Page 13 of Family Bonds- Gabriela & Luca

“Better,” Jaylen said. “Is my mom coming?”

Gabriela looked at her watch. It was six. “Visiting hours start at eight. I’m sure she’ll be here by then, if not a few minutes earlier.”

They weren’t so strict that they wouldn’t let someone in to see their child if they showed up before eight.

“I miss her,” Jaylen said.

“I know, honey,” she said. “But you’ve got to get better before you go home. You don’t want to get sick again, do you?”

Jaylen’s head shook slowly. “What are you going to do to me?”

She put her computer on the table. “I’m just going to listen to your heart,” she said. “Nothing more. This is an easy visit.” She put the tips in her ears, then the bell to Jaylen’s chest, listened, then removed it. “Can you sit forward for me and breathe in when I tell you to?”

“Yes,” Jaylen said, moving forward.

She listened to the little girl’s lungs, then stepped back and returned the stethoscope around her neck.

“Everything sounds good. It says here you haven’t eaten anything though. Is that right?”

“I don’t want to throw up again or run to the bathroom.”

“I know,” she said, putting her hand on Jaylen’s arm. “But we can’t let you leave until we know you can keep food down. We gave you medicine. You’ve been drinking and haven’t thrown up all night, right?”

Jaylen nodded her head. “You know,” Luca said. “It’s really hard to do something when you’re afraid it’s going to hurt, isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“But sometimes you have to try to know it’s going to be okay. Is there anything you really want to eat? I bet you’re hungry,” he said.

“I am.”

“We can get several things to try,” she said. “Did you see the menu? And you get to order just like takeout online. Pretty neat, huh?”

Gabriela reached for the menu that was hanging off the bed and handed it over.

“What’s that?” Jaylen was pointing at the black box.

“It’s a QR code. If you have a phone, and you put it in your camera window, then the menu will pop up on your screen to see specials for the day.” She pulled her phone out and showed the little girl how it worked. “See. For breakfast there is apple-stuffed French toast with whipped topping.”

“That sounds yummy to me,” Luca said. “I bet something like an apple pie.”

“I like apple pie,” Jaylen said.

“Well, if you want to order that, we can do it for you. They will bring it up soon and you can try it. Just a little at a time, see how it tastes and go from there. Maybe get some toast and juice with it just in case you want that instead?” she asked.

“Okay.”

“I’ll show you how to order it,” she said. She grabbed the remote hanging on the bed. “See. It’s set to your room and you go up here to where it says food and then you find breakfast, and scroll down for your choices.”

She placed the order for Jaylen, then left the room with Luca.

“That’s great,” he said. “I didn’t think there’d be that kind of technology here.”

“Oh, we’ve got a lot of technology because we can’t get staff. So anything we can do to replace a body, it’s being done. Horrible, I know.”

“It’s efficient,” he said.

They went to the other two rooms, checked on those patients, then returned to Jaylen’s after she’d eaten. Seeing that she looked better and kept it down, they met with Jaylen’s mother.