Page 30 of Healed
“Means nothing. You see me? I’m right here. Whatever you need. Whatever you want, I got you. All you need to worry about is where I am and what you need next,” Barron said, smiling lovingly at Emmalyn as he stroked an errant sweaty tendril of hair out of her face and tucked it back behind her ear.
Emmalyn pouted a bit, then swiped at her ponytail holder. “I need a softer ponytail holder. This one pulls. And I need some frozen grapes. The green ones. And I need some fried oysters and fried yellow squash.”
“Okay. I can do all that. I even have some grapes frozen already because you liked them so much yesterday.”
“You do?”
“Of course, I do. Who else is going to know what you want before you want it?”
“Nobody,” she said, laying her head back on her arm with a tired sigh.
“You ready to get up yet?”
“I’m not sure I can. I’m so tired. I’m so sick. I’m so tired of being sick. All I do is throw up and lean on the toilet. Why is it like this?”
“Baby, you’re growing a baby. You’ve been sitting here throwing up sporadically for three days. You’re allowed to be tired and you’re allowed to be grumpy and exhausted.”
“I’d like to go in the living room and lie on the sofa, but what if I need to throw up all of a sudden?”
“Then I’ll rush you in here. If I’m too slow, I’ll just clean it up.”
“I feel like I ran a marathon.”
“Come on, let me get you up and into the living room. Then I’ll take care of everything else you want, alright?”
“I need ketchup for the fried squash and oysters.”
“I already have it added to the list in my head.”
She raised her arms to loop around Barron’s neck as he lifted her from the floor. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. You’ve spent more than half the last three days with the toilet. I think it’s time to call somebody about the extreme morning sickness.”
“I don’t have morning sickness. I just have sickness. All damn day and night. Daddy’s right.”
“When did this start?” Everly asked as Barron carried Emmalyn into the living room and laid her in her favorite spot on the sofa.
“About three days ago. All day, everyday, and all night.”
“I’ll call the doctor,” Everly said. “This is not normal.”
Barron stopped and looked over at Everly. “How not normal?”
“Some women are very, very sick. They end up having to be hospitalized. I don’t think it’s that bad, but if we don’t do something to stop the nausea it could be.”
“If you could call while I take care of getting her the other things she wants, that’d be great,” Barron said.
Everly took out her phone and started scrolling through her contacts. “You’re still seeing Dr. Boynton, aren’t you?”
“Yes, just saw him again last week,” Emmalyn said, gratefully accepting the overly fluffy blanket from Barron as he walked back into the living room and started arranging it over and around her.
“I brought this scrunchy. How’s this one? Soft enough?” Barron asked, holding out an over sized scrunchy covered in velvet for her to see.
“Yeah,” she said, taking it from him and looping it quickly around her hair. “That’s better,” she said, resting her head on the throw pillow he offered her.
“I’ll get you some grapes,” Barron said, kissing her forehead before he hurried into the kitchen and came back with a Tupperware bowl full of frozen green grapes and a gumbo pot. He handed her the grapes, then sat beside her, his hand on the bend of her knees, while Everly dealt with the nurses on the telephone.
“Why did you bring my gumbo pot?” Emmalyn asked.
