"You know you're cleaning this up, right?" He quietly said to Louise's merriment.
* * * * * * * *
December 10, 1982 11:23 a.m.
"Mother make sure you get your proper rest and remember you can't do it all yourself…" The discharging nurse instructed Marla as she sat at an active Jayden's bedside.
"I know… I'll remember it… Believe me; I'll never forget this for the rest of my life." Marla responded almost tearfully as she watched Jayden kicking his legs about in his crib.
"Do you have someone to help you? Is the father home?" The nurse probed. She raised a discerning eye up from the paperwork. Marla attempted to control her fidgeting fingers. She was slightly embarrassed but it couldn't be help.
"Ahem… He wasn't there." She spoke quietly deciding that less was best.
"Ah he was a work?" The nurse said with understanding. Marla quickly nodded her head at the nurse's misunderstanding.
"Aye, Jayden must have a guardian angel looking out for him." The nurse commented as she continued completing the discharging paperwork for Jayden. "We don't have too many happy endings with stories of children being submerged under water for more than ten minutes."
"You'll never know how grateful I am." Marla expressed solemnly to the nurse as she folded up the paperwork the nurse had handed to her and inserted them into her purse. She then picked up Jayden's bag and threw it on one shoulder and quickly gathered up Jayden in her arms.
"We'll escort you down." The nurse informed her.
Once Marla reached her car that was parked near the main lobby of the hospital she entered her car. Securing Jayden in his car seat and then getting in on the driver's side and securing herself into her own seatbelt, she then started up the car.
"Ready, set go…" She teased a smiling and babbling Jayden. Slowly she backed out from between the two cars that were parked on either side of her; careful not to hit either of them and the ones that were neatly parked in a row behind her. As she rounded the corner making her way to the stop sign at the exit of the lot suddenly she slammed on the brakes and her jaw dropped. Abruptly Marla's smile up-side-downed into a tight-gritted frown.
"Bitch!" She unexpectedly hissed. Two blocks down the street she spied Jacob coming out of the Family Care Center with a small boy perched around his neck sitting happily upon his shoulders. Her eyes constricted as she felt her blood pulsating throughout her body. Her fingers tightened around the steering wheel as her breathing grew laborious. Seeing Jacob being so loving and tender with another woman's child, yet refusing to acknowledge his own bused her heart. How could he be so indifferent and uncaring to his own son?