Abel Ladd - The Crying Child | Day 15 : 2213 words

Esme’s eyes snapped open to the sound of the pda and the incoming call. It felt like one long blink but as she picked up the pda she saw it had been nearly half an hour then saw the call was from the center. She accepted the call and said, “Hello?”
“Yes Mrs. Ladd? This is Doctor Stetler.”
“Thank you for calling me back,” Esme said then asked, “is there anything that can save Neal?”
“Lennie told me about what happened and I’m really sorry. That’s one rather unique situation, hydrogen fluoride is not a commonly used substance, there are only so many uses,” he replied.
“So what does that mean?” She asked as her voice caught at the end.
“Well, when something is rarely used there are far less experts than other fields that are much more commonly used. From what I could find there is only one possibility at this point which is a major organ transplant which is I’m sorry to say a veritable impossibility on zero notice.” Doctor Stetler’s voice was gentle but strong as he continued, “There are only three cases of this level of exposure I could find in all the available medical history and none of them ended well. I can only suggest that you accept the inevitable at this point.”
Esme felt her stomach tightening as he spoke and she could feel herself resisting his suggestion. She took a deep breath then asked, “what if I were able to supply the organs? Could you perform the transplants?”
The line was silent for a long pause before he replied, “Mrs. Ladd, I first and foremost have to decline on moral lines let alone my medical license would be revoked in a split second if any other person were to find out. I would hope that you don’t entertain that idea.”
Esme sat in frustration on the couch as she chewed her lip trying to devise any way to save Neal, her mind flipping between extremes from benign to full on organ harvesting of some person. She was desperate for a solution and finally asked, “how much would it cost for you to do the transplant?”
“Mrs. Ladd please stop. You’re going to have accept this and work on making the important decisions that you have now,” he said in exasperation.
Esme’s mind was racing at his point and she was barely listening to him speak as she tried to figure out the logistics of finding a donor, willing or not, for Neal. There were plenty of people that could easily not be missed, she had been walking by them in the city for months.
“Mrs. Ladd?” The Doctor asked after an extended pause.
“Oh, sorry. Thank you for the call, I think I know what I have to do, this helped a lot,” her voice tried to sound confident despite her inner thoughts.
His concern now became more urgent then as he said, “you mustn’t do anything stupid Mrs. Ladd, he is beyond the hope of medical science at this point. Please, just focus on your child as he needs you very much right now.”
At the mention of Abel she instantly focused her hearing towards his room but did not hear any noises so she relaxed a bit back into the present. “Thank you Doctor, I better go check on him, he is starting to fuss in his room,” she said trying to end the conversation.
Doctor Stetler could hear the hurry in her voice and let her go with a simple, “call if you need anything for Abel.”
The line went silent then the call hung up as Esme was already stuffing the pda in her pocket as she headed for Abel’s room. Stopping at the partially open door she saw him still in his crib and as she moved into the room she could hear tiny deep breathing coming form his little form. She let him continue sleeping and quietly walked out of the room then to the kitchen where she stood in front of the open fridge staring at the food inside as nothing sounded appetizing, though she knew she had to eat.
The pda toned in her pocket which snapped her out of her thoughts and as she closed the door she pulled the pda from her pocket to see Neal’s work calling. “Hello,” she said flatly after accepting the call.
“Esme? This is Thane Franklin from TDI, Neal’s boss.”
“Oh hi Thane,” she said with a slight sigh.
“I’m so sorry what happened to Neal, are you doing okay?” he asked with audible concern in his voice.
“Not really. Neal’s on life support now,” she replied.
“Oh god, I’m so sorry,” he said sorrowfully.
“What happened Thane? The hospital only said a machine malfunctioned and exploded hydrogen fluoride.”
“Our big vacuum laser went down and we think when the electrical board blew it damaged the lines for the hyflo. We went back and looked at the camera footage and it looks like he leaned on the lines and they broke.” Thane explained.
“Isn’t there something that should have kept this from happening?” she asked.
“Generally yes but he was working inside the machine housing which is usually the guard. It seems that somehow the machine started where the cycle left off when power was turned on which shouldn’t happen when panels are not installed. OSHA has a team here and they are investigating so hopefully they will have some answers when they are done.”
Esme’s silence made Thane uneasy and he continued, “I cleaned out his locker for you and can bring his things to you.”
“That’d be nice, I don’t want to have to drag Abel across the city again so soon,” she said as her heart lightened a fraction.
“That is kind of what I was figuring. Are you at home?” Thane asked.
“For now but we will have to go back to the hospital later.”
“I can be there before noon if that works?” he offered.
“That’ll work. Thank you Thane,” Esme said.
“Alright I’ll see you soon,” he said then hung up.
She dropped her hand with the pda to her side and blinkingly stared at the closed fridge doors in front of her trying to remember what she had been doing. The rumble of her stomach reminded her quickly and she opened a cabinet and pulled a protein bar from a box, stripping the wrapper from it and tossing it in the garbage she shoved the bar in her mouth. From down the hallway she could hear Abel starting to fuss and she went to see as she quickly devoured the protein bar, “damn I am hungry,” she thought as she got to Abel’s door.
