I wake up immediately notifying a difference. What day is it?

I am in a hospital room, in a hospital bed. Outside the slightly opened door, doctors and nurses roam the halls. My room is dim, between the curtains I see daylight. What day is it?

I want to turn over to my side so that I can let my creeping nausea run out of me, I want to vomit. However, the slightest movement awakens the pain below me. I have been cut. After debating with my inner fears I finally gather enough courage to stroke my stomach. I let out a quiet gasp not even a mouse could hear.

My stomach is flat and the baby is gone.

I look at my hands, wires containing god knows what, attached to my veins, on a cart carrying a tray of plain hospital food, there is a vase and in the vase, flowers.

Piercing pain cuts through my pelvis as I adjust myself to sit up. I groan, finally managing to do so. A sound pauses my breathing pattern, a baby. A baby is heard crying in the distance, my baby?

No. I shake my head at the hopeful thought, my baby is gone.

I lay staring at the vase containing the flowers, falling asleep imagining what they smell like.

*

Sudden warmth disturbs my hibernation. Someone is touching me. I try to open my eyes but my eyelids are too heavy. The warm touch strokes the soft skin on my cheek. It's him, I know his touch. Desperate, I plead for my eyes to reopen, however when they finally do, the room is empty and outside the window, the day has come to its end.

*

One day I am woken up by the sound of utensils dropping to the concrete floor, rattling together making an awful noise.

"Boy, didn't I tell you to stop playing." Nonno hiss, lifting up his hand to indicate that he will strike Etienne if he does it again.

Nonnno returns to reading his newspaper.

Etienne comes up from the floor, the utensils in his grip. His eyes widen as they stare back at me. The awful noise echoes through the room once more as Etienne goes to drop the utensils again.

Nonno shoots up from the chair, "You little..."

"Lessy!" Etienne points to me like he has just spotted a ghost.

I am able to stay awake throughout their whole visit, although I don't dare to ask them any questions. Nonno doesn't see it as his place to tell me anything either.

We let Etinne entertain us with stories from his summer days.

By calculating the timeline of his anecdotes, I realise that I have been here for almost two weeks, which seems impossible considering I only have the memory of four to five days.

".....You should have seen Nonno, he was in a suit, a purple suit, just like the ones Whitey wears." Etienne is holding his stomach as it now aches him to laugh this hard. I'm not laughing but I am certainly amused.

"Why?" I ask.

Nonno turns his head not wanting to answer the question.

"Because of Miss Renataaa." Etienne chants.

"Boy hush." Nonno agrily curls his lip.

"Have you been seeing her?" I ask, curious.

"No, no." He is quick to protest. "Nothing like that, just friendly converstions at Whitey's office."

"Do you need to dress up in a purple suit for a friendly conversation at the office "

Etienne's laughter is contagious.

"Boy shut up, can't you see your sister is in pain, stop making her laugh with you."

Nonno sees me squint my eyes in agonizing pain as I've tried to hold back the laughter.

Etinne's face quickly withers, scared that he has done something terrible. "I'm sorry Lessy." His head bowed in shame.

"Yeah, what did I say." Nonno hiss.

"It's okay Ettie." I grab a hold of his arm and pull him into my embrace. "It was funny, it really was."

Etienne stays in my embrace and let's me stroke his head. My thoughts can't help but to wander. My baby is gone. I flick the tear escaping my eye. "Nonno, can you tell us about the time you met Nonna."

It's a story I've heard many times, however I've only heard Nonna's version and I'm sure Etienne has heard neither.

A smile braudens on Nonno's face. He sighs, "Esmeralda Diallo."

He treats the name as if it were royalty when it escapes his lips.

"Back then she used to be Esmeralda Alfonso. The talk of the town and boy did we use to talk about her. Our story is a little bit like those two fellas that die in the end..."

"Romeo and Juliet?" Etienne answers excited.

"No." Nonno looked to the sealing as he pounders. "Tom and Jerry!" He then shouts.

"Tom and Jerry?" Etienne and I frown. This was not how I recalled Nonna telling the story.

"Yes, exactly, Tom and Jerry, cat and mouse."

Nonno goes on to tell us about how he and his friends used to chase Nonna and her girlfriends all over town, with the girls, according to him "Playing hard to get."

Eventually Nonno grew tired and as he grew older he didn't have time to chase girls around town anymore. His family wasn't very wealthy so he worked as a mechanic in his father's shop.

Nonno meant that Nonna was his Jerry, because as he stopped giving Nonna his attention she apparently grew more and more fond of him. She used to do all sorts of craziness just to get his attention, one of them being purposely crashing her father's Cadillac as an excuse to take it to the shop where Nonno worked and that's how they eventually fell in love.

"Esmeralda Diallo." He sighs.

The sun is on it's way down. By the time Nonno has finished his story, Etienne lays asleep in my arms. A nurse reminded us that visiting hours end in fifthteen minutes. My heart becomes heavy not wanting them to leave.

"Nonno, you know that we wouldn't mind you seeing this Renata lady, If it makes you happy."

Nonno sniffles, he has been holding back his tears finishing the story. He rises from his chair and takes a lap around the room, stretching his feet. He isn't acknowledging my question but when he goes to wake up Etienne he puts a heavy hand on my shoulder. "You be strong now, understand me." His eyes are glassy.

"I was barely hanging on the days after your grandmother's death let alone when you kids needed me after your father left."

"Nonno..."

"No, you listen to me." He interrupts. I could tell he wanted the words off his chest.

"I was just about ready to die..." Tears now escape his eyes and I want to look away, knowing I'll probably be left crying all night. "....but when I spotted little Ettie that first night at the tracks and then when you and your friend later pulled up to the house, I knew there was hope. You gave me hope Alessia."

My lips have begun to tremble, Etinne still lays asleep between us, his head rises as my chest taps with every sniffle.

"I know there is pain within you, I know you've been hurt, but listen to me...."

My eyes are wide open, I don't even blink, listening to his every word.

"You stay strong now, because it will be alright, everything is gonna be alright."