Chapter 14
After finally getting back home from being at the hospital for a couple hours, Jamie sadly walks to the bedroom and collapses on the bed. She curls up and begins crying. As Chioke walks to his bed in the family room to put his broken Curious George stuffed animal down, Tony closes the apartment door and locks it. After locking the door, Tony walks to the bedroom where Jamie is already lying in bed. Tony walks into the room and sits on the bed next to her. He places his hand on Jamie's hip and leans over her as her back is facing him. Jamie wipes a couple tears from her eyes.
"I know what happened is unfortunate…" Tony begins to say.
"I wanna be alone right now." Jamie said as she wipes tears from her eyes. "Please… Just go away for a lil while."
"I…"
"Please, go." Jamie said in a sad tone of voice. "Take care of Chioke first. He's probably hungry."
"Alright…" Tony said as he rubs Jamie's hip. "I'll be back after I fed and put Chioke to bed."
Tony gets up and stands next to the bed. He looks down at Jamie who is just lying on the bed trying hard to hold her tears in. Tony wants to comfort her so badly, but he knows she's right about Chioke needing to be taken care of. Tony leaves the room.
Tony walks into the kitchen to find Chioke reaching for the cookie jar. When Chioke notices Tony is in the room, he stops and begins pointing to the cookie jar.
'I want.' Chioke signed.
"I'm hungry too." Tony said. "I'll make us something more nutritious then cookies."
Chioke walks to the kitchen table and pulls a chair out. He climbs onto the chair. As Tony is looking around the kitchen for something to cook, Chioke finally sits down in the chair. He watches Tony.
Tony opens the refrigerator. He takes out the bread, easy spread butter and a few slices of cheese. He places all the items on the kitchen counter close to the stove. He opens the silverware drawer, takes out a butter knife and pancake flipper. He opens a cabinet and takes out a frying pan. As Tony puts the frying pan on the stove, he feels Chioke tugging on his shirt. Tony looks down to him.
'I help?' Chioke signed.
"Of course you can help." Tony said as he lifts Chioke and sits him on the kitchen counter. "You can butter the bread." He said as he hands the butter knife to Chioke.
Tony opens the bread package and places four slices on the cutting-board next to Chioke. As Tony is doing something else, Chioke looks at the bread. Then he looks at the butter. Chioke scratches his head as he's unsure what to do and wonders how the butter gets on the bread with using a knife. Tony notices the confused expression on Chioke's face. Tony realizes he has no idea how to butter bread.
"I'll teach you how to butter bread." Tony lifts the lid off of the easy spread butter container. With his right hand, he gently takes hold of Chioke hands which are holding the butter knife. Together, they dip the knife into the butter container. After having enough butter on the knife, they begin to spread it on a slice of bread. Chioke has a huge smile on his face as he's happy to be helping.
Once all of the bread slices have butter on them, Tony then shows Chioke how to open the cheese wrapper. Tony places the first two slices of bread into the frying pan. He takes the first slice of cheese and places it on the bread that's sitting in the frying pan. Chioke watches.
"You can put the rest of the cheese on." Tony said.
With a smile on his face, Chioke begins to open the remaining cheese slice wrappers. He places the cheese unto the bread inside of the frying pan. After all of the cheese slices being placed onto the bread in the frying pan, Tony puts the top bread slice on each. Tony lifts Chioke and puts him on the floor. Tony turns the stove on. He then opens a cabinet and takes out two plates.
"Put these on the table." Tony said as he hands the plates to Chioke.
As Chioke places the plates on the table, Tony keeps an eye on the food. Chioke climbs onto the chair and sits down. He sits there watching Tony and waiting patiently for the food.
After a couple minutes, the food is done cooking. Tony turns the stove off. With his left hand, he takes hold of the frying pan handle. With his right hand, he takes holds of the pancake flipper. Tony walks to the table and puts a grilled cheese sandwich on Chioke's plate and also his own.
"That's hot." Tony stated. "Get yourself a cold drink first."
Chioke gets off of the chair and walks to the refrigerator. He grabs two drink boxes, closes the door and walks back to the table where Tony is finally sitting down in order to eat. Chioke also sits down. He pushes one drink box toward Tony. Both of them open their chocolate milk drink box then they begin eating.
After eating, Tony brings Chioke over to his bed. He lays Chioke on the bed, pulls the covers up and tucks him in. Tony sits next to the bed.
'Why Mommy cry?' Chioke signed.
"You're calling Jamie, Mommy?" Tony asked as he's surprised since this is the first time Chioke called her that, but at the same time he's happy about it.
'Not want me call Mommy and Daddy?'
"Of course I do." Tony said. "I want you to know that if you're not comfortable with calling us mommy and daddy, you don't have to. We love you no matter what you call us."
'I want call Mommy and Daddy.' Chioke signed. 'Jamie, new Mommy. You, new Daddy. I like be here.'
"I like you being here too." Tony said with a smile. "Anyway… Mommy isn't feeling good right now."
'Bad man hurt Mommy.'
"Yes he did."
'How baby?'
"Remember when we talked about you having a little brother or sister… Well…" Tony paused as he tries to not start crying.
'Mommy not have baby?'
"Yes… Mommy's not gonna have a baby. Mommy's not pregnant anymore."
There's a moment of silence.
"We should both get to sleep." Tony said. He stands up, leans down, kisses Chioke on the head, then turns the light off.
Tony walks to the bedroom. He enters the room. Finally, he gets into the bed. Jamie immediately rolls over to face Tony. Jamie is still crying slightly. Tony scoots closer to Jamie and wraps his arms around her. Tony holds Jamie in his arms as she cries herself to sleep.
Later that night, Chioke is in bed having his nightmare once again. He's tossing and turning. His heartbeat rapidly increases. His breathing becomes heavier. The Chioke begins to tremble.
In Chioke mind, he hears the sound of gun-fire. Then his mother yells; 'Run Chioke! Run!' He then hears the sound of his own voice cry; 'Mommy!' The dream continues a little longer. He finally hears the sound of one last gun-shot, then a splash of water.
For the first time, Chioke doesn't wake up. In Chioke's mind, the dream suddenly morphs into some type of delusion where Jamie yells; 'If you laid on the floor like you were told, then I would still be pregnant! I lost my baby cuz of you!'
Finally, Chioke wakes up crying. With thinking it's his fault that Jamie lost the baby, he decides to not go into the bedroom for Tony to comfort him as he usually does when he has bad dreams. Chioke wipes his tears away.
Chioke gets out of the bed and walks over to the couch. The 300 gallon fish tank is right next to the couch. He sits on the couch and leans over the side. He stares into the fish tank at his pet lobster, Simba. Chioke stays there looking into the fish tank until the sun rises.
THE END
This concludes the story "Imperfect Heist". Coming soon will be the next story in this series. But until then, I hope you enjoyed this story.