulder. “She’ll be more with it tomorrow. Try to get a little morerest.”
Hot coals felt like they were embedded in my lower back as I tried to make the best out of the uncomfortable chair. After I flipped through the limited channels for a while, thumbed through a few magazines, and did a crossword puzzle, my eyelids finally started to getheavy.
The sound of coughing brought me out of a light sleep. I shot up from the chair to find my mother staring wide-eyed atme.
“Well, look what the cat dragged in.” She rolled her eyes, trying to sit up more in herbed.
I ambled over to her bedside, trying to rub out a kink in my shoulder and neck. “I came as soon as I heard you were hurt,Ma.”
“Don’t even feel the need to tell your momma that you’re leaving but you feel like you have to come here and play hero? My dear, you’re not needed here.” Her bloodshot eyes were boring into mysoul.
“I’m sorry I ran out on you like that. I just couldn’t get stuck in the quicksand of that lifeforever.”
She hit the call button for the nurse before glaring at me. “Don’t get self-righteous on me, Crit. We don’t have to do this. You made your choice. Run back off to wherever you came from. I can take care of myself.” Her words were mumbled from her jaw being sosore.
“Obviously.” I twirled my finger around the room. “You can totally take care of yourself,Ma.”
The nurse came in. “Morning, Helen. How are you feelingtoday?”
“Like I got hit by atruck.”
