Page 9 of Mafia’s Dirty Secret

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.”

“You hope. We all know how the weather is here. Hot and soaking wet, hot and damp, or hot. I swear, I almost melted on the way from the car into here.” Jane smiled as if the thought amused her. “I almost started to say that line about I’m melting, but didn’t.”

Marie knew she meant a line from the Wizard of Oz. It used to come on television when she was a child, and she remembered it well. “I could just imagine you doing that.”

“I need to get back out in it now,” Jane said suddenly and stood up. “You have my number. Call me if she gets worse, or you need a hand getting her to take the medicine.”

“I will, Jane, and thanks. You’re too good to us.” Marie leaned in to peck Jane on the cheek and the other woman simply smiled as she offered her cheek.

“You deserve all the help you can get, Marie, don’t doubt that.” She squeezed Marie’s shoulders and then left.

Marie sighed heavily and then turned to face the doorway that would take her to her mother’s room. She’d make her mother some gumbo, something soft and simple, she’d like that. Marie started the soup-like meal, and then went back to her mother with a glass of cranberry juice. It took some doing, but she managed to wake her up.

“What do you want, Marie? I don’t feel well. Go to school, already, and leave me alone.”

Marie felt a chill run down her spine when her mother said the oh so familiar words. Words she’d heard so many times as a child, in need of money for lunch or sick herself and in need of care. Now, she was the one doing the caring, and she had to be strong. Firm, certainly, but gentle too. She wanted her mother to know, from now on, that she would not be spoken to like a slave. But that was for when her mother recovered. Right now, she needed to take her medicine.

“Take these, Mom, they’ll help.” Marie had added ibuprofen to take away some of the swelling and pain. It was also the doctor’s orders to do so.

“I can’t take all of those at once,” Ruby moaned at her daughter but took the pills. With a look of defiance, she threw the pills in her mouth, took the bottle of water Marie offered her, and swallowed. “There.”

Marie smirked with amusement when her mother stuck her tongue out and moved it around to show she’d swallowed the pills. Sometimes, not often, but every now and then, her mother’s rebellious streak made her laugh. “Good girl.”

“What’s for dinner? Is that gumbo?” Ruby looked up at Marie suspiciously. “You only make me that when I’m ill.”