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A Mother’s Tale

~Chapter Two- More Than Meets The Eye

The soft murmurs filter the air around her as she shifts and rolls to her side ona small cot. Jasmine slowly opens her eyes and in the corner of her vision saw the shadow figures approach her whispering out something.

“She’s waking up.” The young officer whispers out, his dark eyes looking over her.

Mr. Winterland nods, adjusting the blanket on Jasmine. “Welcome back. You were out for quite a while.”

“Emmm ugh.” Jasmine mutters out, struggling to sit up as Howie gently helps her in the process.

“How…how long was I out?” Jasmine croaks out, the dryness in her throat made it nearly impossible to form the words and let alone speak.

“About a good fifteen minutes. We were getting concerned, but you’re up now so that’s good.” Howie whispers out, taking off his badge and putting it on a metal table behind him.

“Ohh…ok…” She scans around and gulps, looking around for Eliez. “Where…where…is she?” She manages to state, coughing roughly as Winterland hands her a glass of cold water.

“She’s just fine. Don’t worry. We left her with a friend of yours outside in the lobby here. I’ll go bring her here to see you.” Winterland states, heading out.

“A friend? No one knew I came here. Who is she with?” Jasmine asks concerned, letting the water refreshed her throat.

Howie smiles and gazes over at her, “A friend of your son’s I believe. Your daughter seems fond of him in any case she’s safe.”

Jasmine blinks, frowning at the idea. “I don’t like the idea of my little girl with some man. I want to see her now.”

“Ok…ok…calm down she’s coming here now, you just rest up. I’m sorry about that whole thing back there. Do you remember what you saw when you were talking with Winterland?” Howie asks, settling down on a wooden chair holding a cup of what seemed like coffee in his hands.

Jasmine clears her throat, her eyes fixated on the open threshold waiting for her daughter to come through. “Just a body…a man’s body. I didn’t see the face too well…it was pretty bruised up.”

“Right…” Howie nods, leaning forward on his seat to her, “He was found off the road heading to Westchester off IS26. The car crashed through the iron railing off the side. Ummm…there was…some cliff that took the car down…which is how he was wounded at the time.” He slowly explains, gulping as he tries to inform the mourning mother.

Jasmine sits in a daze as she stands up and makes her way to the door. She stops midway when Howie grabs her arm pulling her to him.

“Ma’am I think its best you stay here. Look, Winterland is coming back with your daughter as we speak.”

“Let go of me.” Jasmine vehemently whispers out, seeing the fright in the man’s eyes as he releases her.

“I just don’t want you to jump down anyone’s throat. I don’t know what exactly is the relationship between you and the man outside but your daughter seems fine with him. I just don’t want any trouble that’s all.” Howie whispers out, running a hand through his thick dark hair.

“Yeah well…I just want her here with me now that’s all.” And with that Jasmine steps out of the room heading to where Winterland was talking with her son’s friend and neighbor.

Eliez humming quietly, holding onto Damien’s hand as she giggles and immediately lets go of his hand, running to her mother. “Mommy! You ok! You sleep ok?”

“Oh sweetie I sure did.” Jasmine smiles: picking Eliez in her arms, holding her tightly to her chest. “And what did you do while I was sleeping?”

“I was playing a game with him.” Eliez grins, pointing to Damien who eyes Jasmine and turns back to talking to Winterland.

“A game huh? And what game is that?” Jasmine runs a hand through her little girl’s hair gently. “Want to tell mommy what that game was?”

Eliez smiles and shakes her head, whispering to her mother’s ear: “I can’t say it. It’s a secret.”

Jasmine frowns, eyeing the young man and puts Eliez down: “Tell mommy what the game is now. I won’t tell anyone. I need to know. Its very important to me.” She whispers out, feeling the boring of the officer’s glance at her.

Eliez smiles and kisses her mother’s cheek, “Shhh…I made a promise mommy.”

Winterland smiles and ruffles Eliez’s hair as he makes his way to the back of the station to gather some notes. Jasmine watches him leave and glares at the young man before her. “You don’t seem to understand the crisis of this do you?”

“I just wanted to help out. Look, I’m the only one that knows about what happened with your son. You know in Oakland news spread fast and I didn’t want to be the one doing it.” Damien softly whispers eyeing the police officers in the back of the station taking calls and typing on the available laptops.

Jasmine frowns, “I’m sure of it.” Narrowing her eyes she blurts out: “So you played a game with Eliez?”

“Yeah…” Damien shrugs, feeling the boring of the woman’s eyes. He shifts uncomfortably from one foot to another as the mother kept her gaze on him.

Jasmine exhales, running a hand through her hair as the pressure of the loss of her son was beginning to take a toll on her. She shakily exhales and eyes the man wearily. “Why are you here anyway?”

“I came to talk to an officer about what I saw. He wanted details and I was able to help out in that.” He mutters, sliding down on a cushioned seat placed in the lobby, his hands shoved in the front pocket of his black hoodie.

