Each word had been punctuated with another slap and a harder tug at Marie’s hair. She’d given in, so the pain of her hair being ripped from her head would stop. She’d felt really bad about insulting her mother, too, and hadn’t tried it again. Not until today anyway. Today, she’d succeeded at last. Her mother hadn’t been able to hit her this time, and that was one step closer to freedom.
6
The next morning, Ruby was ill. Well, more ill than usual. She was almost delirious when Marie got up. A quick check of her temperature showed that the bedridden woman had a fever. Marie’s gut clenched and she felt shame for her outburst the day before. Her mother was right to be angry; her life had been hard. And Marie had only made that life harder.
She still felt like her mother should be nicer to her, and she still wanted her freedom, but she felt bad about it. The woman was her mother and deserved respect for that at least. Marie smoothed her mother’s short white hair down and felt pity for her. It was something she hadn’t felt in a long time.
Jane’s statement had started a chain reaction, but Marie’s actions after the statement were what really counted. She’d been… not nice to her mother.
“I’m sorry I was mean to you yesterday, Momma. I’ll call Jane and see what she thinks we should do.”
Ruby mewled in her sleep and grasped at Marie’s hand tightly. Marie tried to tug her hand away, but Ruby wouldn’t let go. “Je t’aime, Maman.”
Marie froze. Ruby rarely spoke about her mother, other than to say she’d been famous in the late 60s and early 70s. Something had happened, Ruby never did know what, but it drove the starlet back to Louisiana to hide in the swamps. There’d been a lot of money, so they’d had a nice house, and servants, things that Ruby couldn’t afford.
Marie had learned over the years that her mother didn’t want Ruby to go into movies, but Ruby had ignored her warnings. She’d done what she wanted to do and faced the consequences. The woman had been remarkable according to Ruby. She’d spoken English, Cajun French, and Spanish. She’d made movies in Italy, Saudi Arabia, America, and England. By all accounts, she was an intelligent, beautiful woman that had been incredibly talented.
Ruby had been on her way to that kind of stardom when she’d wound up pregnant with some Mafia guy’s baby. It had destroyed her career and her life. It had made her bitter and twisted in ways that Marie still couldn’t understand. Now, as her mother held her hand and whispered to her long-dead mother, Marie felt empathy, more than pity. Her mother had broken all the rules and paid the price for it. Now she was bedridden, unable to escape even the pain that came with her disease.
Marie took a deep breath and reached for the small, cheap cell phone. They couldn’t afford smartphones, computers, or the internet, but she did have a cheap cell phone if she needed help. She called Jane and asked her to come early. She was there in less than 15 minutes.
She came into the bedroom with a solemn look. “Let’s have a look at her. I spoke to the doctor, he’s ordered a urine sample, so we’ll have to find a way to get some out of her if she doesn’t wake up. I suspect she has a UTI.”
“But I thought she wouldn’t get them if she didn’t have the catheter?” Marie’s brows knit in confusion as she looked down at her mother. “I’m so careful when I wash her and make sure I go front to back every time she’s had… an accident.”
“You can be as careful and as sterile as you can be, Marie, sometimes the infections happen anyway.” Jane put her hand over Marie’s arm on the bed rail. Marie looked down at the hand then back up at Jane.
“It’s not my fault?” Marie asked, her voice hopeful.
“More than likely not, Marie. These things happen with bedridden patients. It can’t always be helped.” Jane patted her arm and went about collecting a sample of urine from Ruby.
Marie turned her mother onto her back and held her there, though Ruby really didn’t protest at all. Jane used a catheter to collect the urine sample that she needed while Marie watched. The process made her cringe because she knew that the catheters felt like a rough pipe cleaner being shoved into her urethra. She’d had a lot of UTIs as a child, and she’d had to be catheterized once. She could still remember the sensations of it, the way it felt like an invasion. She shuddered and looked away.
“I’ll take the sample to the lab and if there are any signs of infections I’ll bring back some antibiotics for her.” Jane put the sample in a plastic bag, sealed the bag, and put it in her carrying case.
“Thanks, Jane, that would be great.” Marie sat down in the chair at her mother’s bedside and picked up her right hand. “She’s all I have, you know?”
Marie wasn’t sure if she wanted Jane to know that or herself. When she’d gone to sleep last night, she’d felt so triumphant, like she’d won a lifelong battle. Now, with her mother delirious and ill, she didn’t feel so big anymore. She felt small and helpless, as she always did.
What would happen to her when her mother was gone? It was a question that needed an answer. She knew the house and car would be hers, so she’d have a place to live, but after that? Where would she work? The only job she’d ever had was as her mother’s personal care assistant. Would that count? She’d undergone training to get the job, so maybe it would?
She chewed at a plastic floss stick after lunch later that day as she pondered the question. She went back to the job of flossing and stared off into nothing. There were a lot of elderly people in town that might need her care, but would they want her in their house?
It was a possibility, but maybe she could drive to nearby towns, where they didn’t know her? Something would come up, surely?
A knock at the back door told her Jane was back. The screen door opened, and the other woman came in. They rarely used the front door and Marie spent most of her time not at her mother’s beck and call in the kitchen. Jane was such a familiar person at the house now that Marie no longer expected her to knock. “Hey, you had to come back, that’s not good then?”
It came out breathy and frightened. A UTI would be easy to treat but it could turn into something worse for those that were unable to move around. Staying in bed like that seemed to lower the immune system and wreaked havoc in so many ways. Part of Jane’s daily duties were moving Ruby’s arms and legs, to keep the blood flowing and try to give her even that little bit of exercise. Ruby didn’t always comply, but it helped.
“The doctor wanted to put her on an IV drip, which I may have to do if she won’t wake up and take these pills.” Jane handed a white paper bag over to Marie and gave her the instructions. “If she doesn’t take them, we’ll have to put in an IV. Or if she gets worse, of course.”
Jane sat down at the table her face etched with weariness. She put her elbows on the table and her head in her hands. “It’s so hot outside, how can you two stand it?”
“I guess we’re used to it.” Marie glanced at the fan on the kitchen counter and thought about her Mom’s AC unit. It was the only room that was ever cool, even if the door was open. “It’s only bad because it’s going to storm. Once that passes it’ll cool off a little.”