Why?
By: Blade
All disclaimers still apply
Thank you so much for your wonderful reviews!
Chapter 7: Loneliness
It was the next morning when Maurice woke, he slowly became aware that he was alone in the hospital room and the lights were burning brightly. 'Well there are definite advantages of being in the hospital. Dad can't beat me here, and the officer must have told the nurses to leave the lights on.' A nurse came in to his room carrying a tray of food and some more medication in the form of a shot. 'I sure hope that's not for me.'
The nurse sat the food on a rolling tray that rolled over the bed. The food actually didn't look so bad, but then again he was so hungry at that moment that anything would have looked good. 'I can't believe I'm actually hungry. Maybe it's because I'm not afraid of my punishment like I am at home.' He quickly dug into his scrambled eggs and applesauce that the nurse had brought him. He was almost through when he looked up and was almost startled to find that the nurse was still there. 'Has she been watching me eat, the whole time?'
She laughed, "I kind of figured you would be hungry. You didn't eat very much at lunch and supper yesterday, but you eat like you haven't eaten in a year. I am glad you have gotten your appetite back."
'She has no idea.' Maurice just smiled back at her and continued eating. When Maurice finished he placed his utensils back on his tray and laid back on the bed. The nurse came and rolled the tray away from his bed. She then proceeded to straighten his covers and check his IV's. "You are doing just fine, Maurice," the nurse said. "Ms. Jeffers from social services will be at 11:30 to meet with you and your parents and to check on how you are doing. The doctor will also be meeting with your parents to let them know when you can be released."
"When are they going to let me go home?" Maurice asked in a small voice.
"The doctor will probably want to keep you another night just to make sure you get plenty of food and rest since you didn't get very much solid food yesterday. If you keep eating like you just did, your parents can probably take you home first thing tomorrow," the nurse said.
The nurse brought out a syringe and immediately Maurice started backing up on the bed. "Don't worry little one. This goes into your IV, you won't feel a thing." She said laughing at his reaction. She grabbed the IV tubing and gently eased the fluid into it. "See, no problem. This is your antibiotics. It's going to make sure that the few cuts you have don't get infected. I'm going to go and get a wheelchair for you. We have a game room for the children that are here. I'll unhook your IV and take you there so you can play a little until your parents and Ms. Jeffers get here."
"Cool!"
***************
Nurse Janet wheeled Maurice down the hall. The wheelchair that he was in was so big that it made him look even smaller that he was. There were other kids his age also heading for the game room. There was one major difference though. Every kid here had at least one parent pushing their wheelchair or playing with them. "Do they have games for the parents too?" Maurice asked the nurse.
"No. There are some games that the parents like to play with their kids though. Mainly most of the parents come so they can spend some time with their kids, and kind of look after them while they are here in the hospital." The nurse explained. "I'm really surprised that your parents aren't here with you."
'I'm not. This would be a complete waste of time in my dad's book. My dad is probably at home celebrating that I'm not there or planning how to really punish me when I get home. And mom is probably doing everything she can to keep dad happy.' Maurice thought. By this time they had arrived at the game room. There were arcade games and board games everywhere. There were only four other kids in there at the time, all with parents.
"Do you see anything that you would like to do?" Nurse Janet said.
"I'll try the arcade game in the back corner."
Janet brought him over to the game, "Here we are. Do you want anything else?"
'Yeah, my mom,' Maurice thought but instead he just shook his head.
Once he was settled and ready to play the game she said, "I have some work to do, but I'll be checking in with you every so often. Remember we will be meeting with you parents and Ms. Jeffers soon so I'll probably take you back to your room in one hour. That will give us about 30 minutes to settle you back in. Okay?"
"Okay," Maurice said turning to the game as the nurse walked away. He was anxious to get started playing and get his mind off of all the happy parents and kids around the room. 'What did I do to make my own parents hate me? I can understand Dad not being here, but why doesn't Mom care about me?' Fighting back tears he began playing in earnest.
