That Love Thing by Bailey West

Author:Bailey West [West, Bailey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-07-01T16:00:00+00:00

“And we just can’t get her to calm down!” Melissa, one of my mother’s aides, yelled into the phone.

“When did it start?”

“She was already in full melt down when I got here at seven this morning. I tried to give her the medication to calm her, but she slapped it out of my hand. As much as I love working for you, I can’t tolerate her putting her hands on me,” Melissa said.

“I understand.”

I could hear my mother in the background yelling incoherent words amid a lot of noise and chaos.

“I called Roberta over to see if she could get her to at least take her medicine, but so far neither of us can get her to do anything. It’s a mess over here, Bella. I’m afraid someone in the building is going to call the police if we don’t do something,” Melissa yelled.

“What are our options?”

“We can call the ambulance. They’ll take her, but I’m positive they’ll do a forty-eight-hour mental health hold. Remember the last time she was admitted to the psychiatric ward? It took us weeks to get her back to normal.”

“Yes, I remember.”

Unfortunately, this was not the first time my mother had a mental health crisis. The one where she was admitted to the mental hospital was a particularly bad one. The nurses and I worked for two days trying to get her to calm down before we had no other choice than to call the ambulance. Typically, the police accompanied the ambulance and since police officers were not trained to handle a mental health crisis, the situation could get worse. Melissa typically had success with getting my mother to calm down, but it didn’t sound like her tactics worked this time.

“The other option is for Roberta and me to force this medicine into her. The problem with that is one or all of us could be hurt,” Melissa explained.

“Do you know what triggered it?”

“No, she won’t talk. She’s just screaming and throwing things.”

“Can you put me on speaker? Maybe I can talk to her?”

It had never worked before, but I was willing to give it a shot.

“Mom. Mommy. What’s going on over there?”

She continued with the babble.

“If you don’t calm down, we’re going to have to call the ambulance. We don’t want to do that,” I yelled over the noise.

My phone beeped with a call on the other end. It was Ebonique. I ignored the call and continued talking to my mother.

“Shirley. We are going to lose Roberta and Melissa if you keep this up. You’ve already been violent towards them. I can’t get there right now, but I really need for you to calm down.”

My phone beeped with another call from Ebonique. I ignored it again. I had a thought.

“Melissa, was my sister over there?”

“You know what now that you mention it. I think she was over here,” Melissa answered.

“Mom. What happened between you and Nique? Did she do or say something that has you feeling bad?”

My mother’s babbling increased.

“No, Shirley!” I heard Roberta yell.

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