So You Call Yourself A Man. Carl Weber

weak smile. The dim light in his eyes showed he remembered me. “Daddddy,” he whispered.

      I didn’t respond—I just turned to Michelle, who was opening the Children’s Advil. I wanted to say something, but from the look on her face, it wouldn’t have been wise.

      “Why’d you get this? I told you I wanted Children’s Tylenol,” she complained.

      “Children’s Advil is better than Tylenol. It’ll bring his fever down faster. Trust me. I’ve got two sons, remember?”

      Michelle stopped what she was doing and turned to me as she spoke. The word “attitude” should have been written all over her face. “No, James, you’ve got three sons: James Jr., Michael, and Marcus. Don’t you ever forget that!”

      Our eyes locked, and my mind told me this was not a battle I could win. So, it was time to change the subject. I was starting to formulate a plan, though, and when it was all said and done, I’d have the last laugh.

      “Did you take his temperature?” I asked.

      “Yeah, it looked like it said 105, but—”

      “A hundred and five! It can’t be 105. He’d be damn near dead if it was 105!”

      “I don’t know. Maybe I was reading the thermometer wrong. I never had to do this before. My mama was always here.” She looked like she wanted to cry.

      “Where is it?”

      She took the thermometer off the dresser and handed it to me. I inserted it in Marcus’s mouth. When I read the red line and it indicated 101, I turned to Michelle. “We better take him to the emergency room.”

      “Okay. Let me give him a dose of this Advil and I’ll be ready.” Michelle grabbed up Marcus’s jacket and a blanket to throw over his head.

      I opened my eyes to the bright lights of Jamaica Hospital’s waiting room and the annoying sound of Michelle’s agitated voice calling my name. I’d dozed off about twenty or thirty minutes ago and now all I wanted to do was close my eyes and go back to sleep—something Michelle was not about to let me do, from the scolding look on her face. Why the heck was this girl so mad at me all the time?

      “Wake up, James.” Michelle kicked me lightly.

      “I’m up,” I snapped, moving my feet to my right side so that she couldn’t kick me again.

      Absentmindedly, I scanned the waiting room, thankful that I didn’t see anyone I knew. It would be just my luck that one of Cathy’s friends would walk into the waiting room and see me with Michelle. I checked my watch. I’d been gone from my house over two and a half hours. All I could do was pray that Cathy would sleep through the night and not notice I was gone, but the way things were going in my life, I was expecting her call at any moment. I needed to get my behind home.

      “What’d the doctors say? Is Marcus going to be all right?”

      I didn’t have a clue as to what Marcus’s condition was because I’d been forced to stay behind in the waiting room after they called his name. Can you believe that after sitting there for an hour and fifteen minutes, they still wouldn’t let me go with Michelle, because only one parent was allowed in the examination room during treatment? What I didn’t understand was why they hadn’t rushed him straight into the examination room in the first place. When the nurse took his temperature, she had it at 102. Recently, there’d been quite a few cases of West Nile virus in the news, so I was more worried about the little guy than I let on. Especially when I remembered that I’d seen a dead bird in Michelle’s driveway the other day.

      “It’s an ear infection. The doctor says he’s going to be all right.”

      I let out a sigh of relief. “My kids have had ear infections before. They’re really no big deal as long as he doesn’t have them on the regular.”

      “I’ll be able to take him home once the fever breaks,” Michelle said.

      “Thank God. How long do they think that’s gonna be?” My face didn’t hide the fact that I was ready to leave. As far as I was concerned, I’d done my good deed. Hell, I’d gone beyond the call of duty. I’d brought her the children’s Advil, taken her to the hospital, and stuck around for a few hours.

      “I don’t know. The doctor said it could be twenty minutes, it could be a couple of hours.”

      “A couple of hours?” I glanced at her, shaking my head. “Michelle, I can’t stay here a couple of hours. Do you think if I gave you cab fair you could…”

      She raised her hand to stop me from talking. I was sure she was about to tell me some shit like, “Hell no, you can’t leave. I ain’t about to take my baby home in no cab,” but to my surprise, she didn’t say anything like that.

      “Go on home, James. I got money for a cab.” She actually looked sincere.

      “You sure? I don’t want any trouble, Michelle.”

      She nodded, giving me a slight smile. “Ain’t gonna be no trouble, James. I know you gotta be home before the sun comes up.” She bent over and kissed my forehead.

      “What’s that for?”

      “That’s for being a good father. I know I was tough on you, but I appreciate what you did.”

      “Ms. Jones?” We both turned toward the voice and an Indian man in a lab coat approached us. “It looks like your son’s fever has broken. You can take him home.”

      Both Michelle and I smiled. “Thank you, doctor,” I said. The doctor walked back to the examination area and Michelle turned toward me. “I understand this isn’t a perfect situation for you, James, but all I want you to do is treat my son the same way you do his brothers. I don’t want no more, no less. You think you can handle that?”

      “I just don’t want any drama, Michelle.”

      “Neither do I. I just want you to be a father for my son.”

      “Then that’s what I’ll be. All you gotta do is work with me.” And I meant what I said.