Page 8 of On You 2

Now there was none of that. Just a silence that was killing me by the second.

I got out of bed and walked over to his area before picking up one of the books from the stack. It opened right to the page he'd folded down weeks ago.

A sad laugh slipped out of me.

"Boy, you know I told you not to bend these pages."

The words left my mouth automatically.

For a second, it almost felt normal.

Like he was in the bathroom or in the room with Mama and was about to come running back into the room at any moment.

I carefully flattened the page with my hand and put the book back where I found it.

Then my eyes landed on his headphones hanging from the bedpost.

I don't know why that got to me more than anything else.

Maybe because he never went anywhere with me without them. I’m sure Reggie had some for him at their place, but these were the ones that I was used to seeing him in most of the time.

Hospital or not, those headphones should've been on his head right now.

Instead, they were hanging there waiting for him.

I looked away before my mind could go any further with that thought and I crawled back into the bed where I felt my most comfortable.

As soon as my head touched the pillow, the bedroom door cracked open.

This time it was Pernelle.

“Hey, sister.”

“Hey.”

She stepped into the room slowly, like she already knew I was barely holding myself together.

“I know you probably wanted to stay in this bed all day, but I think you should come outside for a minute and get some fresh air.”

“Fresh air?” I laughed dryly.

“It was gloomy as hell outside earlier.”

“Yeah, it was, but the sun is out now,” she replied while sitting beside me on the edge of the bed.

“The clouds moved completely out of the way. It's bright outside now, Jas. Real bright. I think God heard us today. I really do. It's been dark and cold every day this whole week, then all of a sudden, after that prayer circle, the sun comes out. Now, I'm not the most religious person in the world, but if you ask me, that's nothing but God telling us that he heard our cries.”

The moment she said that, tears slid down my face before I could stop them, and Pernelle instantly reached over and wiped one away with her thumb.

“So, do you want to come outside for a minute? No pressure. Just a minute.”

After sitting there for a few seconds, I finally nodded before slipping my shoes on.

I grabbed my sunglasses off the nightstand because my eyes were so swollen that I didn't want anyone seeing what I looked like right now.

The second I stepped into the hallway, I heard kids running around the house, and for once it didn't sound like torture.

Maybe it was because all I could focus on was that tiny piece of hope Pernelle had managed to place inside me talking about the sunshine outside.