Letting Go (874 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 1.69 on 17 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Professional Peon <prof_peon.at.yahoo.com> (View user info) at 2005-04-11 17:10:44 EDT
She had fallen asleep waiting, a quick nap before she began the arduous task of delivery. This would be the last chance for uninterrupted sleep and she took great pleasure in it. She opened her eyes in her empty hospital room and was greeted by two familiar faces. A young handsome blonde man stood and an older brunette, whom the girl always thought resembled Roy Orbison, sat beside him. The girl scowled at the two men before her. "What do you want?....Why are you here?" Tears welled in the girls eyes. She knew what they wanted. They had never been so bold as to speak to her directly before. This was the first time she had spoken to the blonde as his life was taken from him shortly after her first birthday.
"We have come for your son." The blonde said in a voice that was sorrowful yet matter-of-factly.
"No" the girl responded in the most threatening voice she could muster. "He is mine and you can not have him." She placed her hands on her stomach to protect her baby. She looked in horror as her stomach was flat and her child was gone.
The elder brother stood and handed the baby to his younger brother. The baby was cleaned and wrapped in a beautiful blue blanket. "I'm sorry" the blonde said as he turned to the door.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
She awoke with the dream still fresh in her mind. The hospital was quiet and peaceful. The sun was beginning to work it's way into the sky and signal the start of a new day. She stretched, yawned and picked up her glasses from the nightstand. She looked at the clock and felt her heart sank as she realized it was almost 6am. Her heart began to beat wildly in a panic. It's been seven hours.... where is he?
She reached across the bed and grabbed the buzzer. She pressed the button repeatedly, more panicked with each tone. An unfriendly voice came from the wall.
"Can I HELP you?" the voice asked.
"Where the FUCK is my baby?!?!" the girl asked.
"Escuuuze ME?"
"WHERE THE FUCK IS MY BABY?!!" The frightened girl cursed at the box on the wall.
"One minute please....."
In a fit of rage she tried to lift herself from the bed. The girl could barely sit up let alone stand. She looked at the clock. 6:03. She fought against the pain as she inched herself towards the side of the bed. She fought the tears back. "You can't get out of the bed if you're babbling like an idiot" she cursed at herself as she attempted to focus on the task at hand.
The small brunette woman entered the room. "Hello...." the doctor began. The girl cut her off. "Where is my son, why wasn't he brought to me so I could feed him during the night?"
The doctor looked down at her clipboard nervously "I don't quite know how to tell you this... your son....he stopped breathing a few times last night and we had to rush him down to the NICU."
The girl felt the rage beginning to boil over. "If I could move I would throw your skinny ass out the GOD DAMN WINDOW!"
The doctor looked at the window, no doubt imagining herself careening down four stories to the unwelcoming concrete and quickly turned on her heels and exited the room.
The girl reached over to the nightstand, grabbed the phone, and called her mother in the calmest voice possible. "Mom, come over as soon as you can, something's wrong." The first time grandmother pleaded to the girl for more information. "I don't know mom, just get here as soon as you can."
It took two and a half hours for the girl to get out of bed, shower and dress herself. No one came to check on her, no one brought her food. She had just finished tying her shoes when her family arrived around 8:30am.
The girl and her family headed down to the Neo-natal Intensive Care Unit. They stopped in the hall to look at a map. One of the nurses at the station noticed the girl's armband peaking out from her sweatshirt. "Hey, aren't you a patient? Why are you walking around? You can't just leave."
The girl thought for a moment, that voice is the one from the intercom, she recognized it immediately. "I was a patient, but now I'm not, if you would be so kind please tell me where the NICU is."
"You can't just leave." The nurse continued to argue.
"Tell me where my son is or the only place I will be going is jail from standing over your dead, mutilated FUCKING BODY!"
The nurse clutched her chest, aghast at the treatment she was receiving. "It's different when the person is more the just a voice on the other end of the intercom, isn't it?" the girl asked defiantly.
The girl's mother came over and took the girls arm in hers. "We found it; it's downstairs, we can take the elevator over here."
The girl could not see her child from the window. Her family led her to the door where she banged on the glass fiercely until it was opened. The nurse was less then happy at her behavior. "Can I help you?" she asked smugly.
"I'm here to see Bryan." The girl asked politely.
"I'm sorry, visiting hours aren't until 11:00" she said as she began to close the door in her face. The girl grabbed the door and shoved so hard she almost sent the woman tumbling to the ground.
"Wait here, I'll be back" she said to her family as she closed the door behind her.
The girl shuffled as fast as her bruised and swollen body would take her. She looked in bed after bed; mostly empty searching for her son. The rude nurse at the door informed her that if she did not leave she would be forced to call security. "Touch me and I will kill you." she girl growled as she exposed her patient band. She leaned on the nearest wall for support realizing that all this moving was exhausting her tired body. Twenty three hours of labor and now this.
She came to a row of heated beds. There were four children there; three were very tiny, very fragile. One was larger then the other three put together. The girl reached out and placed her finger in the baby's hand. The nurse came up behind her "please don't touch the babies." She ignored the woman and looked up at her son's name tag.
BABY BOY
"His name is Bryan." She said softly. Footsteps were heard from the far side of the room. The nurse walked away as the footsteps closed in on her.
The girl ignored him as she surveyed her injured baby. He was covered in wires. He had wires on his hands, and feet monitoring his temperature. He had a tube to his nose to help him breathe. There was a large wire over his heart to monitor the beat, but the most disturbing site was his head. His head was entirely covered in gauze and wires. All colors of wires, at least a hundred of them.
