Have Mercy on Me

"My child..." Those were the words on Evelyn's mouth as she slowly opened her eyes. 

"She is back!" A nurse who was checking her pulse at that moment saw her opening her eyes and exclaimed. 

"Where is my child?" Evelyn inquired weakly. 

"Your child is fine. She is being taken care of. You don't have to worry about that. All you should be focused on is recuperating faster so you can hold her in your arms." The nurse said to her, calmly and comfortingly. 

Evelyn nodded. 

"Can you please get my phone? I need to make a call." Evelyn told the nurse. 

"Was that what you were looking for that made you end up on the floor?" The nurse asked with a knowing look. Evelyn just grunted but didn't reply. 

That answered the nurse's question. 

"Well, I didn't see your phone anywhere. I don't think it was brought into the hospital with you. And I will implore you to not move around. We can't let your stitches tear again." The nurse explained to her, firmly. 

"Please, I need to talk to my dad. I need to..." Evelyn was saying, pleadingly but weakly and the nurse interrupted her. 

"You can talk to whoever you want to, later but you need to rest now." The nurse told her firmly and injected the drip that was being passed to Evelyn's body. 

"I want to ask him if..." Evelyn couldn't complete her sentence before falling asleep. The injection had started working. 

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Two days later, Evelyn was gradually getting better. She could gently move about to the bathroom and stand up with little to no support. 

"You are such a strong willed woman. You are recuperating faster." The nurse attending to her had said to her, smiling. But Evelyn couldn't smile in response, she was sad. 

"My dad has really abandoned me. Nobody had come to check on me." Evelyn stated inwardly. That was all she could think of. 

She had even used the hospital phone to call her father but he had hung up on her immediately he heard her voice. 

"I am not your father, Evelyn. Have you no pity for me?" Robert had said to her the second time she called him. 

"Didn't I warn you? If you dare call this number again, I am going to do what you can never imagine. Something really bad." Victoria had said harshly to her the third time she called. 

And the fourth time, nobody picked up. She called again but nobody answered it. 

"Where do I go from here?" Evelyn wondered solemnly. A stray tear fell from her eye as she breastfed her daughter that day and she quickly used the back of her palm to wipe it off. 

Later in the evening that day, a nurse went to Evelyn to give her an important information. 

"What do you mean?" Evelyn inquired shockingly. 

"Your hospital bills..." The nurse trailed off staring at Evelyn. 

"I know, I mean I get that part. The hospital bills haven't been cleared. I understand that part, but the part I don't understand is my health insurance." Evelyn pointed out, her voice raising. 

"Your health insurance can't cover your bills..." The nurse was explaining but Evelyn interrupted her. 

"How come?" Evelyn inquired, her lips trembling and her voice was becoming shaky. What she had dreaded was finally coming out to play. 

"You lost a lot of blood so you received a lot of blood transfusion. That, coupled with other treatments and that of the baby." The nurse explained to her. 

"So, what is going to happen to me now?" Evelyn asked, clenching her fists. She was trying to brace herself up for any news but she wasn't strong enough. She bit her lower lip in anxiety. 

"We will be forced to discharge you if you can't settle the bill before the end of today." The nurse informed her, regrettably. 

Evelyn's chest heaved up and down and she felt she would have a panic attack. 

"Today? How can I possibly settle the bill before the end of today? Where do I go to if I get discharged?" She asked the nurse, swallowing hard. 

"I am so sorry, Madam. But this is not my decision. It is the organization's decision and I have no say." The nurse told her solemnly and walked away, leaving Evelyn disorganized. 

"Where do I go with my child?" Evelyn asked rhetorically. She wasn't even concerned about the fact that she hadn't recovered fully and was still undergoing treatment, all Evelyn could think of was where to go with her child. 

She wasn't the type that kept many friends. The few friends she had, stayed with their parents and when she got pregnant out of wedlock and couldn't even tell who was responsible, her friends' parents warned them to stay away from her, tagging her as a wayward girl. 

"All my friends have deserted me, now it is my family. I don't have anywhere to go to." She sobbed. 

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Please take pity on me. At least for the sake of my child who is less than a week old." Evelyn's pleas were unheard as she got discharged from the hospital later that evening. 

It was a cold, windy night and the rain was threatening to fall. 

"I am sorry you have an incompetent woman as your mother." Evelyn said sadly to her child as she cradled her to her chest. She kept walking down the streets even though she had no destination. 

Having walked for several minutes without stopping, She started feeling dizzy, yet she didn't stop. Suddenly, her legs wobbled and she knew she was going to faint. She held her child tightly to her chest and struggled to stay awake. 

"Are you trying to get yourself killed?" Evelyn heard a deep, masculine voice yelled at her, at that moment. And that was when she realized that a car had almost hit her. 

The realization, coupled with the loud sound of the car's horn stuck her shockingly and she finally succumbed to her tiredness. 

She fainted.