A Forever Kind of Love

Familiar guilt assailed Mya once again. It wasn’t solely up to Aunt Maureen to take care of Grandma. Mya should have been here helping. Her grandparents had raised her since the age of three, after her mother had decided to leave Gauthier and make a life for herself with the first in a string of men.

It was the best thing that could have happened to Mya. Her grandparents had always been there for her, but she had not done the same in return.

Corey stalked into the waiting room. “How is she?” he asked.

“We’re still waiting on the nurse,” Aunt Mo answered.

He sat in the seat across from Mya, his knees braced apart. Snippets of grass clung to the short hairs on his legs.

“You don’t have to stay,” Mya told him.

“I’m not leaving until I know Mrs. Eloise is okay,” he answered.

“I can call—”

“Don’t try to explain anything to him,” Aunt Mo said. “He’s as stubborn as your grandmother, which is why they get along so well.”

“You and my grandmother get along?” Mya blurted. “She hated you when we were growing up.”

“She got over it,” Corey said in a clipped voice that clearly told Mya to do the same. He rested his elbows on his thighs and clasped his hands together.

The aroma of sweat, grass and dirt hit Mya square in the face, reminding her of how he’d smelled when he would come to her after baseball practice, not bothering to take a shower. In her horny, sex-crazed teenage mind, it hadn’t mattered one bit. They would go at it like rabbits in the cab of his daddy’s dusty pickup, parked under that big pecan tree in old Mr. Herbert’s field.

Mya tore her eyes away from his toned brown legs. She didn’t need any reminders of those long-ago mistakes.

Corey rose. “I need coffee,” he said. “Anybody else want some?”

“I’d love some,” Maureen answered. “There isn’t any here, though. The nurse said the coffeemaker is broken.”

“There’s a little place right next door called Drusilla’s. They sell good egg-and-cheese sandwiches. You want something to eat?”

“Just the coffee,” Aunt Mo answered.

“Mya?” Corey asked.

She shook her head. “I’m fine.” Truth was Mya didn’t trust her stomach to keep anything down. She was a ball of nerves. She doubted the condition would improve until she saw her grandmother alert and well.

Minutes passed with only the low hum of a late-model television mounted in the corner making any noise. It was the quiet peacefulness that alerted Mya that something was missing. “Where’s Elizabeth?” she asked Aunt Mo.

“I don’t know,” her aunt said with an agitated wave of her hand. “The gift shop, I think.”

“She would find somewhere to shop,” Mya snorted.

“That’s how she calms herself down. Don’t complain. I’d rather her out there bothering those people than in here bothering me.”

“I know you had the chance to drown her at birth,” Mya said.

Aunt Mo nodded. “I should have taken it. Though you wouldn’t be here.”

“It’s a sacrifice I’d have made to save the planet from Elizabeth Dubois.”

As if she’d heard her name, her mother burst through the waiting room door, followed by a doctor in green scrubs and white tennis shoes.

“She’s going to be okay,” Elizabeth cried.

Mya jumped from her seat and rushed over to the doctor, trying not to hold her high blond ponytail and Hello Kitty earrings against her. Mya wasn’t too keen on her grandmother’s life resting in the hands of someone who looked barely out of medical school.

“How is she?” Mya asked. “Can we see her?”

“She’s going to be fine,” the doctor answered patiently. “You’ll be able to see her soon.”

“What happened?” Mya asked.

“Well, her blood glucose levels were extremely high—”

“But she’s okay now?” Maureen cut the doctor off.

The doctor nodded.

“Thank you, God.” Mya collapsed into the chair nearest the door. Elizabeth was the one who usually favored dramatics, but relief that she would not bury both grandparents within a week was so overwhelming, it knocked Mya’s legs right from under her.

“Can we bring her home today?” Aunt Mo asked.

The doctor’s eyes darted around the room. “Can you all follow me?” she asked.

Anxiety thrummed through Mya’s veins at the seriousness she sensed in the doctor’s voice. “What’s wrong? Is she really okay?”

“Yes. Yes. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to alarm you. There are a couple of things we need to discuss regarding Mrs. Dubois’s care, and patient confidentiality prevents us from discussing it here in the waiting room.”

Mya accepted the explanation with a nod, but still walked on shaky legs as they followed the doctor to a room two doors down. The square plaque next to the door had Privacy Room embossed on it in raised letters.

“Is my mother going to die?” Elizabeth asked as soon as the door closed.

“Not anytime soon,” the doctor answered. “If she continues to take her insulin and monitor her blood sugar levels. However, we did see an abnormality on her initial blood scan. We want to keep her to run a few more tests.”

“What type of abnormality?” Maureen asked.

“I don’t know enough yet. Any time flags are raised on the blood tests of a diabetic, we take it seriously. I’d rather be overly cautious than miss something and see her back here in a few weeks.”

“Do whatever you need to do,” Mya said. “As long as she’s okay.”

“Absolutely,” the doctor answered with a smile. “I’ll send a nurse to the waiting room to let you all know when you can see her.”

The morning had been an emotional roller coaster, but at least they now had the doctor’s word that her grandmother would be okay. Mya welcomed the muscle-relaxing flood of relief that rushed through her body.

“Well, I guess I should call myself a cab. It’s time for me to get out of here,” Elizabeth announced.

The muscles in Mya’s neck and shoulders instantly tensed. “What do you mean it’s time for you to get out of here?”