***************
The hour went by fast. It didn't feel like long until the nurse came back to take Maurice to his room.
"Hey, are you ready to go back?" Janet asked.
"Yeah."
The nurse turned Maurice around and started to head out of the game room. Maurice took another look at the game room. He hadn't bothered to look the whole time he was playing. Now there were close to ten kids there playing various games. All of which had at least one parent there with them. Looking away quickly, Maurice tried to stop the tears that threatened to fall. Nurse Janet noticed however and frowned. "I'm sure your parents wanted to be here with you. They were probably busy." She tried to reassure him as she pushed him out into the hallway.
"Yeah, probably," he said, although his voice didn't sound that convincing. Nurse Janet took him all the way back to his room and helped him to the bathroom and then back to bed. Neither said another word until Maurice was in bed and the IV was reattached.
"Here is the remote to the TV. You can watch whatever you want until they get here." She said with a smile.
"Thanks." 'Cool, I actually get to watch whatever I want, not just what dad is watching.'
He had just turned the TV on when Ms. Jeffers, the social worker, walked in with Nurse Janet. 'Well it doesn't look like I'll get to watch TV after all.' Maurice thought to himself as he cut the TV off once again.
"Nurse Janet tells me that you are doing much better." Ms. Jeffers said coming to the side of his bed. "She says you are eating well and resting as you should be. That's good." At no response from Maurice she continued, "This shouldn't take long today, then you can have lunch and take a nap. You should be able to go home tomorrow."
"Good," Maurice smiled. 'I can't believe it. I'm actually looking forward to going home. I'm definitely not looking forward to the punishment Dad probably has in store for me, but I do miss my Mom and even Mikey.'
It was exactly 11:30 when his parents came in. 'You would know that Dad wouldn't come any earlier. I can't believe Mom came.' His mom looked at him and he gave her a big smile. He was so happy to see her. Nurse Janet and Ms. Jeffers saw his smile. His mom returned the smile and came over to his bed. "How are you doing Baby?" She asked.
"Great now that you are here. I've missed you." Maurice said quietly so his dad couldn't hear. He didn't want to sound weak.
His mom patted his hand and smiled. She then straightened and walked over to where Ms. Jeffers, Nurse Janet and his dad were talking.
Nurse Janet was updating his parents on his condition. "He had a slow start eating yesterday, but he slept really well last night. This morning he did ate a very good breakfast, and if he continues to eat well today, and sleeps well tonight I don't see any reason why he shouldn't go home tomorrow. The doctor will be in after lunch to recheck him and to make the final decision on when he can leave. If you want to wait around until after lunch the doctor will speak to you about his condition."
Ms. Jeffers seemed satisfied with the report. She turned to his parents, "Everything looks fine, but we are still a little concerned about the condition he was in when he got here. I don't think there is a problem, but since he is a minor we have to keep an eye on his situation from now on. We will be making unscheduled visits to your home checking on him and making sure that he is not getting in this condition again."
"You're going to come in our home and tell me how to raise my child," his dad said, his voice rising making Maurice wince involuntarily.
"If everything goes alright after one year we will discontinue the visits. We understand that sometimes children go through stages that they can't sleep or eat, so we normally go pretty lenient. However that doesn't mean we will not overlook those things." Ms. Jeffers explained, "We still want to keep an eye on his bruising too. While some more than likely came from the fight, I still believe some came from home." When his dad looked like he was about to fire back at her she interrupted, "It may be from wrestling with his brother or just normal roughhousing, but I would appreciate it if you were to keep his roughhousing to a minimum, it just makes the situation look that much worse." His dad seemed pretty satisfied with her explanation, but Maurice could tell he wasn't too happy about having a social worker come into his house at random. "That's all I have to say, do you have any questions for me before I go?" When both parents shook their heads no Ms. Jeffers turned and started to go.
Nurse Janet came over to Maurice and checked the IV once again and turned to him. "I'm going to go and get you some lunch, but I'll be back in a few minutes." Then turning to his parents she said, "Can you stay with him a few minutes while I get his lunch?"
