Only Child(9)

The door at the back of the waiting room that said NO ENTRY on it opened and two nurses with green shirts and pants on came out. Everyone in the waiting room got up at the same time. The nurses were holding papers and started calling names: “Family of Ella O’Neill, family of Julia Smith, family of Danny Romero…” Some people in the waiting room got up and walked over to the nurses and went in the NO ENTRY door with them.

The nurses didn’t call “Family of Andy Taylor,” and Mommy plopped back down on the floor and put her arms on her knees and her head on her arms like she was trying to hide her face. I sat down next to her again and rubbed her arm up and down, up and down. Mommy’s arms felt like they were shaking, and her hands were making fists. She opened and closed them, opened and closed them.

“If they haven’t called us by now, it must be bad,” Ricky’s mom said. “Otherwise we would have heard something by now.”

Mommy didn’t say anything, she just kept opening and closing her fists.

More waiting and more nurses coming out, calling names, and more people getting up and going behind the NO ENTRY door. Every time a nurse came out, Mommy put her head up and looked at them with her eyes really big, making lines on her forehead. When they called a name, but not Andy’s, she let out her breath really fast and put her head back down on her arms, and I rubbed her arm some more.

Sometimes the slidey doors in the front opened and people walked in and out. I could see outside and it was getting dark, so we were at the hospital for a long time and it was probably dinnertime by now. Looked like I was going to get to stay up late on no-rules day.

Not very many people were left in the waiting room, only me and Mommy and Ricky’s mom, and a few people on the chairs and by the vending machines. A couple of policemen were left, and they were talking together with their heads down. There were a lot of empty chairs now, but we didn’t get up to sit on them, even though my butt hurt from the floor.

Then the slidey doors opened again and Daddy walked in. I was excited to see him. I started to get up to go to him, but then I sat right back down because I saw his face and it didn’t look like Daddy’s face at all. My stomach did a big flip like when I’m excited, but I wasn’t excited, just really scared.





[ 6 ]


    Werewolf Howling


DADDY’S FACE WAS LIKE a grayish color, and his mouth looked all funny, with his lower lip pulled down so I could see his teeth. He shook his head no when he saw how I started to get up. He stood there by the slidey doors and stared at us, me sitting next to Mommy and Mommy next to Ricky’s mom. I didn’t move. I was staring back at him because I didn’t know why his face looked like that and why he wasn’t coming over to us.

It was a long time before he started to walk, and then he walked very slow like he didn’t want to get to us. He turned around a few times—maybe he wanted to check how far he walked from the doors. All of a sudden I had a feeling that I didn’t want him to get to us, because everything was going to get worse then.

Ricky’s mom saw Daddy next and made a sound like she was pulling in a lot of air through her mouth. That made Mommy pick up her head from her arms. She looked up and for a minute she just looked at Daddy’s weird face, and he stopped walking. Then everything did get worse, I was right.

First Mommy’s eyes got really big, and then her whole self started shaking and she started acting crazy. She yelled, “Jim? Oh my God, no no no no no no no no no!”

Each “no” got louder and I didn’t know why she was yelling so loud all of a sudden. Maybe she was mad that Daddy left the church, because he was supposed to wait there, just in case. Everyone in the waiting room was looking at us.

Mommy tried to get up, but then she fell back down on her knees. She started to make a loud “Aaaauuuuuuuuuuu” sound and it wasn’t a sound like it was coming from a person, but maybe an animal, like a werewolf when he sees the moon.

Daddy walked the last bit to us and got down on his knees, too, and tried to put his arms around Mommy. But she started to hit him and yell “No no no no no no no no” again, so she really was mad at him.

I could tell Daddy felt bad because he kept saying, “I’m sorry, babe, I’m so so sorry!” But Mommy kept hitting him, and he let her even though everyone had their eyes on them. I wanted Mommy to stop being mad at Daddy and stop hitting him. But instead she got even more crazy and started screaming. She screamed Andy’s name over and over again and it was so loud, I put my hands over my ears. There were so many too-loud sounds for my ears today.

Mommy cried and screamed and made more “Aaaauuuuuuuuuuu” sounds. After a long while she let Daddy hug her and didn’t hit him anymore, so maybe she wasn’t mad at him anymore. All of a sudden she turned around to the wall and started throwing up. Right where all the people could see her. A lot of throw-up came out, and she was making really gross sounds. Daddy was on his knees next to her, rubbing her back, and he looked like he was scared and like he was going to throw up, too, probably from watching Mommy.

But Daddy didn’t throw up. He put his hand out to me, and I took it and then we sat there, holding hands, and I tried not to look at Mommy. She stopped throwing up and she wasn’t screaming anymore. She just lay down on the floor with her eyes closed and made a ball with her whole body, her arms holding her knees, and she cried and cried.