Pearls and Chains

It was way past one in the morning when the stomping sounds of feet running along the cold streets of New York City. A silhouette of a female running and heavily panting was drowned in the blowing wind. “Please God, let her be alive, please God” Anna Lumpkins was saying as she ran breathlessly. She looked dehydrated and tired, but she didn't stop. She kept going even though her legs hurt. She got to the front of a huge hospital. She didn't even stop until she reached the reception desk. “Please, I'm the daughter of the woman who just rushed in.” She didn't even catch her breath. “Lord, calm down dear”, the older woman stood up to help her breath and calm down. “My.. my. Mo…ther” she said in between breaths, “she… She… How's she?” “Alright, just breathe, just breath” Another older nurse joined in to pat her back so she could breathe properly. Both nurses gave themselves a look of ‘don’t tell her yet’. “Please, I need to see her, please”, Anna broke down crying, while the nurses led her to the waiting room for visitors. “Child, you'll need to wait here a bit. Let me check and see who you are talking about”, the first nurse who had spoken to her at the desk spoke as she walked back to the desk. “Thank you”, she took a deep breath and exhaled while she let her body completely fall back on the chair, she threw her head back and let the tears flow again. “Your mom will be fine” the other nurse whom Anna had totally forgotten about said gently while squeezing her hands. She noticed the kindness in the nurses' eyes. ‘Are nurses usually this kind?’ She was unsure of how to feel. “Thank you, Nurse…” she paused as she tried to sneak a peek at her name tag. “Naomi”, the kind nurse smiled. “Thank you, Nurse Naomi” “Did you run here? "You looked really dehydrated, we should get you some water, dear” she said, and immediately stood up. “I'll do that ma” Anna tried standing up but almost fell down as her legs were already numb. She looked shocked. She didn't think it was that bad. She was a strong athlete and running was her strong suit. “You need to rest a bit and you look cold” Just then, the other nurse returned with a sullen look that made Anna's heart skip a beat. ‘Please God, if you help me, I'll attend church more, so please’ Anna prayed hard in her mind. “Mrs Aria Lumpkins, right?” the nurse asked. “Yes ma”, Anna tried to sound strong so they wouldn't change their minds from telling her the truth as they treated her like some delicate egg about to break. “She's alive but not in a good condition” “How bad is it?” Anna had subconsciously clutched the hem of her hoodie. "Uhmm, she's in the ICU right now. She had severe internal bleeding and two of her left ribs were broken. She had a broken bone in her left leg, and she took a massive hit on her Head". "We are still doing more tests and scans to find out more", the nurse concluded. “Would she make it?” Anna swallowed because she didn't want to give herself up. What kind of accident did her mother get involved in, and who would even hit a person and run away? “Child, you should rest up because she won't be able to take in visitors until tomorrow. "She's still unconscious and is very weak, she has lost a lot of blood,” Nurse Naomi finally said. “Uhmm, can I rest here then, please?” Anna knew she wouldn't be able to get a wink of sleep if she went home. “Yes dear, I'll see if there's a room you can rest in, it's too cold here”, Nurse Naomi offered. Anna had failed to notice earlier that the hospital wasn't as busy or over-crowded as it should be for a general hospital. It looked new too, but she hadn't visited the hospital in a very long time as she only had to go to her school clinic when necessary. “Uhmm, how much would this cost me?” She asked, knowing it's inevitable. “Ahhh that's ummm…” Nurse Naomi stammered. “We'll let you know later sweetie”, the other nurse said immediately. “Okay” Anna was fighting her tears. She doesn't need this right now, she has too much on her plate already. She had taken a lot of odd jobs and her grades weren't looking good at all. How would she cope with all this? “Alright child, here we are”. Nurse Naomi interrupted her train of thoughts as she opened a small door. Anna didn't even realize how far they had walked as she kept her head down the whole time. The room looked small with a small bed and a little cupboard. But it was filled with open cupboards all over the wall which had some medicine containers. “Manage here dear” The other names. She just realized her name was Suzanne. The two nurses looked like they were both in their fifties. They are probably my mother's. No wonder they are so nice. “Thank you, I really appreciate it” Anna was really grateful. She was scared to leave her mom all alone in that hospital. ** In another lively part of New York City, two young men sat across from each other at a table with an expensive bottle of champagne and steaks. “So you still have that terrible habit of eating raw steak, Henry?” the guy with long hair and blue eyes said leisurely as he put a fork with a big piece of stake in his mouth. “And you haven't stopped the disgusting habit of eating like a glutton”, the man with beautiful brown eyes retorted as he sipped a glass of champagne and sighed, “If someone sees you, they'll mistake this for your first meal in years”, he continued as he swirled the champagne in his hand. “Oh ordinary bro, there's no steak better than the steak here”, the blonde-haired guy said as he chewed his steak with elegance even though his mouth was full. “Don't talk with your mouth full, Tristan” Henry said with a look of disgust. “I'll lose my appetite.” They gave themselves a look for a moment, then roared out in laughter. “Damn, I miss you men”, Tristan said while cleaning his tears that rolled down as a result of laughter. “Yeah, it's been like what? Five years since you ran away to Europe”, Henry said, a bit of bitterness in his tone. “We had so much to do.” “Well I'm back now baby, I know you miss me” Tristan said proudly as he placed his cutlery gently on the table. He wiped the corners of his mouth and then took his Champagne. “Cheers to new memories.” “Cheers bro”, Henry raised his glass to take a sip when he abruptly stopped as he saw a waitress break a bottle on a customer's head. "Interesting" he murmured as he took his drink in one gulp.