Chapter 6

GABRIELA

The truth is that as soon as I went to bed, I soon fell asleep, but that calm didn't last long because at half past two in the morning my mother comes to the room and wakes me up.

"Gabriela... Come on Gabriela, wake up." I heard my mother's voice "What's wrong?" I asked, trying to locate what time it was. "Not that I want to bother you, really, but we have to go to the hospital."

As soon as she said those words, I thought of the worst, that the accident grandma had a couple of months ago would end up developing into something worse. "What's wrong? Can you explain to me what's going on?" I asked, wide awake "There's something wrong with your grandmother. She's not well," she insisted, "Which one?"

"The one here, your father is already gone, and my foot bothers me enough to drive to the hospital." I nodded and started to get up. I quickly got dressed and we went to get the wheelchair to seat my grandmother and carry her to the car. It took us a while to get her in the car, but as soon as we did, I sat in the driver's seat and my mom next to me. 

It took us almost an hour to get to the hospital and when we went in with my grandmother and they saw her, a couple of doctors quickly came and began to treat her. They sent us to the waiting room, and they would come to tell us when they finished checking it.

As time went on my mother started to fall asleep, she wasn't able to stay overnight, I'm not the one who needed to rest like my mother no matter how much they said that. We were there for a couple of hours until finally a doctor appeared to give us information and I had to speak because my mother was half asleep.

"Are you relatives of Mrs. Perez?" asked a doctor "Yes, we are, what's wrong with my grandmother?" I asked "Well, your grandmother has suffered a small stroke that didn't get worse thanks to her being brought in early. She will stay here for a couple of days to find out more and monitor her progress and when she feels better, we will do some tests with which we will find out why she doesn't get enough oxygen to the brain and if she'll have sequelae."

"Do you think it could be because of the degenerative disease she has?" I asked again and he nodded "Yes, clearly that could be a factor, if the heart starts not pumping enough it may be there's not enough oxygen reaching the brain. When we do all the tests, I'll tell you something, while you can go home or stay here."

"Thank you very much doctor." I thanked him "You're welcome, it's my job." With that, he left us, and we stared into nothingness for a while until it seemed my mother organized everything in her head.

"Gabriela, I think you should go home." my mother said after a couple of minutes "No mom, you're the one who's tired, I can stay and if they tell me anything I'll call you." I assured and it doesn't take long for her to deny "It's not necessary Gabriela, really, you can go."

"I'm not going to leave mom; besides, didn't they call you to change your shift for tomorrow? you must go to rest so as not to be so tired." I insisted, "It's true. Are you sure you can stay?" she asked, and I nodded, "Yes, now go home to rest."

"Okay, but you call me anything, ok?" she inquired and nodded again. Just at that moment I remembered I left my cell phone at home, so I had no idea how I was going to call her to tell anything new. I couldn't have forgotten my phone at such an opportune time as it was right now.

"Is something wrong? Are you sure you want to stay? I can change the shift, I don't think they'll give me any problems," my mother assured, and I denied "Nothing happens to me, it's just I forgot my phone at home." I replied closing my eyes for a few seconds "Don't worry, I'll leave you mine." she said "You'll need it if you want me to call you."

"Don't worry, I'll take one at home, it won't be for mobile phones at home, that's why we keep some, right?" I thought for a moment, realizing it made all the sense in the world. "But then when you pick one up you call me to find out what phone number, I need to call you."

"Okay, try to get some rest, okay?" she said and nodded, "I'll try. Now a question." I returned "What's wrong?" she asked "When will dad come home?" I questioned "In a few days, I think he'll come on Wednesday and considering it's Sunday, well, rather, Monday."

"Do I call him later when he sends us the message they've arrived or earlier?" I asked, "Call him later, he must be driving now." he said "Okay, I'll do it." I replied, "Bye baby, and you let me know anything, I'll be on the lookout."

"Yes mom, now go away, you have to rest." I insisted, "Okay, I'll call when I go to work, okay?" she said, and I nodded. I gave her a kiss on the cheek, she went the way we entered about three hours ago while I sat and waited for news. The hours passed slowly, and the truth was I could almost say I knew the cracks in the walls of the waiting room by heart, in fact, I'm sure if I were blindfolded, I would draw them the same.

Around twenty minutes to eight I get a call from a number saved as mine; it was the phone number I had before I changed it to the one I had now. "Hi Gabriela, have they told you anything about your grandmother yet?" My mother asked, "No, not yet. It's only eight o'clock in the morning, Mom, you know they'll start testing later."

"Yes, I know, but do you know how She spent the night or something?" She asked and I nodded, "Yes, a nurse came in an hour or so ago and said she was stabilized, her blood oxygen had dropped, and they put her on oxygen, later they will do a blood test."

"Okay, perfect, don't hesitate to call me if you have any news." She said and I nodded, "I will. By the way, are you going to wake up the guys?" I asked, "I don't know, I think it's for the best." she said "Don't wake them up, I'll call them later." I said, "Are you going to take care of everything? Won't it be too much?"

"Yes, I'm going to take care of everything and no, it won't be too much, don't worry." I assured "The problem is I don't know who to leave them with, your grandparents went on a trip and won't come back until Friday." She reminded me "Don't worry about it, I'll call them every half hour if I have to or if I'll try to find someone to take care of them."

"Okay, did you get some rest?" My mother asked and I rolled my eyes, "No, but I know all the cracks in this waiting room," I said, laughing, "You're going to do me the favour of trying to rest, okay?" She said, "Okay, now go to breakfast, you'll have to leave soon."

"Ok, I'm going to have breakfast. Do you have money for breakfast there?" And another fucking shit, I didn't even bring my wallet, but I'm sure if I told her no, she'll come to the hospital to bring me money and the truth is I wasn't too hungry, so I decided it was better not to worry her.

"Yes, if I have, don't worry." I assured her "Okay, now I'm seriously leaving." she said "Bye mom, we'll talk later." I replied "Bye, Gabriela." With that I hung up and sat down again. I started to think about who could take care of my siblings, it's not because they were small or anything, they knew how to take care of themselves, the thing is they argued too much and sometimes they even fought, especially if there was no one to keep an eye on them, so normally we leave them with someone to avoid those situations and it occurred to me Marcos or Carlota could take care of them. Not that I wanted to bother them with that, but I knew they would tell me anything they did.

It was eight o'clock in the morning and my father would still be a while away from arriving in Barcelona, so I would call him around noon, I would call my siblings around nine to get up and Marcos or Carlota after I had talked to them and managed to get them up. With that in mind, I began to see how more doctors began to enter, so I am sure in half an hour or so they would come to inform me of my grandmother's condition.