TWENTY

“Everyone has to make a choice. Sometimes we already know it’s the wrong choice, but we go along with it anyway, for friends, for fun, even though we know it’s wrong,” Miss Katie said. Coco’s sleepy head rested on her lap. They had waited hours in the crowded emergency room to learn if Mrs. Harvey had any signs of life. Then a nurse approached, shaking off other anxious families waiting for news of their relatives. She smiled down at Miss Katie.

“Miss Katie, you should go home and come back to visit her tomorrow.”

Coco jumped up. “She’s gonna be alright?”

“We’re gonna keep her a few days. It’s up to her. Who’s signing the papers?” Miss Katie signed and the four-hour ordeal ended.

In the cab on the way home, Coco pondered about the beginning of a new stage in her mother’s life. Maybe she would go to a full-time drug rehab program. Miss Katie had begun to nod off. She opened her eyes and stared at Coco.

“Just a little shut-eye,” she smiled.

“I understand,” Coco said. “My mom should go to a full-time rehab, don’t you think, Miss Katie?”

“Well... you mean a residential? Yes, I think it would help her a lot. She’ll be away from all that temptation.”

“How can we get her in one?”

“Well, it’s really like what the nurse back there said. It’s up to her. It’s up to her.”

Coco leaned back in the seat and shut her eyes. She wanted to help her mother, but it seemed that all she could do was cheer from the sidelines.

The cab pulled up to the curb and they faced the gloom of the building, where Bebop was being laid to rest.

“I guess we better be getting ourselves ready for this.” Miss Katie said. “Coco, I think you should stay with me. Okay? It would also make your mother feel comfortably enough to say yes to the rehab.”

“Thanks, Miss Katie.” Coco jumped at the invitation.

“Just bring your stuff over to my place and lock your apartment.”

Coco was quick to obey, and once she sat down in Miss Katie’s apartment, she fell asleep. Coco closed her eyes, but her thoughts didn’t fade. She was at the hospital and she saw her mother was very ill.

“Ma, ya gotta do what they tell ya. Ma, ma, stop ignoring me,” she pleaded.

Coco began running through subway cars in search of her mother. She had to be in this car; the conductor had seen her there. Coco walked through the doors of the car and immediately noticed a frail woman in a side seat. The woman tried to shield herself from the sun. Coco sat opposite the wispy woman, blocking the rays. The woman could see her face and Coco’s stare beheld what was left of her mother’s smoked-out shell. Her black jeans were dirty, and though the blouse seemed too tight, it hung as if on a hanger. The woman smiled, revealing a couple of brown teeth.

“Break a leg,” she said. The woman was now smoking the butt of a cigarette and chewing on a big, shiny apple. Coco closed her eyes. She turned. The woman laughed and brandished Coco’s wallet. “Ya missed your stop. Your stop is long gone. Ya went to sleep an’ missed your stop. You’ve been riding this train wid me,” the woman chanted.

Coco found herself in front of the concert hall. Lights off and people leaving, Coco opened her eyes, halting the dream. She smelled cooking. She fumbled for a cigarette and realized she had been sleeping in the same clothes she wore in the emergency room. Miss Katie called from the kitchen.

“Coco, you up? You were tired, huh? Jump in the shower, and when you’re ready, there’s some food here for ya.”