Chapter 30

Precious

She didn’t talk much on the drive home from after school care. Everything was upended now. She didn’t know how much longer she had this cutie, she had cried a lot during the day

The mere thought that she not see him somedays made her nauseous

To think she would never see him again terrorized her more than the spooked toilet

They went out for pizza, Jaidrith got French fries and gelato

She packed her uneaten pizza and walked home like zombies

She looked up Siddhi Vinayak on her phone and listened to bhajans

She was not spiritual or religious the first 20 something years, but more recently since his allergies were inducing fear she had begun praying more

She listened to Sukha Karta Dukha harata for an hour on loop from 7 to 8 PM and set up her mandir

Around 10 PM the furniture was delivered just when she was yelling at Jaidrith for losing his epipen bag in school, he had not done his homework, read through two anime comics straight up

Not washed his hair three days in a row

And cried about hating this flat, because the boys across the hallway didn’t play with their door open this evening

The furniture made her happy for a bit

A floor level divan and two foldable bamboo chairs for the living room and a bunk bed with tons of storage for the bedroom and a desk for her and a stackable desk for him that slid under her desk

She told him he couldn’t have the top bunk tonight because he   misbehaved

He cried himself to sleep without drinking his soy milk

She hated the look of it even

She cried on his behalf, and wondered why he couldn’t have been “normal”

“Its my daughter Ira’s birthday, would Jaidrith like to come over?” Lynn texted her next morning

She had forgotten what connected her to Lynn

It all came back

She was looking up a medium on Google, she was not convinced the toilet door would swing open and shut “just like that”

Jaidrith’s first question

“When are we going back to that house?”

He was sick of holding his pee at night as well

They got ready to leave

Canyon Oaks had rejected him despite the MD’s referral

A place near her hotel sold rice bread she had bought it for the first time, she slathered two tablespoons of jam and gave him a slice

He had the door open a crack, and was happy to be “playing with the kids” across the hallway

He actually are 3/4th of the slice

Small wins!

At work around 10 AM she received a text from “Jaidrith’s ---”

Just when she slid into amnesia over the DNA test one thing or another reminded her

“Hello, Would you like to meet sometime to discuss next steps?”

That was it, she had to run to the bathroom to throw up

The panic attack lasted until 1ish, returning in waves, her body shaking in fear, quite literally

In the lunch hour she hid in the stairwell, and between tears texted her response

“Will you run away with my Jaidrith?”

She saw ----

She held her breath

“No I will not!”

“I want you to know the test doesn’t mean he is not mine”

“I understand!” he smiled over there

He had no idea how broken she was, he was almost amused at her naivete

“He is still mine”

“Of course”

“I am afraid I will never see him again if you take him”

“That won’t happen”

“I don’t know how to save him”

“He won’t need saving” he explained patiently

“He is precious!” she told him vehemently

“Agree!” he said somberly