Forever Yours

That night, the peace didn’t last for long. My cell phone rang in early morning hours. I’m not sure if it was three or four o’ clock. On the other end was my mother—she was in tears.
“Mom, what’s wrong? Are you okay?”
“Rain…it’s your sister,” she sniffled and hiccupped. “She’s in the hospital.”
“Hospital? What hospital? There isn’t a hospital for miles.”
“In Thousand Oaks,” she said sniffling. “Please hurry.”
“Okay, I’ll be there as soon as I can,” I said.
My mom hung up. “What happened?” asked Zack.
“It’s my sister. She’s in the hospital.”
“Oh my God! Let’s go. We need to see her.”
We both rushed out of bed and threw some clothes on and rushed downstairs to my car.
“Where are we going?” asked Zack.
“Thousand Oaks to Los Robles Hospital.”
“But it takes at least a half an hour to get there.”
“I know, I know.” I could feel myself getting upset with worry. I felt Zack’s hand on my shoulder and then he squeezed.
“Maybe I should drive,” he said.
“Yeah, maybe you’re right.”
We switched places and Zack drove. I looked out of the window as he drove down the North 101 Freeway. I followed the sporadic headlights that passed us. I looked out to the illuminated billboards the past us.
Eventually we got to the hospital, where Zack and I walked in. He held my hand and I wouldn’t be surprised if I cut off the circulation in his hand. I was so nervous. I didn’t even know why my sister was here. For all I knew she was on her death bed.
We reached my mom who was waiting for us in the lobby by the information kiosk. She wiped her face when she saw us. She looked completely exhausted. Her hair wasn’t combed and her clothes were old and scruffy.
“Mom, what’s going on? Why is Jenna here?”
“She lost the baby,” she said. “I don’t know exactly what happened. She won’t tell me and Greg isn’t saying anything either.”
“Maybe I can get him to say something,” said Zack.
“Yeah or maybe Jenna will tell me.”
“Let’s go. She’s asked for you,” said mom.
We followed my mom to the OB floor—3rd floor. I was still worried about my sister and sad to lose my baby niece or nephew, but I was relieved that she wasn’t really hurt or dying.
We reached her room. The door was closed. My mom knocked softly and Greg answered the door. His face was low and his eyes were red and puffy. He looked completely exhausted. I felt so bad for him. I can’t imagine what it’s like to lose a child. He let me in and walked outside with Zack. My mom stayed outside as well.
When I walked in, she was asleep. Her eyes were puffy and her cheeks were red. I sat in the seat next to her bed softly so as not to wake her. I put my hand on hers and looked at her. Then I looked to the monitors next to her that beeped. It was amazing how anyone could sleep through that beeping. A tear rolled down my cheeks as I tried to imagine all of the pain my sister was going through.
Her eyes fluttered open and she looked at me. She squeezed my hand in return and I climbed in bed with her. I wrapped my arm around her and she started to cry. I cried with her. I couldn’t stand seeing her in so much pain.
“How could this happen to me, Rain? Why me? I’ve never done anything to anybody.”
“I don’t know, Jenna.”
I squeezed her tight. “Thanks for coming,” she said.
“Are you kidding me? I wouldn’t be anywhere else.” I paused. “Look, Jen, I know that you probably don’t want to talk about this, but what happened?”
“It was dad,” she said.
“Dad?”
“He showed up at my house. It was two o’ clock in the morning.”
“What did he want? He wasn’t drunk was he?”
“I don’t know, but…He wanted me to talk to you. Apparently not being able to talk to you was making him crazy. He wanted me to convince you to forgive him.”
“That bastard. I can’t believe him.”
“We started to argue and that’s when…I started to get cramps.”
“Are you sure he wasn’t drunk?” I asked.
“I couldn’t tell. I was really tired still. I hadn’t really woken up yet.”
“Where is he now? He didn’t come to the hospital?”
“He wanted to, but I told him not to.”
“I’m so sorry this happened to you, Jenna.”
She wiped her tears. “All that matters is that you’re here now.”
“Zack’s here too,” I said.
“So you got back together?”
“Yup,” I said.
“Aw, that’s so great. I knew you two would find your way back together.”
“Yeah, well I wasn’t always so convinced. He totally married another woman,” I said in a joke.
Jenna laughed and it seemed like it was her first laugh ever. She squeezed me tight and then we just laid there silently.