Adrenaline

Chapter 77

While it was the plan to nap with the babies at the daycare, it wasn't their plan to do so. They decided they wanted to poop, cry, and eat for the remainder of the day. By the time we had finished this random shift, I wanted to pass out from exhaustion, and poop, and cry and eat too. Maybe not the first part, but the last two were dead accurate. We dragged ourselves to our cars and somehow made it home without an accident or mental breakdown. I tried climbing the stairs, but when my legs decided they no longer wanted to work, I was certain this was just as good as sleeping on my bed. I reached for my phone to call Jason to ensure that he had arrived home intact. When he answered, the worry went away and only tuned into key words that would indicate he might have gotten hurt. The only thing I managed to mumble out before giving way to sweet blissful sleep was, "I'm never having kids. Cats for days."

In the morning, I awoke to Luke flouncing down the stairs. Hey, sleeping lady here! I had gathered enough strength to go up to my room to shower for the day. The clock read 6:30 a.m. another day that would be filled with working. As I dried myself off, my phone rang with a message from Lydia. Of course she would text me at this fine hour.

Lydia: I just received word from the IPC informing me that Julie has been an absolute mess and refuses to talk to anyone. She has asked for you repeatedly and if they try to talk to her she just cries and asks or you. The IPC has asked if you can come down to their main offices and help them. Their main office is located in Palos Verdes.

Poor Julie. I changed into a pair jeans and a dressy blouse then grabbed a banana on the way out to the car. The IPC office was incredibly difficult to find. It was practically nonexistent which matched their organization identity perfectly. It took me a few times to finally find the entrance they were waiting for me in. A woman named Miss Pierce handed me an empty lanyard to place my ID in since everyone in the office was required to wear one. I hung it around my neck following behind her. She gave me a brief on the behavior Julie had exhibited since she had arrived. Julie would cry for hours and push people away when they tried to talk to her. The nurses had tried to get her to eat, but they failed at that also. The only time she spoke was when she asked for me. Julie would then start begging for the IPC to me to her. They had put her in a solitary room because she refused to get along with the other kids in their protection program. We stopped at the end of the hall at a door painted pink. Miss Pierce unlocked it, allowing me to enter unescorted. The room was cutely decorated for a girl about her age. The walls were painted lavender with princess crowns drawn in white. There was a twin bed with pink sheets and a hot pink comforter.

Julie was curled up inside of it, crying quietly to herself. 

"Morning sweetie," I said, closing the door. 

She sat up and ran to hug me. I wrapped my arms around her picking her up. She sobbed into my shoulder saying something that I couldn't understand. I rubbed her back telling her to take a breath and calm down in the most soothing voice I could muster. Julie tried taking a deep breath, but released it with a sob. I knelt to her level asking her how she was. She led me to her bed and pointed to the sheets. There was a large blood stain in the middle of the mattress. 

"I won't stop bleeding, what's happening?" she asked welling up. 

"Have you told them?" 

She shook her head. 

"Let's get you cleaned up and then we'll tell them okay?"

"No! I don't want them to know."

"Sweetie it might just be a period."

"But I'm 9."

"My mom was 9 when she got hers."

I took her into the bathroom and let her clean up then I gave her a pad from my purse. It was probably too big for her, but I showed her how to wash her underwear and then her sheets. She put her hands to her tummy saying it was hurting. I couldn't even give her anything because she was too young for the medication.