Jasmine leans over to Eliez: “Pumpkin…why don’t you go see where I put my handbag? I think I left it in the room back there. I have to have big people talk with Damien.”

Eliez smiles and glances at the man, “Ooooh mommy say that when you bad.” And with that she skips off back to the resting room a few doors down.

Jasmine turns to the man and sits besides him, tapping her nails on her lap. “So…you were the last to hear from him right?”

Damien nods and sits up eyeing her: “I know you don’t have a good impression of me with my past and all but…but I’m not like that anymore. You know when you young you do stupid things. I never made Nick do of that crazy stuff back in the past. He’s a good guy, he has…had a great mother. I wish I was lucky as he was.” He quietly states, dropping his head to the tiled floor.

Jasmine frowns at the past tense as she tries to take everything in. “I saw…saw the body.”

Damien eyes her, silently waiting for her to go on with the story.

“He…” She chokes out. “He didn’t look like him. The bruises…everything about it was wrong.” She gulps, whispering out sadly: shaking her head to and fro in disbelief.

“I know…I still can’t believe it.”

Jasmine looks over at the young man, running her knuckles down her knee. “What is the game Eli talked about?”

Damien looked over at her and gulps: “It’s just a game that I use when I had to deal with my cousin’s death. I thought she might like it, it helps out.”

“Ohhh so what is the game?” Jasmine quips up, looking at Eliez running back to her with the bag.

“I wish I could tell you at the moment. But I can’t. At least not yet. But you’ll find out soon enough.” Damien smiles at Eliez who bounds between the two of them with a smile across her face.

Nodding, Jasmine picks up Eliez, setting her down on her lap as she wraps her arms around her cuddling her child close to her.

Eliez looks over at Damien and mouths out to him out of her mother’s view: “I keep secret with me.”

Damien nods, quickly standing up as he excuses himself for a moment to head down a corridor.

Jasmine blows out air, the soft breeze fluttering through Eliez’s hair gently.

“Mommy. You ok now?”

“Yes sweetie, doing well.” Jasmine kisses the top of Eliez’s head shaking her leg, the vision of the corpse invading her silent thoughts. “Honey, you’ll show me the fun game later right?”

Eliez smiles, turning around: “Yes. Soon mommy.”

“That’s my girl.” Jasmine smirks, blowing a raspberry on Eliez’s cheek.

Eliez squeals out in laughter waving her hands in the air while her mother kept going. The only solace of normality that Jasmine will have for the time being.
~*~
“God no…please don’t Jassy. This isn’t happening right now.” Roger blurts out, the sorrow covering his soul in a second, its thick blanket suffocating him in dark sadness.

Jasmine sniffs, holding the phone to her ear as she hears her husband’s voice on the other line. “I didn’t want to believe it…but I don’t know what to believe.”

Roger sniffs, slumping into a seat in the hospital hallway. He tries to blink away the tears raising in his eyes, the tragic news just reaching his ears at the moment. “Why didn’t anyone tell me this before? How are you doing with this? I’m going to take to flight back from Maryland to reach you.”

“Oh honey.” Jasmine chokes out, “It just happened a few hours ago and I’m just a mess with everything. I can’t deal with this alone. I miss my baby boy. He didn’t ask for this, he didn’t need to leave us this way.”

“Shhh I know he didn’t. I…I’m just speechless with all this.” Roger quietly states, taking off his green surgical cap, his eyes staring at the passing doctors and surgeons wheeling a patient ready for an operation. He runs his hands over his green surgeon’s attire and sighs. “Just be strong…I’ll be home as fast as I can ok?”

“Can’t you just go now?! Your son just died?! Why can’t you be here with me right now? Your family needs you more than those doctors there.” Jasmine chokes out, biting back a sob as tears flood down her cheeks.

“I’m doing the best I can to get there as fast as I can. Of course I’m upset, this is my child we’re talking about! But I’m all the way across the country as we speak and it’s not easy to just walk out on a dying victim here. Trust me. I’ll be home tomorrow, be strong for Eli. She doesn’t understand death and I don’t need her worrying about things like that.”

“Ok…but honey get here soon. I can’t deal with this all alone.” Jasmine sniffs, watching a pair of police officers pass her flipping through some records on someone.

“We’ll be ok…I’m sure of it. I have to go, I’m getting called on but I’ll see you tomorrow ok?”

Jasmine smiles sadly, feeling the small hands of her daughter wrapped around her thigh. Her hands go through her soft locks slowly as she whispers out: “Alright. I love you honey.”

“Ditto.” Roger smiles hanging up as one of his co-workers gaze over at him.

“Sorry about all that.” A co-worker whispers out, heading to the surgery room.

Exhaling he closes his eyes, wondering if the nightmare will be over soon for his family. “Thanks. Soon…soon she’ll know and we can work on getting our lives back.” The metal door slams shut behind him as he prepares for the operation at hand.
~**~

**~To Be Continued…~**