His Mom started to nod, but his dad quickly said, "No, we have things we need to do. We can't just sit around here wasting time doing nothing."
Noticing the defeated look on Maurice's face Janet turned to the parents, "Well the doctor won't be in for another 30 minutes to talk to you, so instead of you leaving and then having to come right back, why don't you just wait here?"
"I have things to do," his father started then turned to his mother, "You can stay and meet with the doctor if you want.
"Alright, I'll stay with Maurice until you come back with his lunch," his mother answered.
"Okay, it'll just be a few minutes," Janet said already heading for the door with his dad close behind her.
"I'm sure she will be back with your lunch in a few minutes. You won't have to wait too long," she said sitting in the chair beside his bed.
'Why doesn't she realize that I don't care about the food? All I want is for her to spend time with me here. Why, doesn't she think I'm good enough for her?'
Sure enough, it was only a few minutes when Janet came into the room carrying a tray with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on it. It made Maurice's mouth water just looking at it. She sat it on his bed tray and helped him sit up to eat.
"While you are eating I'm going downstairs until the doctor gets in here." His mother said while heading out the door.
Janet saw the heartbroken look on Maurice's face and the tears he was desperately trying to hold back. Maurice put the sandwich back down on the tray, and said, "I'm not hungry."
Janet sat down in the now unoccupied chair next to his bed and took hold of his hand. "Look your mother has been here through lunch, she probably just went downstairs to grab her something to eat out of the cantina. She will be back in a few minutes. It probably made her even hungrier watching you eat," she tried reassuring him, "But if you don't eat, they are going to keep you here another day, and I don't think you want that do you?" Maurice sadly shook his head. "See there," Janet continued, "Now eat your sandwich and your mother will be back in a moment."
Maurice obediently picked up his sandwich and ate it. But he did it mainly for Nurse Janet not that his appetite had come back.
Tbc…
*****************
Tell me what you think!
By: Blade
All disclaimers still apply
Thank you so much for your wonderful reviews!
Chapter 7: Loneliness
It was the next morning when Maurice woke, he slowly became aware that he was alone in the hospital room and the lights were burning brightly. 'Well there are definite advantages of being in the hospital. Dad can't beat me here, and the officer must have told the nurses to leave the lights on.' A nurse came in to his room carrying a tray of food and some more medication in the form of a shot. 'I sure hope that's not for me.'
The nurse sat the food on a rolling tray that rolled over the bed. The food actually didn't look so bad, but then again he was so hungry at that moment that anything would have looked good. 'I can't believe I'm actually hungry. Maybe it's because I'm not afraid of my punishment like I am at home.' He quickly dug into his scrambled eggs and applesauce that the nurse had brought him. He was almost through when he looked up and was almost startled to find that the nurse was still there. 'Has she been watching me eat, the whole time?'
She laughed, "I kind of figured you would be hungry. You didn't eat very much at lunch and supper yesterday, but you eat like you haven't eaten in a year. I am glad you have gotten your appetite back."
'She has no idea.' Maurice just smiled back at her and continued eating. When Maurice finished he placed his utensils back on his tray and laid back on the bed. The nurse came and rolled the tray away from his bed. She then proceeded to straighten his covers and check his IV's. "You are doing just fine, Maurice," the nurse said. "Ms. Jeffers from social services will be at 11:30 to meet with you and your parents and to check on how you are doing. The doctor will also be meeting with your parents to let them know when you can be released."
"When are they going to let me go home?" Maurice asked in a small voice.
"The doctor will probably want to keep you another night just to make sure you get plenty of food and rest since you didn't get very much solid food yesterday. If you keep eating like you just did, your parents can probably take you home first thing tomorrow," the nurse said.
