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The employee helped Mama into the wheelchair. Daddy tried to shift toward the edge of the seat. I saw the pain cross his face immediately.
“Daddy, wait.”
“I need my chair.”
“I got it.”
I hurried out of the truck once Mama was helped and then went toward the back of the truck. My hands shook as I opened the hatch and then reached for his wheelchair. Tahari came beside me.
“I got it.”
“No, I can—”
“Maliah,” he cut me off.
I looked at him.
“I got your daddy. Go with your mama.”
I looked toward the hospital doors. MJ was already pushing Mama inside behind the nurse. Daddy was trying to get out of the truck. I stood there for half a second, torn between them all over again. Then Daddy looked back and made eye contact with me.
“Go with your mama.”
That was all the direction I needed to move my feet. Tahari grabbed his wheelchair while I ran behind MJ and Mama. I caught up beside her just before the automatic doors opened.
“I’m here.”
She reached for my hand.
“Where’s Malik?” she asked as she tried to look back.
“Tahari’s getting him in his chair. They’re coming.”
Through the glass, I could see Tahari helping Daddy while Daddy kept looking toward the doors. The hospital employee started asking her questions as we moved through the emergency department, but Mama barely had time to answer before another pain hit. She cried out and folded forward. The employee immediately picked up her pace.
“Let’s get her upstairs,” she said to the other nurses around her.
MJ looked at me, and I looked at him. Neither of us said anything because we didn’t have to. Something was definitely wrong.
The elevator doors opened onto Labor and Delivery, and from that point on, everything seemed to happen faster than my brain could keep up with it. The woman who had brought Mama upstairs pushed her through a set of double doors while MJ and I followed as far as we could. A nurse stopped us before we made it through.
“Family is going to have to wait here for just a few minutes while we get her assessed.”
“That’s my mother,” I said, looking past her at Mama disappearing down the hall.
“I know, sweetheart. As soon as we get her settled, we’ll let you know who can come back.”
I wanted to argue, but Daddy’s voice behind me stopped me.
“Where she at?”
I turned and saw Tahari pushing him toward us in his wheelchair.
“They took her back,” I told him.
He looked at the nurse.
“I’m her husband.”
