Please Review
[Ashley]
I was originally from new Orleans but had grown up in new York. My mom Angela had died from sickness when I was young. I'd been raised by my dad who'd hurt me. I now lived w/ my adoptive parents Karen and Jesse who'd adopted me after finding me in New York the previous year. Actually what they'd really done was rescue me from my dad. We all lived in Denver, co.
My adopted sisters Rose, lily and I hadn't been in ballet that night bc id had a feeling something would happen that night and we wanted to be home for what it was. My biological mother had passed on her psychic sense to me.
Rose, lily and I had ballet 2 times a day morning and night from 5 - 7. A few months after id moved in id signed up for it at the school they took it where they also took ballet.
By the time we got to the big white medicine-smelling clean hospital it was already dark out. It had been dark since 7 that night. It was now almost midnight. The hospital as always was lit.
When we arrived everyone went their seperate ways. My adoptive 14 year old sisters, the twins Amanda and Louisa split up. Before they left I'd warned Amanda to be careful.
"She's already in a hospital," Tom, my adoptive 16 year old sister alexa's 20 year old boyfriend, pointed out logically, "what could possibly happen to her here?"
He smelled like cologne.
He had a point. If you were already sick it was better to be in the hospital than not. And Amanda was. She had an eating disorder. Which she'd had for a year.
I went into the medium size waiting room where Karen and Jesse were sitting in comfortable blue chairs. I noticed that both my parents smelled good. Karen like perfume and wine and Jesse like cologne and beer. Both she and Jesse were still in the clothes they'd worn to the reunion, Karen in purple and Jesse in black. This was an indication they hadn't had time to change clothes which meant they'd come straight from the reunion to our house to the car to the hospital.
"Hey," I said.
"Hi honey," Karen said.
"Hey Ashley," Jesse said.
"How is she?" I asked, getting straight to the point as was my habit.
"Both Kate and Anna are in operating rooms. Anna's giving her more marrow. So it could be awhile. I'll probably have to stay here overnight," Karen replied, sounding tired.
Kate and Anna were my sisters. Anna was 10 Kate 13. Besides Evan and the twins they were the only biological children of Karen and Jesse. But all of them were my adoptive siblings.
Anna's giving Kate more bone marrow was a regular occurance since Kate had been diagnosed w/ leukemia when she was 2, 11 yrs ago.
"Oh."
"How's Amanda? She ok?" Jesse asked quickly following a question w/ another.
"Yeah. Well, no, not really. But she doesn't have to be hospitalised, which..."
We took as a really good sign.
"Right. You ready for the concert tomorrow?"
"Yeah. We're pretty well rehearsed."
"Ok."
"Marie and I are going grocery shopping today," I said.
"Ok. Call me if you need anything."
"We will."
Marie was my 14 year old sister.
"How was the reunion?" I asked.
"Oh wow I completely forgot about that," Karen said, sounding a bit dazed.
"Good," Jesse said, "your mom ran into a friend of hers."
"Oh?" I asked.
"Yeah. We were, involved, then."
"The dark haired woman in the black dress?" I asked.
I'd seen the woman not long ago at our place.
Karen laughed; "you make it sound so mysterious. Yes, Ashley."
"Oh."
"How were things at home?" Jesse asked.
"The twins had another argument, involving Amanda."
Mom sighed.
It was a sunny day in Brooklyn about a year ago. I'd left the small apartment my dad and I shared after he'd come home from the bar, yelling and angry. I'd gone and sat down on a black wire bench on the tree lined sidewalk. A guy about my father's age, 40, who was tall with longish light brown hair, approached me.
"Hi," he said.
"Hey," I returned.
"Mind if I sit?"
"No."
He started to sit next to me on the bench.
"Other bench," I said.
"What?"
"Sit on the other bench. I got issues with space."
"Uh, ok."
He moved.
"Thanks," I said.
"Sure."
I could feel him looking at the bruises my father had placed on my arm this morning. He was studying them.
"Do you have leukemia?" he asked.
"What?" I asked, the illness the furthest thing from my mind.
"My daughter, she, uh, has bruises like that from her leukemia."
"Oh. No. My dad he, um..." I really didn't want to go into the whole story.
"Oh."
"I'm Ashley," I told the guy.
"Hey, Jesse. Nice day."
"Yeah. It is."
I really wasn't up for making small talk but I could tell he wasn't going to leave.
"How old's your daughter?" I asked.
"13."
"Jeez what an age."
"Yeah. Moreso with her leukemia. She was diagnosed when she...I don't know why I'm telling you this. You look like you've got enough problems of your own."
"It's that obvious huh?" I asked.
"No, I just pay attention."
"Mmmm."
I'd just stepped onto the porch. It was night, quiet and dark. After dinner, which had been at 5, I'd gone downtown for 2 hours. It was weird, being somewhere I didn't really know. Dinner was interrupted by Kate getting sick. Jesse, Karen and the others had gone to the hospital. It was now 7.
The smell of smoke reached me.
"Hey," a male voice said in the dark.
"Hey, mind if I light up?" I asked.
A packet of cigerettes and a small black lighter was tossed my way.
"Thanks," I said, after lighting up.
"Sure."
I set the lighter and packet on the porch railing and sat in a porch chair.
"I'm Evan," the guy's voice said from the other end of the porch.
"Ashley," I told him.
"Where you from?"
"Brooklyn."
"Oh. They're at the hospital."
"Figured as much. Why aren't you with them?" I asked.
"Eh, didn't feel like going."
"Oh."
"You want a drink?"
"I'm 16," I pointed out.
"Yes and I'm 17. Ashley," I heard him lean forward.
I turned his way: "yeah?"
"They won't be back for at least another 2 hours."
"Ok."
I followed him into the house.