The nurse brought out a syringe and immediately Maurice started backing up on the bed. "Don't worry little one. This goes into your IV, you won't feel a thing." She said laughing at his reaction. She grabbed the IV tubing and gently eased the fluid into it. "See, no problem. This is your antibiotics. It's going to make sure that the few cuts you have don't get infected. I'm going to go and get a wheelchair for you. We have a game room for the children that are here. I'll unhook your IV and take you there so you can play a little until your parents and Ms. Jeffers get here."
"Cool!"
***************
Nurse Janet wheeled Maurice down the hall. The wheelchair that he was in was so big that it made him look even smaller that he was. There were other kids his age also heading for the game room. There was one major difference though. Every kid here had at least one parent pushing their wheelchair or playing with them. "Do they have games for the parents too?" Maurice asked the nurse.
"No. There are some games that the parents like to play with their kids though. Mainly most of the parents come so they can spend some time with their kids, and kind of look after them while they are here in the hospital." The nurse explained. "I'm really surprised that your parents aren't here with you."
'I'm not. This would be a complete waste of time in my dad's book. My dad is probably at home celebrating that I'm not there or planning how to really punish me when I get home. And mom is probably doing everything she can to keep dad happy.' Maurice thought. By this time they had arrived at the game room. There were arcade games and board games everywhere. There were only four other kids in there at the time, all with parents.
"Do you see anything that you would like to do?" Nurse Janet said.
"I'll try the arcade game in the back corner."
Janet brought him over to the game, "Here we are. Do you want anything else?"
'Yeah, my mom,' Maurice thought but instead he just shook his head.
Once he was settled and ready to play the game she said, "I have some work to do, but I'll be checking in with you every so often. Remember we will be meeting with you parents and Ms. Jeffers soon so I'll probably take you back to your room in one hour. That will give us about 30 minutes to settle you back in. Okay?"
"Okay," Maurice said turning to the game as the nurse walked away. He was anxious to get started playing and get his mind off of all the happy parents and kids around the room. 'What did I do to make my own parents hate me? I can understand Dad not being here, but why doesn't Mom care about me?' Fighting back tears he began playing in earnest.
***************
The hour went by fast. It didn't feel like long until the nurse came back to take Maurice to his room.
"Hey, are you ready to go back?" Janet asked.
"Yeah."
The nurse turned Maurice around and started to head out of the game room. Maurice took another look at the game room. He hadn't bothered to look the whole time he was playing. Now there were close to ten kids there playing various games. All of which had at least one parent there with them. Looking away quickly, Maurice tried to stop the tears that threatened to fall. Nurse Janet noticed however and frowned. "I'm sure your parents wanted to be here with you. They were probably busy." She tried to reassure him as she pushed him out into the hallway.
"Yeah, probably," he said, although his voice didn't sound that convincing. Nurse Janet took him all the way back to his room and helped him to the bathroom and then back to bed. Neither said another word until Maurice was in bed and the IV was reattached.
"Here is the remote to the TV. You can watch whatever you want until they get here." She said with a smile.
"Thanks." 'Cool, I actually get to watch whatever I want, not just what dad is watching.'
He had just turned the TV on when Ms. Jeffers, the social worker, walked in with Nurse Janet. 'Well it doesn't look like I'll get to watch TV after all.' Maurice thought to himself as he cut the TV off once again.
"Nurse Janet tells me that you are doing much better." Ms. Jeffers said coming to the side of his bed. "She says you are eating well and resting as you should be. That's good." At no response from Maurice she continued, "This shouldn't take long today, then you can have lunch and take a nap. You should be able to go home tomorrow."
"Good," Maurice smiled. 'I can't believe it. I'm actually looking forward to going home. I'm definitely not looking forward to the punishment Dad probably has in store for me, but I do miss my Mom and even Mikey.'
It was exactly 11:30 when his parents came in. 'You would know that Dad wouldn't come any earlier. I can't believe Mom came.' His mom looked at him and he gave her a big smile. He was so happy to see her. Nurse Janet and Ms. Jeffers saw his smile. His mom returned the smile and came over to his bed. "How are you doing Baby?" She asked.
