Chapter 3
Ninety minutes later, James was sitting in a comfortable armchair in one of the many fashion stores in the near-by mall watching Violet parading dress after dress after dress. To him she looked pretty in every single one of them but as every teenager she was never content and wouldn’t hear it when her father said she looked great.
After some time, Ethan started crying again, so James got up and walked with him trough the store while one of the store assistants kept bringing new dresses for Vi, all the while throwing curious looks at the tall handsome man with the baby. However, James quickly felt the appeal he had with the mostly female customers turn into annoyance when Ethan’s crying became louder and louder. He tried to give him his bottle, rocked him in his arms, even sang a lullaby he remembered from his own childhood – but in vain. Ethan had cried himself into a frenzy and didn’t seem to be likely to stop any time soon.
Out of ideas what to do James caressed the baby’s face, and panic gripped his heart. Ethan was hot and sweaty. He was ill! James’ head started spinning. He had never dealt with a sick baby. Of course their other children had been ill before but they had been much older when they adopted them. Ethan had joined their family only three months ago and he had been in perfect health until now. What if it was serious?!
James quickly returned to the changing booth Violet was in and knocked on the door. “Vi, we need to go. Ethan is ill.”
“One second.” A minute later Vi emerged from the booth, fully dressed in her own clothes, a bundle of dresses in her arms and concern on her face. “What is it?”
“I don’t know. He’s hot and sweaty and he won’t stop crying. We need to go to the hospital.”
“Yes, of course.” Vi dropped the dresses into the assistant’s arms, apologized for the mess and hurried after her father who was already rushing towards the parking garage.
Back in the car Vi sat down next to Ethan’s baby seat stroking his wet hair and trying to calm him down.
“I’ll drop you off at the bus station, so you can go back home,” James said throwing worried glances into the rear-view mirror and flooring the gas pedal. “Tell Steve that I'm sorry but he will have to watch Daisy and Hunter in the afternoon.”
“What about the football match? Hunter has been looking forward to this for weeks.”
“I know but he cannot go alone and Daisy cannot stay at home alone.”
“I’ll watch her then.”
“I thought you were meeting your friends.”
“Why, yes. But this is way more important. Don’t be silly, dad.”
James felt a wave of love and gratitude wash trough him. “Thank you, Vi. You really are turning into a wonderful, responsible young woman. Your mom would be proud of you. She doesn’t have to know about this, though. She’d only worry, and I want her to enjoy her trip.”
“Don’t worry, dad, so do I. I'm not telling her. Just make sure that Ethan gets better soon.”
They had reached the bus station and after telling her father to call her as soon as he knew anything new, Violet left the car.
The door had hardly closed behind her when James already sped off towards the hospital. He double-parked outside the main entrance, grabbed the baby who hadn’t stopped crying for a single second, and hurried inside.
The place was packed with people of all ages, sizes and ethnicities. Holding Ethan tightly, James made his way to the reception desk where a white-haired nurse told him to fill in a form and sit down in the waiting area until he was called up.
Even though his entire body was tingling with fear and he wanted to see a doctor rather sooner than later, he knew that there was no sense in arguing with the nurses, so he sat down and tried his best to answer the many questions on the form. How was he supposed to know all this? Nat had always taken care of things like this and he hardly remembered what the adoption papers had said about Ethan’s medical past.
Hours passed. They were called in to a very nice black doctor in his forties who took Ethan’s temperature and a blood sample. He looked into his mouth, ears and eyes, and then sent them back out to wait until the test results were in.
At the time, Ethan had finally stopped crying even though mainly from exhaustion. James cradled him lovingly ignoring most of his surroundings except for the speakers which he was hoping to announce the name “Barnes” as soon as possible.