Is this the final stop? (Toni Shalifoe)

Chapter 55

Shelby hugs her knees, sitting on the chair in the waiting room for what feels like hours. Her parents are not back. Bernice is probably yelling at everyone in this town. She looks at the clock, but it's only been fifteen minutes. Maybe twenty. Time moves slowly in the hospital.

She looks around the room, her eyes catch other tired parents and loved ones. Some bite their nails, a couple's knees knock together, both bouncing with nervous energy. She hears a slam and her head whips to a teenage boy punching the vending machine. A candy dangles on the edge of the metal ring. Everyone's on their last straw.

Shelby has never spent much time in the hospital, she's never sat in a room with terrified family members or friends. Her family has always been healthy, her grandparents are younger than most others, and she wasn't an invincible kid trying death-defying tricks when she was little. Feeling trapped by the pressure of the room she's sitting in, she stands. Needing space. And realizing she could use some food.

She takes the flower with her.

She heads down the hallway, but instantly loses herself in the corridors of the hospital. It's a laughable attempt trying to make her way to the cafeteria. She apparently makes all the wrong turns. She passes the hospital's inter-faith chapel. She stops in her tracks. Tempted to enter. Compelled to pray. Reminded to ask for forgiveness. But she shakes her head against it. She collects herself, pulling together her strength to walk away from the chapel. She doesn't need religion, she needs Toni.

She hears Dave's voice and heavy footsteps, "This again? Really?"

She ducks through the door, taking refuge in the chapel. She peers through the stained glass window and sees Dave and Jobeth. They stop in the middle of the now empty hallway where she was just standing. If they came by just moments before, Dave would have slammed right into her.

Jobeth grabs her husband's arm, maybe as a way to get his attention or maybe as a warning, "Do not run away from me when I'm talkin' to you." Definitely a warning.

"Don't you want to see our daughter? Make sure she's okay?" Dave throws back in her face.

Jobeth switches her purse from her left arm to her right, "We have two daughters we should be worryin' about."

Dave runs a hand through his short hair, pulling on the ends. Jobeth turns away from Dave and towards the chapel. Shelby hides behind the wooden frame of the door, pressing her back against it. Shelby hears her father scoff.

Shelby barely looks over her shoulder to watch Jobeth see her own reflection and she watches as her mother's hand immediately moves a hair back into place. Shelby looks down at her own hands, realizing this habit has been handed down. Dave's conditioned Jobeth into insecurity just like he has with Shelby, probably years and years before her. The women always finding something wrong in their reflection.

Jobeth spins back to her husband, "Yes, we are havin' this conversation because I'm sick and tired of watchin' you avoid it."

Dave leans on the wall, one foot up against it, arms crossed, "Jobeth Ann—"

"Oh, we're usin' my middle name now? Do not scold me like I am your child. I'm actually tryin' to protect our children and—"

"She's not ours!" Dave pushes off the wall. "She's yours."

Shelby's hand covers her mouth, silencing the whimpers in her throat, eyes watering.

The edges of Dave's shirt pour over the hem of his khakis. He's shaken. He does everything to show that he isn't. He tucks in his shirt tighter, stuffing the fabric behind the belt. "Toni will only be a charity case for you to feel better," Dave continues.