After an hour or so of waiting,
she opened her unbandaged eye.
The second she did, I lost it. I
started bawling. She asked for some
water and I gave her a cup, and she
leaned forward a bit to sip through
the straw. I kept bawling and
bawling and bawling. I couldn’t
control myself.
“Shh,” she said. “Don’t cry,
baby. Shhhhh. Don’t cry.”
“How can I not cry, Mom? You
almost died.”
“No, I wasn’t going to die. I
wasn’t going to die. It’s okay. I
wasn’t going to die.”
“But I thought you were dead.”