Crystal Q&A

 

 What are you reading? Infant care books

What are you eating? Anything in sight, but I only got scrambled eggs and toast this morning. You'd think I would get more after having a C-section.

What are you drinking? Apple Juice

What’s in your cart? A lot of baby girl things, even if I can't afford them.

What are you thinking about? How freaked out I was. The shock of not knowing I was even pregnant. I feel so upset that I wasn't getting ready for a baby. I didn't even get to enjoy being pregnant.  I didn't know. And I...I'm just exhausted. Still, it makes me sad. Thinking I could have...Oh, but she's all right and well, CW and I can't decide what to name her. It even sounds funny to say, "Our baby."  But I know I have to keep moving. I need to get my act together. So I'm making CW read all these books with me. Actually, he's reading them to me, and we can do this. We can. We have to. I'm pretty sure Miracle should at least be her middle name.

It's a new Day

 

When Cedric saw CW coming into the ER with Crystal, he couldn't imagine what might be happening. Finally, it hit him.

"When did this happen?" Cedric wanted to know when he helped CW get ready for the new arrival. It was all happening so quickly. He knew CW was in shock.

"Right now," CW sputtered. "I mean, there was a time or two I wondered if..if this might happen, but I was afraid to say anything. I didn't want her going off the deep end. Really, I just wanted to be there for her. I wasn't thinking it would be the three of us."

His brow furrowed as if he might be in thought of what might be next as he crawled into the blue paper suit. CW looked as if he might be ready to work at the hospital.

"I dunno what to say," Cedric told him, that he was probably Crystal's closest family. "She's been solo most of her life. It's just. You two? Having a kid." Cedric looked at CW. Was this twenty-something-year-old really going to be on board with the idea of fatherhood?

"I just want her to be all right," CW confessed that he loved Crystal and he'd do what he could to support her.

"I know you do. You just have to keep telling her that until she believes it. She can be..." Cedric shook his head. "So testy. And to think how she wanted her sister's baby and now she's having one." Cedric remembered how motherly she was when Cedric and his partner adopted Crystal's sister's baby. Crystal thought then that might be the only way she'd ever be a mom. But now.....

There was no time to waste. CW was in his surgical attire, waiting to help with the baby.

I'm too tired to end the war

 It didn't sit well with Crystal that Nico was moving out on his own. He'd be moving into the apartment over Joe's garage, where he worked full-time, but he washed dishes at the Coffee Shop on the weekend.

"Why are you so worried?" CW shrugged about the matter. "It's not like he's your kid or anything."

He spoke so openly to her now. It left her a little gruff. "What's the matter with you boy?" She knew she was harsh for no good reason. After all, he was everything to her lately. "If there's any child around here, it's you." She hugged herself and stomped away to the kitchen for a glass of cold water. CW followed.

"What's the matter with you?" He tilted his head as if he hadn't been listening to her at all. "You get so crazy."

"It's the heat." She fanned herself with the cheaply decorated fan CW kept getting her. She heaved a sigh as if she really wished he'd get out of her face.

"You haven't had a period in months."

His words alarmed him. How did he know? She looked at him as if he were bringing up some kind of ghost.

"Why won't you go to the doctor?"

She sucked in a breath as if it might keep her from listening, but that's when he confessed that he knew she was bipolar. Crystal scrunched a frown. This was off limits. So was her menstrual cycle, but he stood in the middle of the kitchen wanting to know. 

"You need a haircut." She dragged out the kitchen chair as if she just might shave his head this time.

He told her he didn't need one, but she sat him down as if he were the only child she would ever need.

"I have periods that come and go. So don't be alarmed. It's nothing." She told him, combing through his greasy hair. For a moment, she thought about what was causing this greasy hair. Soon, she decided this was what happened to fry cooks.

"Why can't I worry? Huh?"

She started to snip at his hair. It was just a trim. Actually, she liked the length of it. Suddenly, it occurred to her if they had a child it would end up with her nappy hair. Still, she didn't want to get ahead of herself. There was the coffee shop to worry about. But it was late July now. Things were slowing down. Next month, school starts. Time marched on.

She closed her eyes for a second. Her body began to sway. The scissors dropped to the floor. Crystal felt as if an earthquake was about to happen. Or maybe her spine was cracking. A  gush of water flooded the kitchen floor.

CW jumped up. "Holy Shit!"

Crystal sighed and told him, "No swearing allowed." It was the least she could do as she staggered toward the bathroom, but CW was on the phone with 911.

Crystal stared at the commode. She was too constipated to think.

Thought that was a good solution

Amy knew her parents would be upset when she told them she broke up with Eli. After all, Eli worked for her Dad at the Music Center in Old Towne just a block away from the Coffee Shop. But they were OK  with it. Just when she thought she might be a bad girl, they turned it around, inviting Nico over for dinner.

"I like him," her mother said. "He's really sweet." She made it sound as if Nico was a keeper. After all, he'd brought Amy lunch from time to time. In fact, he never let her run at night [which was the coolest part of the day to get her two-mile run in to keep up with her distance running]. "He cares about you, and he's got like two jobs, doesn't he?"

Her mother didn't talk about the fact that Nico wasn't in school anymore. She liked that he did things with her. "You make sure to appreciate his efforts. Maybe sometime, you could bring him lunch."

Amy gritted a smile. Yes, she was still in high school, and she was in angst mode less and less thanks to Nico. Still, he'd say to her from time to time, "You gotta chill more." Of course, later, as they got closer over the summer, he always added Babe to these one-liners, which gave way to her smiling more.

"Now, if you'd just get over this, whatever it is with Junie, well..." Nico shrugged.

"Well, what?" She was back in envy mode.

"Friendships are important," Nico said there was no need to be angry with Junie. Besides, he could tell it was a relief to break up with Eli. "I know you two go way back."

"She's changed." Amy found herself yelling at Nico as they walked off one of the summer runs down at the park after dark.

He took her hand and clasped his fingers between hers.

"You've changed too." He reminded her that Junie did ignore her when she met that Connor fellow. "I bet she regrets a lot of things that happened."

"Well, she left me out," Amy pouted. "We were best friends."

"Yeah, yeah, as long as she was there for you about every little thing, but you-"

"What?" Amy snapped.

"You're a funny girl," Nico smiled with a chuckle as if he knew something she'd have to find out for herself. "Now, just chill, Babe. No need to get worked up about it."

Amy sighed, knowing he was right. Actually, a lot of things worked her up in life. Her mother came back into her life. Her father and mother started a new family. It was so easy to find something to sulk about, yet it was taking a toll on her health. There was a time when she'd go without eating for days, and no one seemed to notice. 

She looked at Nico, finding his laughter infectious. She kissed him on the cheek. Finally, it felt she had someone on her side.