Aurora Gayle - The Pregnancy

The police arrive in under fifteen minutes I show them the footage and they file a report and promise to look into it. The officers leave their direct contact numbers and ask me to call if anything else happens.

I check the footage again to see if I see anything that I missed but the only odd thing is the man standing at me door for three minutes. He doesn’t try to look through the peep hole; he doesn’t knock or ring the bell. And he does not try to open my front door. He just stands there in a creepy way.

I don’t sleep one wink. What if the guy comes back? Who is he and what does he want? I stay up long after my mother goes to sleep thinking of the man at my door. I get up at 5:00 am to make breakfast seeing that my mother is still asleep. Plus I figure it will be nice for me to do the cooking for a change, after all she is my guest.

I get busy whipping up some omelettes, toast and fresh coffee. Mother is usually up before 6 am so I work as fast as I could. At 5:51 am breakfast is served but my mother is still asleep. I cover her breakfast and set it in the microwave. I think of how tired she must be flying here from Grenada over the weekend plus going around with me every day to figure stuff out. I let her sleep in as long as she wants to. In the meantime, I review last night’s footage from the cameras and then moved on to doing laundry.

At 9:35 am I know something is very wrong as momma is still asleep. “Mom wake up!” I say as I enter the room.

I open up the blinds to bring some natural light into the room and force my mom to get up. When that didn’t work I nudged her shoulder repeatedly, “mom this is not funny, get up! It’s almost 10 am mom!” There was still no response. Frightened that she may have suffered some type of health complication during the night; I check for a pulse and her heart rate. I’m relieved to find that she is breathing okay.

I continue to nudge mom but no matter what I do she does not wake up. Frantic, I call 911. They rush her into an ambulance for emergency care and without any regard for my appearance; I jump into the ambulance too in my PJ’s and tousled hair.

I’m forced to wait outside while the doctors check out mother. I say a silent prayer, “Please God don’t let anything happen to my mother! She’s all I got!” I sit feeling helpless on the cold waiting room benches watching CNN and hoping for the best. I wondered if I should call my stepfather and my aunt but I quickly decided against it. I thought it best to hear from the doctors first before telling them anything. For all I know this could be minor, though I strongly doubted that.

After what seems to be an eternity, the doctor comes out to talk to me. The look on his face makes me dread whatever it is he’s about to tell me.

“Ms. Cromwell, we’ve managed to stabilize your mother and she should be okay in a few days. We want to keep her for the next 2 to 3 days to observe her. We found a large amount of GHB in her system; any idea how she may have ingested that stuff?”

“GHB?” I ask. I knew that was a fancy acronym for the date rape drug.

“GHB as in the date rape drug?”

The doctors’ face is solemn, “yes GHB the date rape drug”.

He continues, “I’m afraid we’ve had to involve the police, they’re already here. They’d like to ask you a few questions.”

“Sure. Is my mother awake? Can I see her?”

He nods, “she isn’t awake but you are free to go in and see her.”

I dash into the room where my mother is peacefully asleep. I hold her hand, “I love you mom”. I kiss her forehead and smooth her baby hairs away from her face. “Mom I don’t know if you can hear me but I promise to find the monster that did this to you.” I pause for a second, did I ingest GHB too? It could explain my pregnancy, but how did my mother get that stuff in her system?

Two officers enter the room to begin questioning me. They both pull out notepads and begin writing. I tell them everything, about my suspicious pregnancy, the lurker, the bank transactions that I did not do and now this. They listen attentively and take notes. When they ask for permission to search my apartment I am more than happy to oblige.

After listening to me, the officers ask a few questions about what mom and I ate and drank. If anyone we know could have tampered with our food or drink. I tell them that only my friend Sadie and perhaps the landlord had access to my apartment. I also told them that I didn’t think that Sadie would do that. Even though I had my doubts about her lately; I still believed that she had my best interests at heart. I also didn’t think that our food or drink was doctored at the restaurants where we ate. They ask some more questions and then they leave to start their investigations.

When the cops leave, I pull a chair closer to my mother’s bed and lay my head on her stomach. I sleep in that uncomfortable position for quite some time; too tired and confused to care. Something soft caresses my head; “Aria?”

I lift my head swiftly, “mom? Oh thank goodness you’re awake!” I almost scream with joy.

Mom looks confused, “Where am I?”

“I’ll tell you later, I’m so happy you’re awake!”

“Dammit Aria, tell me what happened!” She looks around the room, “I’m in the hospital? Were we in a car accident?” She examines her arms and legs, and then looks over at me.

“No mum, you kinda blacked out for a bit so I rushed you to emergency care.”

“Blacked out?” she looks at me confused.

“Yeah, the doctors are not sure why that happened yet. They’re running tests.”

I could see that momma was concerned about what I just told her but I did not want to stress her out by telling her they found GHB in her system and that the police were now involved. As a precaution the doctors tested me too and I was anxious and frightened to hear what the results would be.

“How long have you been here?” Momma asks.

“Since bout 10:30 or 11:00 am this morning.”

She gasps, “Aria you should go home and take a bath, get something to eat. You shouldn’t be out here in this condition”

“Mom I’m not going back to that apartment alone, plus I need to make sure you’re okay. The doctors say you should be okay to go home within two days, I’m gonna stay here until then.”

“Aria what nonsense is that? You look like a bum! You need to go home and take a proper shower, rejuvenate yourself. I’m gonna be okay. You have a child to think about. No matter the circumstances under which he or she was conceived, you’ve got to think about your wellbeing as well as your baby.”

I hated to hear it but I knew she was right. I couldn’t stay in the hospital until she was released. At some point I had to be a big girl and face the music. I would have to go home.

This apartment was once my sanctuary, my refuge whenever the world stressed me out. Two years ago when I changed my life around, I moved here. This place was my fresh start in a new space. It was the place where I laughed, cried, screamed, created, re-charged and made some of my best memories. Now it felt as if there was a dark cloud hanging over my space. The energy had changed and I could feel it from the moment I walked into the apartment. When I got there, the police were going through my stuff. I packed some clothes and toiletries and opted to spend the night in a hotel.

I booked myself into The Sheraton Atlanta Hotel, took a quick shower, and dressed in a plain white t shirt and blue jeans. My baby bump permitted me to still enjoy wearing my regular sized, boot cut jeans but my white t shirt felt a bit snug. I threw a sweater and scarf over the t shirt and got ready to head to the hospital before visiting hours ended. I headed out to get mom a meal because everyone knows hospital food is not the best and mom is from the Caribbean, she needs flavour.