Your Love Is King (5 page)

Five

“Immigrant”

I smiled brightly and waved as Tiffany walked through the security checkpoint alongside my father. He’d only bought two tickets to Atlanta and had made it abundantly clear that my presence was not needed. He’d help her move into her dorm and purchase everything she needed once they got there. To be honest, I didn’t even want to go. I didn’t feel like flying anywhere, and I didn’t care to spend hours with my father. 

I watched as they made their way to their gate, disappearing into the bustling crowd at the Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport. I sighed. My only child was headed off to begin what promised to be a future filled with success, and I was headed back to the town I was born and raised in. Back to a job I didn’t even like and to an empty house which had evolved from a gift to a prison.

As I made my way through the airport and out onto the short-term parking lot, I recalled the events of the last few weeks. Everything seemed to be changing around me while it felt like I was just standing still and watching it happen.

As I reached my car, unlocked the door, and climbed inside, it hit me. I
was
standing still. I was glued to the same spot, feeling the same feelings of disappointment I’d always felt. While everything around me was so dynamic, I’d become stagnant and complacent. I was perpetually unhappy.

I sat in my car and stared out the window at the hustle and bustle surrounding the airport. I watched as people stepped out of cars or cabs, bid farewell to loved ones, pulled their luggage behind them, and headed off to their individual destinations. I started my car and was halfway to the toll booth when I decided to stop and call Carla.

“Hello?” she answered after the first ring.

“Hey, it’s Marli,” I replied.

“Yeah, I know. What’s up? I’m in the middle of packing.”

“What do I need to do to sign up with Dana?”

“You’re going to St. Louis with me?!” she asked, excitedly.

I smiled. “Yeah, I think I am.”

~*~

I sat in the passenger’s seat of Carla’s Ford Expedition and inhaled her new cherry-scented air freshener. I was deep in thought about the events that had taken place over the previous week or so. Tiffany had flown off to Atlanta and had begun summer classes at Spelman. I’d attended Darius’s wake, having decided to forego the funeral service. I’d submitted a leave of absence to the hospital, signed a three-month contract with Dana’s staffing agency, locked up my house, and was on my way to St. Louis.

As Carla sped along Highway 67, I peered out the window, watching the other cars and wondering where their personal journeys would lead them. I wondered about my own journey, too. We were well into our six-hour trip and some of the anxiety I’d been experiencing had subsided, but I was still feeling the pangs of uncertainty that always seemed to accompany a new experience.

“You okay over there?” Carla asked, darting her eyes from the road to my face.

“Yeah, I’m all right. Just a little nervous, though,” I replied, switching my gaze from the window to the radio. Some song I’d never heard before was playing, and it was beginning to annoy me.

“Well, you shouldn’t be nervous. This is an adventure for you,
for us
. Besides, you definitely needed a change of pace, and I needed to get away from my own crazy life.”

I looked over at Carla and smiled. Carla was a gorgeous woman with sepia skin that almost matched mine. She had small, expressive eyes and a small nose and mouth to match. She wore her hair in kinky twists and she had the figure of a sixteen-year-old. She wasn’t rail thin, but I wouldn’t consider her to be overweight, either. She was blessed with an hour-glass figure that I coveted.

Yet, even with her looks, she’d had no better luck in the love department than I had. She’d been married for eleven years but had been separated for the past several months. She’d caught her husband, Bryan, with another woman and had immediately thrown him out of the house. Their sons, Derek and Patrick, were spending the summer with their father while Carla worked in St. Louis. Carla was the strongest woman I knew. While my divorce had devastated me and nearly sent me into a full-fledged nervous breakdown, Carla hadn’t missed a beat. She’d continued to work and take care of her sons without even seeming to give Bryan a second thought.

“I bet the boys were sad to see you go,” I said as I pressed the button to scan the stations on her radio.

She smiled. “Well, Derek was pretty nonchalant about it. I guess since he’s ten, he doesn’t think he needs me anymore. But Patrick was pretty upset. But then again, Patrick’s always been a mama’s boy.”  That much I knew to be true. Patrick was seven and loved to stick near his mother.

“It must’ve been hard to leave them.”

Carla sighed. “Honestly, Marli, I really needed the break. I love my boys, but it hasn’t been easy doing all of this alone. I don’t envy what you’ve been through.  I figure that maybe I can make enough money this summer that I won’t have to work in the fall. That way I can devote more time and attention to them.”

I flashed her a concerned look. “You don’t think you and Bryan will ever get back together?”

Carla shrugged. “I really don’t know, Marli. I love Bryan, and I always will, but although I can forgive him, I know I’ll never forget what he did. He cheated on me with a member of our church. I always trusted him, and now that trust is gone. What kind of marriage can we have if I can’t trust him?”

“I don’t know, Carla. I just hate for you and the kids to have to go through a divorce. Is Bryan still calling, begging to come home?”

Carla nodded. “Yeah, every other day and coming by the house with all kinds of lame excuses. I just need a break from all of it.”

I nodded. “I can understand that.”

“So did you tell your parents you were leaving?”

