"Your part is always your past. Even if you forget it, it remembers you," ~ Sarah Dessen, What Happened to Goodbye.
* * *
An annoying ringing sound filled my ears making me burrow into the comforter of the bed curling into a ball hoping to block the sound from coming into my ears. The sound seemed to go on forever only growing stronger before it stopped greeting with a nice welcome silence. I breathed a sigh of relief, but it was a moment too soon as the ringing started up again.
"Calypso!" I heard Bracken shout from somewhere down the hall, "Would you please answer your phone instead of letting it ring?"
"What?" I shouted back at her not really hearing her due to the ringing in my ears.
"Answer your goddamn phone Calypso! The ringing is annoying on echoing through the halls!" Skye yelled back at me coming down to the room and throwing a throw pillow that belonged on the couch at me. I shot up in bed and kicked off the comforter to throw the pillow back at her, but she was already down the hall by the time I threw it.
"Hello," I say into my phone picking it up but not checking the caller ID as I placed it upon my ear.
"Hey Calypso, it's Dakho. Did I wake you up? You sound a little groggy as if you just woke up," he said into the phone making me fully wake up. I hadn't seen or spoken to him since I last saw him at the frozen yogurt place a few days ago. Iris kept reassuring me that he was definitely going to call me because "he's totally into you." I had been doubtful through leading us to forming a bet on it he would contact me or not. guess who owes her lunch now.
"Oh no. No you didn't wake me up. My roommate did by throwing a pillow at me because my phone was ringing," I explain to him not wanting him to know that he actually did wake me up and that I didn't want to answer my phone.
"You don't need to lie to me if I did wake you up," he said to me laughing as if he didn't believe a word that I said.
"But it's true!" I tell him, "She threw a throw pillow at my face!"
"Ok sure what ever you say," he says though I could picture him rolling his eyes still not believing it, "So the reason I called is to ask if you were busy today."
"No I have off today why?" I asked him getting up to go check on Elliot in his bed. He was playing with some action figures that Skye had gotten him while I was at work the other day to keep him occupied.
"Have you heard about the fair that's in town this weekend?" he asked me causing me to freeze in place.
"There's a fair in town here?" I asked him shocked having not heard anything from Bracken or Skye who have lived here for about four years.
"There's a fair? Where?" Elliot asked throwing his toys down on the bed and jumping up off the bed and grabbing at my legs. "I wanna go! I wanna go!"
"Elliot please be quiet I'm on the phone," I tell him patting him on the head and gesturing for him to go back to playing with his toys on the bed.
"Who's Elliot?" Dakho asked making me want to smack myself for not mentioning Elliot before. I mean what would he say knowing that I have a four year old son at nineteen?
"Oh um he's my son," I say meekly, "If I go to the fair with you, he'd have to come since nobody can watch him today."
"That's fine. Really I love kids! You should've mentioned him before!" he says surprising me by his reaction, "Tell little man he can come and that I'll be there in about twenty minutes."
I hung up and held the phone in my hands turning towards Elliot with a smile on my face. "You ready to go to a fair for the first time?"
* * *
"So how did you meet my mom?" Elliot asked Dakho twenty minutes later when we were in his truck driving along the dirt road to the fair location. Elliot has not yet stopped asking questions, and I was becoming embarrassed at him being a chatter box.
"Well I was working at the frozen yogurt place in town, and her friend said she thought I was hot then ran away," he explains to Elliot with a smile on his face not minding all the questions he was asking.
"Wait a minute! They got frozen yogurt here?" Elliot asked shooting me a death glare.
"Sure they do! What would this town be without it? If you want, I can take you get some another day," Dakho said winking at Elliot through the rearview mirror.
"Wow! You're so much more cooler and nicer than my momma is!" Elliot exclaims hitting me on the shoulder and then laughing at me once seeing my face.
"Don't worry little man; I can share my coolness with your mom," he says high fiving him as he pulled into the parking lot of the fair grounds. "We're here guys. Which ride do you want to go on first Elliot?"
"Hey what about me? You invited me, yet I can't pick the first ride!" I exclaimed out play hitting him on the shoulder in mock anger. Truth be told though, I was a little pissed off at not being able to pick first when he invited me, not Elliot. I think he may like Elliot more than me.
