Maggie and Juju stood in the nurse’s office while Mrs. Booker drew Seth’s blood.
“Why do I have to do this?” Seth complained.
“Because you may need medicine to take care of whatever it is you got,” Juju fired back.
Seth had a death grip on Maggie’s hand as Mrs. Booker inserted the needle. To her disappointment, she missed the vein. “Damn it,” the school nurse breathed. “Sorry, Seth. Hold on. Mrs. Booker is a little rusty.”
Seth wiggled in his seat and looked at Maggie with eyes that screamed, Get me out of here!
“It’s OK, Mrs. Booker. He’s OK,” Maggie said, giving Seth a look that screamed, Sit still, or I’m going to really make you squirm!
Seth closed his eyes and bit down. He felt the needle go in again and waited for what seemed an eternity. Then he heard, “Got it!”
Seth opened his eyes as the blood gushed into the vial, and he watched Mrs. Booker fill the other vials with his blood. When it was finished, he looked at Mrs. Booker. “When I grow up, I wanna be a nurse like you,” he said with a smile.
Mrs. Booker smiled back at him and patted his knee. “When you grow up, you can be anything you want to be. All you have to do is focus on what you want and believe. Put in the work, and it’ll pay off. Trust me, sweetheart,” the nurse confirmed.
Once Seth went back to his classroom, Mrs. Booker handed the vials of blood to Maggie. “OK, here you go. Remember not tell anyone I did this for you. I could lose my job, which in itself doesn’t worry me as much as I would worry about some of these kids if I wasn’t here to keep an eye on them,” Mrs. Booker stated.
“That’s not a problem.” Maggie lowered her eyes to the floor and then looked up at Mrs. Booker again. “Thank you. I know what we asked you to do for us is a big deal. Juju and I just want Seth to get better, that’s all.”
“Of course you do, and so do I. Now, go on and get those vials to the lab,” Mrs. Booker instructed, touched by Maggie’s sincerity.
Maggie and Juju left the school and got on a bus that would take them into the city, to the Melrose Diner. They saw Colby walking down the street toward the diner long before he saw them. Maggie reached into her purse and pulled out the brown lunch bag in which the vials were stored. As he approached, Maggie walked to him and hugged him, her hand holding the bag in the center of her body. She pressed the bag into his stomach, and he reached in, squeezed the bag, and put it into the pocket of his leather jacket.
“How long?” Maggie asked.
“I don’t know. I’ll find out when I bring them the vials. I suspect no longer than a week to get the results,” Colby responded.
There was no small talk between them that day. The tight lines around Maggie’s eyes were a dead giveaway that she was stressed out. It wasn’t easy to ask normal, everyday people for favors, as she had the school nurse. It was even harder knowing that at any moment, someone could make her life a living hell by telling Rock about all of the sneaking around she was doing.
Maggie said, “Thanks. I’ll see you soon,” meaning that she’d see him at Rock’s apartment or at Doubles.
Juju raised her hand and gave Colby a small wave before they walked back to wait for the bus to take them into Kensington.
Sitting next to each other on the bus, Maggie focused on the hum of the bus wheels rolling forward against the road as she thought about Seth. The thought of him brought warm feelings of love and connection. He was a sweet child and so protective of Maggie and Juju. He was growing up to be a really nice guy. She felt a jab of pride knowing it was she, and to a certain degree, Juju, who had instilled in Seth the qualities that would make him a man worth knowing.
Suddenly, the thought of Joey popped into her head, and she felt deep gratitude to the young girl for keeping an eye on Seth. Maybe Seth is right, Maggie thought. Maybe someday he and Joey will get married.