Chapter
60
The drive to the hospital was completely silent. Elyssa wanted to tell him that she hadn’t
done anything wrong that she could think of, that she didn’t think it was her
fault, but she didn’t say anything. She
didn’t think she could speak if she wanted to.
Sitting in the passenger seat beside Howie, as he drove to
the hospital, Elyssa was amazed at how calm he could be in a crisis such as
this. He was terrified and deeply upset,
she could tell, but he focused on the road, blinking back tears, and stayed
relatively close to the speed limit.
When they reached the parking deck of the hospital,
however, Howie screeched into the first empty space he saw and leapt out,
Elyssa hurrying out after him. She ran
behind him towards the entrance, struggling to keep up with him.
Howie had already made it to the receptionist’s desk
inside, when Elyssa entered, already out of breath, trying hard not to
cry.
“She’s in the ER,” Howie said breathlessly to Elyssa. “Come on.”
He grabbed her hand, and they started jogging down one hallway. Elyssa hoped Howie knew where he was going,
because she did not.
Somehow, they managed to find the Emergency Room. Howie went to the desk there, while Elyssa
looked around. She spotted Serena right
away, slumped in a chair in the corner of a large waiting room across from the
desk, blotting her eyes with a Kleenex.
Elyssa dared not go over to her, however. She grabbed Howie’s arm instead, and
whispered, “There’s Rena.” Howie turned
around, and Elyssa motioned to where his fiancée was sitting.
The two of them headed over to Serena. Howie sat down next to her, and Elyssa meekly
sat on the other side of him, not saying a word. She let Howie and Serena talk amongst themselves.
“They won’t let me see her,” she heard Serena wail. “And no one’s telling me anything!”
“Shh, it’s okay.
They never tell you anything right away.
They just have to get her stabilized, and then they’ll be out to talk to
us,” Howie soothed, stroking her long, black hair.
Elyssa sat in silence, feeling withdrawn from the
scene. She did not belong there. She was not wanted there. Yet she knew she had to stay there.
Suddenly, she jumped up.
Serena looked at her with cold, dark eyes.
“I’m gonna go call AJ,” Elyssa explained quickly, hurrying
to the other side of the room, where there was a pay phone. On the phone with AJ, Elyssa began to cry
again, as she spilled the whole story.
AJ promised to come to the hospital right away, and they hung up.
For fifteen minutes, Elyssa sat with Howie and Serena. There was silence between the three of them,
the only noise being Serena’s occasional sobs or sniffles. When AJ finally walked in, Elyssa sagged
with relief. She jumped up and hugged him
tightly, longing for comfort.
AJ took her seat beside Howie, and she sat on the other
side of AJ, clutching tightly to his hand.
AJ spoke softly to Howie, trying to comfort him, as they waited for word
on Andrea.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, a doctor
entered the waiting room. He looked
around until he found Serena, and then he headed towards her and the others.
“Mrs. Del Toro?” he asked.
Serena nodded, not bothering to tell him that she was Miss
Del Toro, and rose to her feet. Howie
stood up beside her and protectively put his arm around her waist. AJ and Elyssa remained seated, still holding
hands. Elyssa began to shake again.
“I’m Dr. Johnson. I
specialize in pediatrics in the ER, and I worked on your daughter. When Andrea was brought in, she was in
cardiac arrest, meaning her heart was not beating, and she was not
breathing. Unfortunately, it seemed that
she had been this way for some time. We
used all of our efforts to try and resuscitate her, but we could not bring her
back. She’s dead. I’m very sorry,” the doctor said.
“No,” Serena sobbed, burying her face in her hands. “Oh please, no!”
Howie began to cry as well, loud racking sobs that shook
his body. He pulled Serena close to him,
and they cried together.
Elyssa felt absolutely numb. Dead?
Andrea? It couldn’t be. Just hours earlier, Andrea had been alive and
well, a happy, giggling, smiling baby, just like any other. What had happened?
“Dr. Johnson,” Elyssa started, her voice trembling, “What
caused this to happen?”
“I’m not entirely sure yet.
We’re going to run an autopsy on her to determine that, but it looks
like SIDS to me. Have you heard of
that?”
SIDS. Sudden Infant
Death Syndrome. Elyssa did not know much
about it, but she had heard of it. “I… I
was babysitting for her tonight. It
wasn’t something I did wrong, was it?” she asked shakily.
“If it was SIDS, then no, not at all,” Dr. Johnson said
firmly. Out of the corner of her eye,
Elyssa saw Serena look up from Howie’s shoulder. “We still are not sure of the actual cause
of SIDS. Perfectly normal, healthy
babies go to sleep, and for some reason, they stop breathing, and they
die. There’s plenty of research being
done, but no one has figured out why it happens or how it can be prevented. It’s just a horrible tragedy, and no one is
to blame for it. There’s nothing you
could have done to prevent it.”
Elyssa nodded, feeling slightly relieved. Up until that moment, she had felt at blame,
but now, she knew it was not her fault.
She had just happened to be the one caring for Andrea before it did
happen. It could have easily been Howie
and Serena at home that night, or any other babysitter, and baby Andrea would
still be dead. Dr. Johnson was right –
it was just a horrible tragedy.
***
