Page 97 of Quasim III: King Inferno

She claimed that I couldn’t do everything in one day because Rome wasn’t built in one day. Fuck Rome and whoever built that shit. I just wanted to walk without feeling dizzy, or like I was losing my balance.

Using the back of my hand, I knocked on the bathroom door. “Simmy.”

I heard the tone of her voice and said to hell with this walker, and turned the doorknob, but it was locked. “Let me in, baby.” I pleaded with her.

The doorknob turned, and she looked up at me. “When I wiped, there was blood.”

My heart jumped in my chest, and I could see the tears fall down her face. Pulling her into me, I held her while holding onto the doorway. “That’s not good, Anjo.”

“I know.”

I looked around the bathroom, not knowing what to do. The fall risk clip that was on my shirt reminded me that they would run to my room in five seconds. I pressed it, and a nurse came rushing into my room.

“Mr. Inferno, are you alright?”

“Quasim, why are you pressing the button?” Knoxie pushed past the nurse. Since she started coming into my room and told me who she was, me and Knoxie were locked in. She knew I fucked with the fall risk button whenever I was bored.

Last time I did it, the other nurse panicked because I was pretending like I couldn’t speak. A nigga was bored in here, and it seemed like life was moving on for everyone, except me and Anjo. We were stuck behind these walls, our life waiting on the other side for us.

She told the other nurse she would handle it and walked over. “What’s the matter?”

“She’s bleeding.”

“Not good when pregnant… okay, relax. That doesn’t always mean you are losing the baby.” She spoke gently to Blair.

Elijah and Peach ran into the room, and then stopped when they saw that Blair was hysterical. Peach was determined to spend time with me and didn’t care that it was in a hospital. I couldn’t play uno with her ass anymore. Last time she jumped up to get some snacks for us, she had twelve cards underneath her. Capone thought of everything when he put things into motion for this spot. The kids were able to come without feeling like they were at a hospital. It was less scary for both Elijah and Peach.

The reason I was cool with being here longer was because it didn’t feel so much like a hospital. “Everything alright, Dad?”

There was this feeling that overcame me whenever I heard Elijah calling me Dad. It was a name I never thought I wouldhear again, and he said it so fluently, like he was always supposed to call me that.

It never felt forced when he called us mom or dad.

“Your mom is having some pain with the baby. Once we get her to the other room, we can call an OBGYN to come see her right away,” Knoxie assured him.

It wasn’t until Anjo stepped fully out the bathroom that I saw blood running down the inside of her thigh. When Knoxie saw it, she remained calm and held onto her with one hand, then pulled the walker over toward me.

“Char, come here please!” She hollered, and I tried to remain calm, but this shit had me nervous.

This baby meant everything to us.

This was our second chance. I couldn’t imagine having to hold her hand while losing a second baby. I didn’t want to do it because it would break my heart.

I was used to fixing everything for her, and I couldn’t fix us losing another baby. That wasn’t something that I could fix for us.

“Everything alright?”

“Can you help Mr. Inferno with following behind us? I want to get her to a room with a sonogram machine and call an OBGYN in to take a look at the baby.”

“We don’t have a regular one here on the staff. Dr. King called in a favor the last time we had one.”

I quickly called Hassan, and his voicemail picked up. As I was about to call him a second time, he called me back. “What up, King? You straight?”

“Anjo and the baby… I need that doctor they said you called in.”

“A…alright, I can call her right now. I think she’s off today, too… give me a second.”

“Bet.”

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