"The purple thingy over there!" he shouted unbuckling his seatbelt and coming to the front between us on the console pointing at a ride in the distance that spun around in circles forward and backward with purple tops.
"Oh you mean the Paratrooper?" Dakho asked opening his door picking up Elliot, and then coming over to my side to open the door, "The only thing is that it's two people per seat, so one of us will have to ride by ourselves."
"I'll ride with you and momma can go by herself," Elliot said clinging onto Dakho's legs and laughing at me before sticking his tongue out.
"Well if that's the case then we have to let your mom choose the next ride we go on so that it'll be fair to her," he says picking up Elliot and putting him on top of his shoulders. "But before we can do anything, we need to go get our tickets."
And so after a good ten minutes of waiting in line for tickets, we were finally waiting in line for what I decided to call the Purple Umbrellas since most of the tops were painted a bright shade of the color. Most of the people in line were kids with their parents and teenagers, but barely any single riders making me feel a little self conscious. But finally getting onto the ride as it started up, I started to feel a little light headed but only thought it was because I'd never been on a carnival ride that went up in the air. I didn't want to mention anything to them until we went on at least a few only because Elliot had never experienced this before, and I dint' want to cut it short.
"So which ride are we going on next Calypso?" Dakho asked me after we'd all gotten off the ride.
"The Tilt-a-Whirl; I only rode it once when I was around seven," I say taking both of their hands and pulling them with me excited to re-visit my childhood that was cut short.
"At least this tiem we can ll be together n the ride instead of separated," he said as we climbed the steps and got inside a cart waiting for the ride to begin. Dakho and I knew how to lean and make it spin hard much to Elliot's amusement. We then went on three more rides as a group before I opted to sit out the sixth one because I was feeling very faint and woozy. I could tell that Dakho was worried about me, but I told him not to worry and that I was just going to use the bathroom.
The only problem was that when I got to the bathroom, I threw up in the toilet. Now that wouldn't be bad or cause me alarm except for the fact that I hadn't anything to eat before we left or since we got here. My thoughts were that I had a bug, so we should go home in case it got worse.
"Calypso are you okay? You look really pale and as if you're going to fall over any minute now," Dakho said when I came back to them with a concerned look on his face. Even Elliot looked worried and clung onto my hand afraid I would actually fall over.
"I threw up in the bathroom, but I think it's a bug because I didn't eat before we came," I tell him as they start to walk me in the direction of his truck.
"Are you sure about that because I can take you to the doctor if you want?" he asked helping me into the passenger seat of the car.
"No I'm fine, I think I just want to go lay down," I say feeling my eyes roll back and my eyelids droop close.
* * *
When I opened my eyes, the first thing I noticed were that the walls were a light green and not beige like in Bracken and Skye's house. The next thing I noticed was that it smelled like disinfectant and cold metal, and that there was an IV drip hanging on the side of the bed hooked up to me. I then heard the tale-tell sound of the dripping water from the bag hanging on the metal rod.
"Do you need some water?" I heard Dakho ask from my left side. I turned my head to that side to see him and Elliot sitting on the chair in the corner of the room. I shook my head, and he handed me a cup of water.
"What happened?" I asked after downing the water.
"You fainted in the car, so I brought you hear to make sure you were okay. They said you were super dehydrated, but that they'd be back to talk to you," he explain to me sitting on the edge of the bed. "You had me really worried you know."
"I'm sorry," I say not knowing how to respond feeling relief flood through me when the doctor walked in.
"So first things first, you have very low sugar and water levels. You need to make sure to keep those levels up, and you should not have been at the fair ground today because that attributed to your fainting. I have also prescribed you these prenatal vitamins since you haven't ben taking them," the doctor said looking at his clipboard.
"Wait a minute. Did you say prenatal vitamins?" I asked nearly choking on my own spit.
"Why yes I did. That's why you threw up and passed out. You honestly shouldn't have been there."
"But I'm not pregnant," I said feeling my face become hot especially since Dakho was here with me. I mean it's super embarrassing as it is not including the fact that the guy who tried to kill me got me pregnant again from raping me.
"Well congratulations then. You are two months pregnant."
* * *