The rest of the morning was spent feeding and changing Abel then him taking small naps until the knock on the door. Esme checked the peep hole and saw a larger man with a TDI MFG jacket on and opened the door. “Hi Thane,” she said as the door swung open.
“Hi Esme,” he said gently as he reached around her shoulders and gave her hug which caused her to suddenly begin to tear up.
They stood in the doorway for a while before he let go of her and held out his other arm with the bag of Neal’s belongings. She nodded and motioning her hand inside said, “come in.”
They walked to the kitchen and Thane set the bag on the counter where Esme opened it and slid the pile from inside. Atop it sat Neal’s pda and she flicked it to turn on the screen which blinked on to show a line of notifications. She set the pda down and slowly flipped through the stack.
“We haven’t gathered all of his tools yet, they’re around the machine which is cordoned off still for the investigation.” Thane said.
“They say the only chance of him surviving is with a massive organ transplant but there is no chance of that since there are long waiting lists for organs, and he would need so many…” Esme said as she stared at the pile in front of her letting her words trail off.
“There’s no other options?” he asked.
“None, or so they say,” she replied. “Apparently there have only been three other exposures before and none of them survived.”
Thane’s eyes got big as she spoke and he slowly said, “only three others?”
“I don’t know what to do. I’m not supposed to have a new born and my husband on life support. I need him here with me, Abel needs him, “ she said as she began to cry again.
Thane watched the tears roll down her cheeks and said gently, “I wish there was something we could do to help you.”
Esme was silent for a while then tentatively asked, “you don’t happen to have someone willing to donate their body for the organs do you?”
His downcast smile flashed across his face before saying, “no, I don’t know anyone. Probably not the type of person most of run into.”
“I figured I’d ask. I don’t know anyone else who might even remotely know of anyone that would. I mean I see the homeless everywhere around the city, could I just get one of them?” she asked sullenly.
Thane blinked at her in shock as she flipped Neal’s wallet around in her hand atop the pile. He thought a moment then said, “you would have to find one that is in good health, you wouldn’t want diseased and abused organs.”
Esme’s eyes snapped up to look at him and her eyebrow raised as she replied, “are you serious?”
“Are you?” he shot back.
Her head dropped and she mumbled, “no, but yes. There has to be a way to save him.”
“I don’t know, it doesn’t sound like it unfortunately. But I guess it is always best to not give up hope so you might keep looking,” he said with a slight shrug.
“I’m running really low on hope now,” she said as she shook her head.
“Well we’re here for you if you need anything. The whole plant is shocked by this and there are a lot of people who are pretty upset now. I know the company will do what they can too,” he said hopefully.
“I hope so. He was our only income.”
“You’re on the company insurance so they should help you out with everything. I don’t think anything this serious has ever happened at the plant and I know all of management is in crisis mode now.”
Abel’s sudden explosion of crying caught Thane off guard and as the belows became louder so did Thane’s eyes. “So, so it’s true then?” he stammered through his shock.
“What’s true?” she asked as she turned to head for Abel’s room.
“He’s the Crying Child,” Thane’s sudden reverential tone caught Esme’s attention.
“Uhm, well. I, I’m not sure. Some people are saying that but I don’t know,” she tried to push the topic aside quickly.
Abel’s cries had reached crescendo and Esme quickly walked from the room for his. She entered the room and when she got to the crib side she found his tiny form had thrown aside his swaddle, was red faced, and had a wet diaper. She picked him up and set him on the changing table as he continued to scream and began the process. As she turned to toss the dirty diaper in the pail she caught sight of Thane’s form standing in the doorway.
“I can barely remember when my kids were newborns, so tiny,” he said softly.
Esme finished changing Abel, wrapped him up and then carried him to the door. “Thane meet Abel,” she said as she turned his face to the light.
He looked down at the tiny form in her arms and said gently, “hey little man. It sounds like you already have quite the life ahead of you.”
Abel stared back at him with wide eyes then scrunched his neck and turned his head in big yawn.
Thane straightened and said, “he’s probably hungry so I’ll get going and let you do what you need to do.” He then turned and began to walk down the hall to the door as Esme followed.
“Thank you for bringing his things by, that means a lot to me and it really helps not having to take this little guy out constantly,” Esme said.
As they reached the door to the apartment Thane turned and said seriously, “I mean it, if you need anything let us know.”
Esme’s voice held the air of gradual acceptance of the situation as she said, “well the one thing I really need is Neal okay but the chances of there being a donor that would match and be found on such short notice, it’s just not possible. So I don’t know.”
Thane put his large hand on her shoulder and said, “I’m sorry Esme.” His hand sliding back to his side he opened the door with his other and as he walked out the door said, “keep your boy safe, the world needs him.” He closed it as he left and Esem was left standing there with Abel as his words sank in.