It was my turn to sigh. “Yeah, I told them. Of course they both thought I was crazy to leave my ‘real’ job and take off for some temporary assignment. I just listened to them. I wasn’t in the mood to argue.”

Carla smiled. “Well, I’m proud of you. There was a time when you never would’ve done this knowing they disapproved.”

“Yeah, well, I’m quickly finding out there isn’t much about me that they
do
approve of. So why try?”

“Well, I just try to live life the way I want to and make my own decisions. That way, when something goes wrong, I have no one to blame but myself.”

“Good idea,” I said and then stopped the radio on a smooth jazz station.

Carla shook her head. “There you go with that jazz. Dang, Marli! I don’t see how you can listen to that stuff. Who is that singing anyway?”

I rolled my eyes. “It’s Sade. Now you
know
I love me some Sade.”

She shrugged. “It sounds all right, I guess.”

“It sounds
excellent
. You really need to broaden your horizons. Talk about me being stuck in a rut. It wouldn’t kill you to listen to someone other than Usher or Trey Songz, you know?”

Carla waved her hand in the air. “Okay, okay. I’ll listen to Ms. Sade, but if I get sleepy and run off the road and kill us, it’s on you.”

I laughed. “You’ll stay alert. Sade sings to your soul.”

“Mm-hmm, well Usher and Trey Songz sing to my
everything else
.”

I laughed again and relaxed against the seat. Maybe this trip
was
just what I needed. I was leaving my life behind—at least for the next three months. Maybe I could start a new one. Maybe I could become a new Marli.

Six

“Diamond Life”

I stepped into the apartment that Carla and I would be sharing for the next three months and smiled. It was a modest, two-bedroom space with clean, beige carpets and pristine, white walls. It smelled of fresh paint and pine cleaner. It was completely furnished with sturdy—though not particularly aesthetic—furniture. The small living room included a navy blue sofa and arm chair, a set of oak end tables with a matching coffee table, and a metal TV stand, which was missing a TV.

“Wow, they couldn’t include a TV?” Carla asked.

I shrugged. “I guess they don’t consider a TV furniture.”

I stepped into the kitchen to find that it was fully equipped—including a microwave oven. There was even a compact washer and dryer set.

“At least we won’t have to go to the laundromat,” I said.

Carla rolled her eyes. “Yay.”

I sighed. “Carla, what did you expect? A penthouse?”

“No, just not
thi
s.”

“Well, we can make it feel like home. I’m gonna go and pick out my bedroom.”

“Yeah, sure. Doesn’t matter to me,” she muttered.

I shook my head and continued through the apartment. I checked out both bedrooms and settled on the smaller of the two since it included a window that overlooked the pool.

I took a seat on the bed and checked my phone. No missed calls.
Tiff must be staying pretty busy
, I thought. I hadn’t heard from her in a couple of days, but I didn’t want to bother her. I sat there for a moment and caught my breath. The next day would be my first day of work at St. Louis’s University Hospital.

~*~

I stifled a yawn as I sat in one of the conference rooms within University Hospital. It was 8:00 A.M., I hadn’t slept well in my new, temporary home, and I had the bags under my eyes to prove it. I brought a Styrofoam cup of stale coffee to my lips and took a sip, hoping it would jolt me out of my drowsy state. Next to me sat Carla, who’d evidently slept well and was wide awake.

The room was full of a variety of scrub-clad men and women, some permanent employees and others temporary help like Carla and me. We were all waiting for the orientation session to begin.

The 356-bed hospital employed hundreds of healthcare professionals and, like many other facilities of its kind across the nation, it was experiencing a nursing shortage on top of a strike. Evidently, they were in need of other staff as well, which explained the presence of Carla and several other respiratory therapists and ancillary staff members.

Carla leaned over and whispered, “How you holding up, Marli? You gonna make it?”

I nodded. “Yeah, you know I specialize in functioning on minimal sleep.”

“Yeah, me, too.”

Our conversation was halted by a loud voice coming from the front of the room. Speaking was a petite woman who wore a bright smile and a stark white shirt. An ID badge hung from the left side of the shirt’s stiff collar.

“Good morning. I know all of you are anxious to get started and to be dismissed. I’m April Hence, the training coordinator here at the hospital, and I wanna first thank you for choosing to work here at University Hospital, and I also wanna extend a warm welcome on behalf of the CEO,” she said. And with that, orientation began.

Three hours later, we were handed our floor assignments.

Carla nudged me. “Ha! ICU! I’m so happy.”

Carla had always loved working in the critical care areas of the hospital. She was a true adrenaline junkie.  I really didn’t care where I worked.

“Well, good for you.” I unfolded my own slip of paper. “ER,” I read aloud.

I wasn’t surprised about the assignment. I’d worked in so many areas at the hospital back home, I figured they’d want me in a critical area.

“Wow, that should be interesting. This is like
the
trauma hospital for this area,” Carla said.

I nodded. “Yeah, shouldn’t be a dull moment, huh?”

After we were dismissed, we went to check out our work areas and meet our new supervisors. Then we went home to rest up. Both Carla and I were scheduled to begin working our regular shifts the following evening at 7:00 P.M.