Unique II: Betrayal

Chapter 7 - OMG!

No sooner than twenty minutes after Kennard returned, Tyeedah screamed, “Oh, my God!”
   Kennard was about to turn his attention to Tyeedah to ask her what was wrong when he witnessed the miracle that made her shout out. He wanted to do the same thing when he saw what she was looking at. He wanted to yell at the top of his lungs thanking his Higher Power for not turning His back on him.
     Unique was awake. His sleeping beauty had risen from her slumber.
     Standing over her, Kennard said, “Baby, welcome back.”
     Her mouth was dry and sticky and felt like she’d been drinking Elmer’s glue. Her body ached like it had been run over by a Mack truck.
    For a few minutes, she looked around to place her surroundings and then asked, “Welcome back to where?” Her voice felt scratchy.
     “Welcome back to us,” Kennard told her. “You have been in a coma for the past day and a half.”
     Unique had no idea she’d been asleep that long. It felt like she’d only taken a nap.
     “Are you okay?” Unique asked.
     Kennard nodded. “Yeah, baby. You’re the one we’re concerned about.”
    Unique didn’t remember anything after preparing for the interviews and pictures that had been lined up the day of the fight. From that point her mind was totally blank, like a memory disk that got too close to a magnet.
     Tyeedah said, “It’s true,” as if she could read her mind.
     This was so weird, she thought. “I need some water. It feels like tumbleweeds are in my mouth.”
    Kennard and Tyeedah gave a small chuckle while Kennard jumped to pour a cup of water from the pitcher that was sitting on the bedside table. He put a straw in the cup and pushed the button on the bed to raise Unique’s head and then placed the end of the straw into her mouth. Unique could have held the cup herself, but the care and attention Kennard was giving her felt good.
     She took a long pull.
    The water was warm, room temperature, and felt like a much-needed rain shower in the middle of the barren desert. The way a flower must feel when it had been neglected, then finally given a drink before the petals turned completely brittle.
     After another sip, this one shorter, she said, “If today is Monday who won the fight?”
     Kennard smiled.
     “Taymar knocked Jockey out in the sixth round so they tell me, but the fight isn’t even important right now, baby. I’m glad that you are awake.”
     Kennard kissed her lips.
     “Don’t you remember what happened?” Tyeedah asked. She and Unique locked eyes. Tyeedah looked worried about something.
   Kennard interjected, “I found you lying on the bathroom floor. You were . . . ” He stopped midsentence and looked like he wanted to spit out more, but instead, swallowed his words.
   She could tell from the way his eyes shifted that Kennard was holding something back. He probably thought he was protecting her somehow. He was so unselfish. She wished that she could be more like him.
   It was her selfishness, she knew, somehow, that had caused what happened to her like the snowball that caused the avalanche. She knew that much, but the details were still hazy.
     Slowly, Unique’s memory began to return. In her mind, she was in back at the Tabby.
    The hotel room, the shower—it was all coming back to her now. Then the lights went out. She had thought it was Kennard playing around.
     “Are you okay, babe?” Kennard’s voice snapped her thoughts from the hotel room to the hospital room. “You look sorta funny.”
     “I’m . . . I’m fine. Just trying to remember what happened,” she said, sounding like some chick straight out of a soap opera scene. She couldn’t believe this type of thing was real. That this was her life and not her favorite characters on The Young and the Restless who woke up in hospitals not able to remember how it was they had got there.
     Kennard rubbed her hair and said, “Don’t rush. It will all come back to you soon enough. No need to overwhelm yourself all at once.”
     It was sound advice, but her mind was running its own show at that moment. It wasn’t used to following outside instructions on how to handle inside business. It continued to run the clips from the horrific incident.
     She put her hand on her stomach. “The baby?” she questioned. “Is the baby okay?” But by the look in Kennard’s eyes, she knew that it wasn’t. Tears formed in her eyes. The fact that she had lost the one thing that truly would belong to her and Kennard made the tears turn into sobs.
     “Baby, don’t worry. Everything is gonna be all right, I promise!” Kennard sealed the promise with a kiss on her forehead.