Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"No!" Was the first thing Zadia shouted, while she jolted awake from her nightmare, breathing heavily. She was sweating intensely, her heart beating faster than normal. Zadia sat up and pushed her body to the headboard, wiping at her face. Her eyes glanced at the ceiling, as she tried to calm herself. Her nightmare... it was something she never imagined and it left her unsettled. She could feel her skin crawling, remembering certain parts. The dream felt so real... so genuine and yet she could barely wrap her head around what happened.
Zadia squinted her eyes, recalling seeing her grandmother in this dream.
She felt a chill run down her spine.
Her grandmother was in Haiti... buried in a coffin six feet underground. Zadia knew this because although she was young, she attended the funeral. In this dream that felt so real, Zadia could see her grandmother... touch her even. She looked down at her hand, and could still feel the warmth of another person's touch. The hairs on her body, heightened. "What the hell," Zadia whispered and pressed her eyes shut, breathing hard. Her grandmother had warned her... warned her that trouble was coming her way, but Zadia... she couldn't grasp it.
There wasn't much to go off with this warning.
There wasn't much for her to do about it.
"It's just a dream." She breathed, coming back to reality. "It wasn't real." She shut her eyes and let the world pause around her. The only thing she could hear was the ac firing up and Tino throwing the small blanket in his crib around. This of course was amusing to him, he was absorbed in his own little world. Zadia opened her eyes and noticed him finally. She smiled small watching him, wondering why he was so quiet. He'd been like this ever since she got back three days ago.
The both of them missed one another.
"Hey, little dude." She said to him and he turned to look at her, using the bars on his crib to stand up. He outstretched his hands, signaling to be picked up. Zadia looked down at her ankle that was propped up on two pillows. It had now been properly wrapped into a cast by a doctor who stayed in the house for two days straight, getting Roman and her back into shape... mainly her. "Can't pick you up yet buddy, only six more weeks to go." She picked up her leg carefully and turned her body, feet dangling on the ground.
Reaching forward, her hand wrapped themselves around the metal crutches and she put her body weight on them to stand. She hated these things. It required too much multitasking to get her moving and they hurt like hell. Walking with them was always an adjustment, and so was getting down the stairs. "You look so big." She cooed at Tino, walking to the front of his crib. He looked so different from the last time she saw him. Zadia let him grab her finger, and on the other hand, his blanket was tightly in its grasp. He'd grown attached to the fuzzy thing. His uncle had given it to him, just several weeks before Zadia and he was stranded.
"You miss him. I know." She whispered, planting a soft kiss on top of the baby's forehead. Roman didn't wait for a full recovery, he was out of the house the second he could breathe on his own. Like always, he left around the night, not bothering to explain to anyone where he was going or when he'd be back. When she asked Lynn about his whereabouts, Lynn replied with, "Mind your fucking business." Followed by a middle finger before strolling away.
