Raina's Story by Lurlene McDaniel Read Free Book Online Page A

sure.”
    Vicki looked both angry and exasperated. “That's why I don't like to see you get so involved with a boy. You have too much going for you, Raina. Don't get hung up on some boy and lose yourself. Or your way.”
    Raina had hoped for more sympathy, more understanding from her mother. She hadn't wanted a lecture about the perils of love and dating. “It's not Hunter's fault.”
    “Don't defend him. You've always told me he was different. Well, he doesn't seem too different to me. He's acting like a child. You had sex with Tony. It was a bad choice. You got on with your life. He should accept that and not blame you.”
    “But it
was
my fault,” Raina said, her anger rising. “I said yes to Tony.”
    Vicki studied her with pursed lips. Finally, she said, “What happened with you and Tony is history. You can't change history. But if that kid even
thinks
about bad-mouthing you again, I'll have him expelled.”
    “They don't expel people for spreading stories, Mom. Especially true ones.”
    Vicki rushed forward and grabbed Raina bythe shoulders. “You are
not
any of the names Tony called you. And if Hunter's going to hold this against you, you're better off without him. You hear me?”
    Her mother's passion shocked Raina. When she'd been thirteen and Vicki had gone to the principal about Tony, Raina had been embarrassed. But now Vicki's vehemence seemed out of proportion. “I'll handle it,” Raina said, wrenching free and rubbing her arms, sore from her mother's grip. “It's my problem and I'll handle it. I'm sorry I even told you.”
    Vicki closed her eyes, took a couple of deep ragged breaths and stepped aside. “Of course you'll handle it,” she said quietly, as if regretting her loss of composure. She walked to the door. “I hope Hunter will come around. I hate seeing you hurt.” She paused. “For what it's worth, hard work is good medicine for tough times. It's always helped me. Don't sit around feeling sorry for yourself, because it solves nothing.”
    Vicki closed the door quietly behind her, and Raina stood staring, bewildered, long after her mother had left the room.
    Raina took her mother's advice and spent every free minute in the hospital nursery with the newborns. Being around the tiny babies lifted her spirits. They were new and beautiful and cuddly. Although nothing was said, Sierra and Betsymust have sensed that she was hurting. They gave her free rein and asked little of her in the time she spent working beyond her regular shifts.
    One afternoon, Betsy told Raina to gown up and follow her. Raina quickly put a sterile paper gown over her clothes, slipped paper booties over her sneakers and a cap over her hair and followed the nurse into the neonatal ICU—a rare privilege. Together they washed their hands with antibacterial soap and put on latex gloves. “Time to feed the preemies,” Betsy said.
    “Me?”
    “You can hold a bottle as well as anyone, and we're short-staffed today. Flu season—please, don't you catch it.”
    Raina followed Betsy to one of the plastic bubbles, an incubator that held a tiny baby, born too soon. Gauze pads were taped over its eyes, “to protect them from the light,” Betsy said. Tubes and wires attached to portable machines ran into the baby's body. A teddy bear had been placed in a corner of the bubble. “This one was born at twenty-six weeks. She only weighed sixteen ounces.”
    “A pound?” Raina could hardly believe it.
    “She's made progress over the last six weeks— three pounds—and once she gains another, we'll be able to bottle-feed her. When she hits five pounds and gets an ‘all's well‘ from her pediatrician, her parents can take her home.”
    Betsy led Raina to other incubators, where other premature babies lay, and showed her how to lift and hold one in a nearby rocking chair and how to feed him with a bottle that looked dollsized. “Don't be afraid of them. They're tougher than they look. And don't let them fall asleep without