started with a lie ➳ raura revised

Chapter Twenty-Four

"Madam Jong!" As the color disappears from her face, her frail body slowly crumples to the marble white floor. She lands next to where she had dropped her flowers, a few inches away from my mother's hospital bed. The beep of the monitor connected to Mom's heart rate is all I can hear in the eerie silence. And then I'm rushing towards her.

I kneel down beside her, holding her forearm. "What's wrong?" I ask. "Are you okay? Are you not good in hospitals? I can take you out for a second." She doesn't respond, her fingers shaking. I pull her to her feet. I think it's best she goes outside anyways. I place her in one of the plastic seats in the waiting room of the hospital and rub her cold, shaking hands in hope I can calm her down. I have no idea what's wrong with her.

"It's okay," I whisper again and again. I rub her fingers with my hands. "Everything's okay." Should I call a doctor to check on her or what?

Her breathing slows and I decide she's fine.

She looks up at me and there's a look in her eyes. It has so much emotions. I never thought you could actually feel emotions by looking at someone's eyes but as I look into hers I feel it—the pain, the loss, the shock—and I see the tears. I raise my eyebrows in confusion. I know people can be sympathetic and cry with you over your loss but this is a whole other level that Madam Jong is on. It's like it's her mother on the hospital bed and not mine.

"I," she speaks, "I'm sorry about that."

"I don't know what to say," I tell her. "What happened? Do you need a doctor?"

Madam Jong looks away. "She just... she reminds me of someone." She wipes her bloodshot eyes and sniffs. "It just, it can't be the person I'm thinking of, I'm sure."

Oh. It's not anything serious, I think in relief. I speak too soon.

"But I can't be too sure," she says suddenly. Her phone is suddenly in her hand and she's up, pacing around the hallway and she punches in numbers in the phone. "I know this is disrespectful but I need to make sure."

I stand up. "Make sure what, Madam Jong? What's going on?" I follow right behind her, tracing her steps. I don't want to let her out of my sight. She's not stable.

Suddenly, she stops. She rushes inside the room where my unresponding mother is. Madam Jong looks at the phone, then my mother, the phone, and then my mother. She does it one more time and then she drops her cell phone.

"It's her."

"Who?"

"She's...she's my Grace."

"Madam Jong... What are you talking about? This is my mother. Her name isn't Grace, it's Ellen," I whisper. It's so difficult to see someone so composed standing in front of me, a complete mess, calling my mother by a different name. I have no idea what's going on. While Madam Jong continues to stare at my mother, I whip out my phone and text the one person that I always go to.

"This is definitely Grace."

"Are you okay, Madam Jong? Come with me." I reach out my hand. "Let's go sit down. We can talk this out."

She stares at my hand, at me, at my mother. "Why don't you believe me?" she screams and I wince. She's never yelled at me before. Reaching down to pick up her phone, she dials a number and runs a hand through her messed up hair. "Hello?

Yes... yes...it's me. I'm going to need two units of security pronto to room A203. Yes... send the best ones you've got." Her phone slaps shut and she puts her loose strands of hair behind her hair and starts pacing around.

I don't know what to say. She just yelled at me. But, I want to help her. "What's going on, Madam Jong? What can I do?"

She ignores me like I'm not even there and continues pacing and then stops abruptly. "You," she says, "you have albums, right? Pictures? Anything of Grace—your mom?" I nod. "Good, where are they?"