Sage Heart
It's half-past midnight on Sunday when I had gotten Flair's call.
"Oh My God, Oh My God," she keeps saying hoarsely, as though she'd been crying for the past hour, and her throat has gone raw and scratchy. "This can't be happening.."
"What is it, Flair?" I sit up in bed, rubbing at my eyes to adjust the the darkness. I lean forward to switch on my small nightlight, causing some of my cats to stir in their own beds.
"Sparkle," she wails in a frantic tone, her voice thick with tears. "S-sparkle.. she's.. Oh, Sage.. Please come over here as fast as you can."
I'm already struggling into a random jacket while searching for my house key and wallet. "Where are you exactly?" I ask urgently.
"Good Samaritan Hospital. ICU."
The twenty-minute commute feels like an eternity when you're rushing to a medical center. My hair is in disarray and my pajamas are in the same state as I step into the building.
Everyone's already there in the lobby: Ocean 9, Chord's parents, Sparkle's parents, including Chord's and Sparkle's friends. Everyone who attended the wedding is here.
Everyone-except Althea.
As expected in a hospital, many hearts are glowing gray, blue, yellow, and purple, (loneliness, sadness, sickness, and anxiety) but there are a handful of hearts glowing blackish red (anger), probably from the grief of losing someone dear.
Jae is at the front of the information desk, his shoulders tense. "We're here for Sparkle Walton. She was brought to the Intensive Care Unit just a moment ago?"
The thirty-something woman behind the counter stops typing and looks up with a sad smile. "Yes, sir. May I ask what is your relationship with the patient?"
Knox cuts in scathingly, "She's our friend's sister! We've been standing here for over five minutes already! Let us in or I'll sue you! Not this hospital! YOU!"
Arrow grabs hold of Knox's arms to refrain her from causing a bigger scene. All of a sudden, Core and Chess notice my standing a few feet away. They point at me and say, "Hey, Sage is here!"
At once, everybody whirls around to look in my direction. My fingers clasp my jacket tighter over me as I approach the large group. Why is Kyle avoiding my eye? Actually, he's not the only one failing to be discreet in ignoring me. So are Kurt and Josh.
Within seconds, I'm standing in the middle of the crowd. I'm not sure who to face, but the answer becomes obvious when Jae makes his way toward me. He puts one hand on my arm lightly, as if I'm a delicate porcelain vase that he can't bare to break.
"Heart." His expression is weary, and I can tell by his voice and appearance that he'd been asleep before hurrying to this hospital as well. "Something happened to Sparkle."
"You have no right to tell her first," Penn snaps at Jae. "Flair should be the--"
"Sage.." A girl intones weakly, and we all crane our necks to gape at the brunette in a pink silk cardigan thrown over a dove gray nightgown.
I take quick steps towards Flair and carefully guide her to a waiting bench outside the ICU. When I'm sure that we're both comfortable, I wait for her to take a deep exhale, which she does after a long pause.
"Sparkle had a miscarriage." The words, laced with pain and something I can't fathom, roll out of her mouth like a piece of sushi buried in molasses. Unnerving. Unpleasant. Unwanted.
