Page 41 of Mafia’s Dirty Secret

Marie handed Jane the thermometer with a plastic cover to keep it clean and waited.

“Hmm.” Jane frowned and looked up at Marie with a frown. “Help me put her on her side.”

Marie’s pulse jumped and she did as Jane directed. “Does she have a fever?”

“No, her temp’s too low actually. And she’s struggling to breathe. I want to listen from the back.” Jane put the stethoscope on Ruby’s back and listened for a long time before she looked at Marie again.

“Call an ambulance. I think she has pneumonia.”

Marie’s vision narrowed down to the worry in Jane’s eyes and her pulse raced even faster. “Pneumonia?”

“Yep. And no, it’s not your fault if she has it. She could have been exposed by me or maybe she has aspiration pneumonia. I don’t know, but it’s not your fault, Marie. You understand me? I know you, girl, don’t blame yourself, you hear me?”

“I won’t.” Marie looked down at the floor, her brain blank. She wasn’t blaming herself, or anyone else for that matter. She was locked on one word that Jane said. Pneumonia. Pneumonia was dangerous for healthy people, for her mother, it could be deadly.

“Call for an ambulance, Marie. We need to get her in a hospital now.” Jane nudged Marie back to awareness.

“Of course, sorry.” Marie dialed 911 and spoke to the operator.

She walked to the front of the house and waited for the ambulance to appear. It only took a few minutes before the heart-wrenching sound of the siren reached her ears. She heard the sound and had to lean back against the house to stay up. When the crew stopped in front of the house Marie greeted them.

“Hi, are you Marie?” a woman in a dark green uniform asked with a sympathetic smile.

“I am. It’s my mother. She’s inside.” Marie moved through the house, the two female paramedics behind her. She moved out of the way when she reached her mother’s room and let them make their assessment.

They ran through the same checks Jane had made, asked them both questions, and then went out for a gurney.

“You made the right call, Marie. She needs to be seen by a doctor,” the same woman in the green uniform said and Marie nodded.

“Okay.” She looked at her mother, still unconscious, not asleep at all. This could be the last time she was in that bed. But she couldn’t fall apart, not now.

“What hospital are you taking her to?” Marie asked, and nodded when the woman told her. “I know it. I’ll meet you there.”

“Alright. We’ll get her there safe and sound,” the woman, nameless, but with a face that Marie would never forget, assured her.

“Thanks.”

“Marie, do you want me to go with you? I have the afternoon free,” Jane asked, and Marie turned to her gratefully.

“That would be great, Jane, thanks.”

Jane drove Marie’s car to the hospital, and they went in together to find the ambulance had arrived and Ruby was already in a room of her own. Marie went to the room and saw a nurse was already taking blood from her mother’s arm.

Ruby’s arms were stiff, clasped close to her body rigidly. Her legs were similarly pulled up into her body. An oxygen mask covered the lower half of her face as someone else came in and started an IV line. Marie simply watched and waited. Someone would speak to her when they knew something.

Jane held Marie’s hand tightly, and Marie focused on that comfort that she’d so rarely known until lately. She held onto Jane’s hand like it was a raft that kept her from drowning in panic. It felt as though days passed, but Marie had watched the clock. She knew it was only a few hours before the doctor came to find her.

“Which one of you is Marie Hebert?” the woman asked, her face impassive. She was a tall, blond woman with kind brown eyes.

“I am,” Marie said from the hard seat she’d taken next to Jane.

“Your mother is going to be with us for a while. I’m admitting her to the hospital. She’s got bacterial pneumonia.” There were more words, but Marie didn’t hear them. She was still stuck on that awful word.

“Marie? Marie?” the doctor called until she saw Marie blink and refocus. “We need you to sign some papers, and then we’ll move your mother up to the second floor. Don’t worry, we’ll do our very best for her.”

Marie nodded, murmured a thank you, but she still wasn’t totally in the here and now. She was stuck.

Her mother had to get better. That’s all there was to it. A few weeks ago, she reassured herself that the hell her life had been wouldn’t last forever. That it would end. She’d been calm about that fact when it occurred to her. Now, faced with the reality of just how quickly that hell might end, she couldn’t function.