Page 26 of Down With the King of the South (Down With the King of the South 1)

“Let’s go, Vonte!” I yelled after my baby made a three-pointer.

“You may not know shit about boxing, but you damn sure know a little something about basketball,” Miami said.

I laughed while waving him off.

“A little something? I’ve been a basketball mom for years. I know more than a little something,” I boasted.

Literally, right after I said that I heard the whistle blow as if they were going on a time out again. Vonte was down on the floor. My head was down, so I didn’t even see him when he fell. The players were standing over him along with the coach. I stood up from my seat, ready to run down if I had to.

This wasn’t the first time that he’d gotten hurt doing a game, and it damn sure wasn’t the first time that I’ve jumped out of my seat like this. My motherly instincts kicked in. I swear I felt it in my body that it was more than him falling and getting hurt like in the past. I pushed my way through the stands and jogged down the stairs. As I got closer to my son, I could easily point out what was going on. This had happened before.

“Where’s his bag? Where’s his bag? Where the fuck is his bag? His inhaler is in there! It’s in his bag,” I screamed as I searched the chairs where other bags were on the seats, but I couldn’t find Vonte’s.

I knew which one belonged to him because he’d gotten someone to do some custom things on there, like putting a picture on it with him in his jersey, and his number was all over the bag. It would stick out like a sore thumb, but I couldn’t find it. No one could, and we needed that bag. He was having an asthma attack. Everyone was looking for his bag, but no one could find it.

I ran over to him, dropping to my knees and trying to pull him in an upright position. This isn’t the first time that I’d had to do this.

“I… iii… cannnttt breatheee mama… I canttt breathe,” he said, looking at me with eyes that were scared out of this world. I could see the water building.

“Giovonte! Stop! Stop! Don’t talk. Save your breath, baby. Save your breath. Vonte, where is the bag? Where is the inhaler? You have it in the bag, right? Baby nod your head that you do.”

I was crying now because he was wheezing seriously, and I could tell that he honestly couldn’t breathe. The look in my son’s eyes was scaring me shitless. It’s like I was losing him. By this time, all of my family was on the court with me, and in no time, the paramedics were pushing through the gym doors in an attempt to get to Vonte.

“I’m right here, Vonte. I’m here,” I talked to him as I was pushed out of the way so they could get to him.

Everything was happening so fast. He was just on the court playing, and now he was lying on the floor, struggling to breathe.

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“It’s increasing. Shit!” I heard one of the EMTs say to another one of the EMTs.

I have never in my life been so scared. I followed them outside the gym with my son on the stretcher, and I jumped in the back of the ambulance. They were hooking him up to all different things, and I was waiting for someone to say that he was stable or to even look at me with a little hope in their eyes, but that moment wasn’t coming.

“He’s okay, right? He’s going to be fine, right?” I asked one of the EMTs.

“We’re doing everything in our power right now, ma’am,” she told me.

“He’s going into cardiac arrest,” one of them yelled.

I heard that, and I screamed. I tried to get back over to Vonte because I wanted him to see me, but I was in their way and stopping them from working on him, so they ushered me away. It took no time for us to make it to the hospital, and once they got off, I tried to get off and run into the emergency room with them, but they stopped me.

“Ma’am, no! You can’t. I get it, that’s your baby boy, but we cannot have you go back there with us. We are trying to save him. A doctor will come to the family room shortly to update you,” and like that, she took off.

Out the corner of my eye, I saw Miami, Mahogany, my grandmother, and my daddy all running toward me. I was hysterical, and I crashed my head into my daddy’s chest while he held me.

“He went into cardiac arrest on the ambulance. I can’t lose my babyyy.” I broke down crying.

My body would have dropped to the floor if it weren’t for my dad holding me up.

“And you won’t, Shae! You won’t,” my daddy assured me.

I could hear the shakiness and the cracking in his voice, which proved to me that even he wasn’t so confident that Vonte was going to make it himself. Everyone had gathered around me while my grandmother prayed over my son, the doctors, and that they were able to save my baby boy. Once she’d finished praying, we all went into the hospital and waited in the waiting room.

I couldn’t sit down. I was up, pacing the floor. I’d managed to bite off all the gel acrylic nails that were on all ten of my fingers. I just kept wondering if my son was back there scared and if the doctors were giving it their all. I needed answers. I felt like an eternity had gone by before someone finally walked into the room. It was a doctor with green scrubs on and a look of… I don’t even know what. I can’t tell you what I saw. I didn’t know if his facial expression bore happiness or sadness.

“Family of Giovonte Young,” he said, and everyone stood up.

At the same time, Taylor and my son’s basketball coach walked into the waiting room. I was standing directly in front of the doctor because I was just that anxious to know what he was going to say. Crazy how I was anticipating his answer, but at the same time, I didn’t know if I wanted to hear it because what if he told me something that I didn’t want to hear? Then what?

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