"Great now that you are here. I've missed you." Maurice said quietly so his dad couldn't hear. He didn't want to sound weak.
His mom patted his hand and smiled. She then straightened and walked over to where Ms. Jeffers, Nurse Janet and his dad were talking.
Nurse Janet was updating his parents on his condition. "He had a slow start eating yesterday, but he slept really well last night. This morning he did ate a very good breakfast, and if he continues to eat well today, and sleeps well tonight I don't see any reason why he shouldn't go home tomorrow. The doctor will be in after lunch to recheck him and to make the final decision on when he can leave. If you want to wait around until after lunch the doctor will speak to you about his condition."
Ms. Jeffers seemed satisfied with the report. She turned to his parents, "Everything looks fine, but we are still a little concerned about the condition he was in when he got here. I don't think there is a problem, but since he is a minor we have to keep an eye on his situation from now on. We will be making unscheduled visits to your home checking on him and making sure that he is not getting in this condition again."
"You're going to come in our home and tell me how to raise my child," his dad said, his voice rising making Maurice wince involuntarily.
"If everything goes alright after one year we will discontinue the visits. We understand that sometimes children go through stages that they can't sleep or eat, so we normally go pretty lenient. However that doesn't mean we will not overlook those things." Ms. Jeffers explained, "We still want to keep an eye on his bruising too. While some more than likely came from the fight, I still believe some came from home." When his dad looked like he was about to fire back at her she interrupted, "It may be from wrestling with his brother or just normal roughhousing, but I would appreciate it if you were to keep his roughhousing to a minimum, it just makes the situation look that much worse." His dad seemed pretty satisfied with her explanation, but Maurice could tell he wasn't too happy about having a social worker come into his house at random. "That's all I have to say, do you have any questions for me before I go?" When both parents shook their heads no Ms. Jeffers turned and started to go.
Nurse Janet came over to Maurice and checked the IV once again and turned to him. "I'm going to go and get you some lunch, but I'll be back in a few minutes." Then turning to his parents she said, "Can you stay with him a few minutes while I get his lunch?"
His Mom started to nod, but his dad quickly said, "No, we have things we need to do. We can't just sit around here wasting time doing nothing."
Noticing the defeated look on Maurice's face Janet turned to the parents, "Well the doctor won't be in for another 30 minutes to talk to you, so instead of you leaving and then having to come right back, why don't you just wait here?"
"I have things to do," his father started then turned to his mother, "You can stay and meet with the doctor if you want.
"Alright, I'll stay with Maurice until you come back with his lunch," his mother answered.
"Okay, it'll just be a few minutes," Janet said already heading for the door with his dad close behind her.
"I'm sure she will be back with your lunch in a few minutes. You won't have to wait too long," she said sitting in the chair beside his bed.
'Why doesn't she realize that I don't care about the food? All I want is for her to spend time with me here. Why, doesn't she think I'm good enough for her?'
Sure enough, it was only a few minutes when Janet came into the room carrying a tray with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on it. It made Maurice's mouth water just looking at it. She sat it on his bed tray and helped him sit up to eat.
"While you are eating I'm going downstairs until the doctor gets in here." His mother said while heading out the door.
Janet saw the heartbroken look on Maurice's face and the tears he was desperately trying to hold back. Maurice put the sandwich back down on the tray, and said, "I'm not hungry."
Janet sat down in the now unoccupied chair next to his bed and took hold of his hand. "Look your mother has been here through lunch, she probably just went downstairs to grab her something to eat out of the cantina. She will be back in a few minutes. It probably made her even hungrier watching you eat," she tried reassuring him, "But if you don't eat, they are going to keep you here another day, and I don't think you want that do you?" Maurice sadly shook his head. "See there," Janet continued, "Now eat your sandwich and your mother will be back in a moment."
Maurice obediently picked up his sandwich and ate it. But he did it mainly for Nurse Janet not that his appetite had come back.
Tbc…
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Tell me what you think!