The little boy with the red hair couldn’t have been more than three years old. He didn’t have on a mask which made him stand out amongst all of all of the other children that sat or stood around the Children’s of the King’s Daughter’s Urgent Care waiting room.
Fallon sat patiently with Danisha. Fallon couldn’t do anything to stop the little red head boy from wiping the neon green stuff that slid from his nose onto her pant leg. She grimaced as she looked around trying to figure out which of the adults in the room were his parent.
Fallon gently grabbed the little boy’s shoulders to stand him straight up from wiping his face on her pants.
Danisha looked down and said, “Ewwww mama, that jank crazy! Where is his mama. He need a mask with his little nasty nose self!”
Fallon’s anger and disgust dissipated as her daughter doused her with embarrassment. Her daughter always said her thoughts out loud. Fallon first wanted to laugh, but she suppressed her laughter as she felt sorry for the little boy.
Fallon said, “Dani, chill out. I wish you would have used that mouth of yours to tell me that you were on your last insulin pen and we wouldn’t be here, and this little boy wouldn’t have been able to rub this radioactive slime on my leg.”
Danisha laughed out loud at the combination of what her mother said, how she was holding the little boy at arm’s length away from her, and how the little boy was now licking his tongue out curving it above his lip to taste the green stuff.
Danisha laughed so hard, she was crying real tears as her mother said, “Ummm, who’s little boy is this?”
~~
Fallon’s assistant, Sabrina was almost on the floor as she heard the story about her boss’s trip to the urgent care.
Sabrina said, “Ms. Rae, that Dani is something else though. She is really the funniest person I know.”
Thinking of her daughter, Fallon couldn’t help but smile and chuckle a little. “You know, no matter how mad that girl makes me, I love her to death.”
“I can’t believe that the pharmacy wouldn’t give you anymore insulin for her though.”
“I can. That girl run through them pens like her mind is going bad. She eat all crazy, and drink orange juice all day long and try to take the insulin as if it’s gonna save the day. The girl blood sugar stay in the 400’s.”
“What?!”
“Yes girl. She always tells me that she just wants to be normal. I got to ask her all throughout the day if she has checked her sugar. I found out last year that she be lying and everything. The girl be making up numbers and stuff. She would say, “Yes ma’am I checked it. I’m 245. Mind you she supposed to be between 80 and 150.”
“So why would she say 245?”
“Because she knows I wouldn’t believe that she was in proper range. I just used to say Okay, that isn’t that bad, just take your insulin to get in range okay? She would then say, “Yes ma’am.”
“Ms. Rae, how did you find out Dani was lying.”
Fallon shook her head as she said, “We would go to the doctor and they would put her meter she uses to check her sugar on the machine and discover that she had gone days at a time without even checking her blood sugar.
So I had to make her check in front of me every time for a long while. I called myself trusting her. I allowed her to manage it on her own for a while. She ran out of insulin for the second time this month which landed us in the Urgent Care with little snotty face.”
Sabrina laughed out loud. Fallon looked down at her phone in her hand and said, “Excuse me Sabrina.” She turned and walked into her plush corner office that gave her view of the whole downtown, put her phone to her ear and said, “Fallon Rae.”
“Yes, Ms. Rae, my name is Scott and I am reaching out to you because my colleagues tell me that you are the best.”
Fallon smiled as she heard her phone beep. She looked at her office door as she heard her intercom on her desk beep before she heard Sabrina patch herself through, “Ms. Rae, Mr. Bobby is on the line, do you wish to speak to him right now. He sounds extra fine today.”
“He wants to go out tonight, Hold on Sabrina.” Fallon looked back at her phone and told Scott to hold for a second. “Hello, Fallon Rae speaking.”
“Hello Ms. Rae, this is Jenna McMillon and I am the school nurse at Pembroke Middle School. Danisha is laying down right now because her blood sugar was over 500, her breathing is different, so I reached out to her primary care physician and she wants Danisha to go to the emergency room. Are you able to come pick her up now?”
“I’m on the way.” She clicked over and said, “Scott, let me get back with you.” Fallon grabbed her bag and walked past Sabrina and said, “Tell Bobby that I will talk to him later. Cancel the rest of my meetings for the day. Dani is sick again.”
Fallon rode the elevator down to the garage as she shook her head slowly, pressed her fingers into her temples and said to herself, “This jank crazy. . .”