The doctor stepped up to the crib. "His name is Bryan" she whispered still looking at her son thinking about the dream. She was brought back to reality by the doctor's voice. "Your son started taking seizures around 3am this morning so they brought him down here" he said as he put a hand on his arm.
"What happened to him, he was fine last night."
The doctor looked up from the boy. "Your son was born with part of his brain missing."
"You're lying" she said boldly.
"I wish I was" he added as he pushed his glasses up his nose.
"If you are not lying then you are a fucking idiot" she said calmly.
The doctor was slightly shaken at the coldness of her comment. She looked him dead in the eyes. "That's not possible, I don't do drugs, I didn't drink, and I only had fast food once. I felt better pregnant then I've felt in a long time. I think that you are lying to cover your ass, unless of course you are a complete idiot. Just because I am young doesn't mean that I am stupid. Besides, if you were being honest you would seem so nervous."
"He is scheduled for transport to Children's Hospital I will get the forms" he said as he walked away.
She looked back at her baby. "I'm so sorry, they didn't tell me. I'm sorry to put you through this. If I would've known, I would have......
I would have let you go."
User Reviews
Submitted by moopadoopdoop (user info) at 2005-09-28 15:40:56 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
what
Submitted by missflibble (user info) at 2005-04-21 11:45:03 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
my best mate only has half a brain. she has cerebral palsey, but she is almost normal. She's severely dyslexic and she has a limp and her speech is slurred when she gets tired or stressed, but she's studying for a degree in social work/care. doctors have no idea how her brain rewired itself. She was the only baby out of 10 pregnancies her mum had that survived past birth. She was born at 25 weeks. that's a week past our legal limit for abortion.
there is hope and so much that we do not yet understand about ourselves.
Submitted by HadToBeDone (user info) at 2005-04-13 13:30:48 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Thanks for the sniffle at work....
Submitted by badassmofo (user info) at 2005-04-12 15:21:29 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Wow.
I was 12 when my sister was born. She was 8 weeks premature, she had many complications.
As tough as it was on me as a brother I never really gave much thought to how the whole thing affected my mother.
+2Billion to you for making me think about that.
Thank you.
Submitted by TheSpook (user info) at 2005-04-12 10:05:19 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Jeanneee (user info) at 2005-04-12 08:38:06 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by DanielH (user info) at 2005-04-12 01:18:34 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Stichomythia.
I can't type and write at same time. Have another +
Submitted by DanielH (user info) at 2005-04-12 00:53:02 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Edgy, + for that, but you didn't go over the edge with stichomythythia/exchanges. nice
Submitted by thecaes (user info) at 2005-04-12 00:29:46 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by Professional_Peon (user info) at 2005-04-11 18:41:43 (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by thecaes (user info) at 2005-04-11 18:13:32 (#)
Ranking: 2
I liked it...it was a little erratic, as you said, and something about the lead character just didn't jive with me, but I can't pinpoint what.
------
Probably because it wasn't fiction, and it's hard to believe anyone would behave that way perhaps??
****************************
You know, I think that's it. Something not necessarily about the way the narrator acted, but about the interaction between her and everone else seemed unlikely. But, it actually happened, so what the hell do I know.
I'm truly sorry.
Submitted by munkeypants (user info) at 2005-04-11 19:41:56 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Erratic. Yes.
But I like it.
Submitted by Professional_Peon (user info) at 2005-04-11 18:41:43 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by thecaes (user info) at 2005-04-11 18:13:32 (#)
Ranking: 2
I liked it...it was a little erratic, as you said, and something about the lead character just didn't jive with me, but I can't pinpoint what.
------
Probably because it wasn't fiction, and it's hard to believe anyone would behave that way perhaps??
Submitted by Crystle (user info) at 2005-04-11 18:21:23 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Damn - you almost made me cry reading it! Maybe it's a mommy thing. I had horrible dreams much like this while pregnant (although, everything was fine)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Submitted by Professional_Peon (user info) at 2005-04-11 17:28:08 (#)
Ranking: 0
I know it's a little irratic, but I reached a certain point where I was worried I would break down crying at work if I didn't end it.
Submitted by thecaes (user info) at 2005-04-11 18:13:32 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I liked it...it was a little erratic, as you said, and something about the lead character just didn't jive with me, but I can't pinpoint what.
Submitted by Professional_Peon (user info) at 2005-04-11 17:28:08 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by GodLovesALittleLovin (user info) at 2005-04-11 17:14:55 (#)
Ranking: 1
I dont' know.....this wasn't close to being bad.....but I felt like maybe you had a time restriction when you wrote this or were rushed? Still solid, well-written, not my usual kind of post, +1.
--------------------
I got to three and a half pages and figured it would be about twenty pages if I kept going. I know it's a little irratic, but I reached a certain point where I was worried I would break down crying at work if I didn't end it.
Submitted by precision (user info) at 2005-04-11 17:25:26 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Don't know what to say...very touching.
Submitted by stevie_says (user info) at 2005-04-11 17:15:54 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
Little jumpy. The dialogue is kinda rough too. But I liked the idea. Good on ya', kiddo.
Submitted by GodLovesALittleLovin (user info) at 2005-04-11 17:14:55 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
I dont' know.....this wasn't close to being bad.....but I felt like maybe you had a time restriction when you wrote this or were rushed? Still solid, well-written, not my usual kind of post, +1.