Moose and Goose

Chapter Sixty-three

"Hey, I've missed you. How're you feeling?" Her cousin chuckles, but it resembles a scoff.

"I've had better days," she says. Judith curls her mouth, unsure of what to say. "How was the funeral?"

"Oh, um, well, it was as most funerals are: sad and long. Made me wish I didn't go." Judith gives a hollow laugh, and Ja'liyah pauses in thought. "I spoke to your brother."

"Yeah? How's he doing," she asks with a weary sigh.

"I was expecting a little rabble-rouser, but he's real nice and polite. Him and Stevie were practically glued at the hip along with another boy. I forgot his name," Judith explains. Ja'liyah heaves a dry cough, and each inhale emits a whooping sound. "Did the doctors find out what's wrong with you?"

"They say I have anorexia," Ja'liyah tells her monotonously. "They're giving me so many pills, crackers, and boxes of juice, I feel - I don't know. My Dad's losing his shit, but I know I'll be fine."

"What's anorexia?" Judith furrows her eyebrows, and her cousin clears her throat.

"Basically, because I chose not to overeat and die like Grandma did, I'm sick and can't leave until I gain weight," she explains and sighs from annoyance. "I can't believe this shit. I'm eighty-nine pounds, and they want me at a hundred."

"That's more than me. The last time I weighed myself, I was ninety-five pounds. I'm sorry, 'liyah," Judith crones, and her cousin scoffs. "I mean, I don't understand why they're holding you there. It's not like you'll die or something."

"Exactly! I wonder if Grandma would've been here right now if they'd have held her when she reached two hundred," she whisper yells, her voice quivering from a stifled cough. She clears her throat to avoid the inevitable, and she coughs again. "Now I'm sick because of the skinhead they discharged last night. Could this day get any worse? Wait - is that --"

"Are you okay? What's wrong," Judith questions her, pushing herself upright. First, Ja'liyah chuckles, and after a short pause, she laughs so joyously that all her cousin can do is listen in silence.

"I just saw Stacey holding a baby," she tells her. "She's across the hall from me right now."

"Oh, my God, she had the baby," Judy says under her breath, her fingers pressed to her lips and her eyes brimming with excitement.

"Damn, the doctor shut the door." Ja'liyah sighs, and her bed crinkles as she fidgets into a comfortable position. "Congratulations, auntie of three."

"Four," she corrects her after dropping her arm, a smile nestled on her face. "Wayne has a little girl too."

"Oh, I forgot about him. How's he doing?" Judith hums I don't know as she shrugs her shoulders.

"He comes around whenever he pleases, and he was late for the funeral, so I don't even care anymore." Judith sighs.

"I'm sorry." Judith doesn't respond, so she changes the subject when she feels her mood shift. "So what's the skinny on that school in North Carolina? When're you going?"

"I don't think I will," she says, and her cousin responds with silence. "I don't know. I mean, the kids need me here, and I don't think I wanna finish my course, anyway."

"Are you kidding me?" Judith knits her brows at her sharp tone and listens to her take a deep breath. "Judy, I'm not gonna yell, but I'm a bit disappointed. I'm always bragging to my nurse about my cousin who protested like Dr. King and got herself a scholarship somewhere better. I even saw the Dean of your school on the News making you seem like a child who needed to be punished."

"It's still on TV?" She peeks into the living room, and Ja'liyah groans from annoyance.

"Who cares? You can't do this to me," she raises her voice and grasps her cousin's attention. "My Mom is dead, and my Dad can't even afford public college. I have to work like a man whenever I need new clothes."