Chapter 10 - The Glass Room
The secure wing of Clark County Hospital was quiet, punctuated only by the rhythmic beep of heart monitors and the soft squeak of nurses’ rubber clogs on linoleum. Evelyn lay in a narrow bed behind a reinforced glass partition, a thin plastic cannula running beneath her nose. Her ankles were unrestrained, but a deputy sheriff sat on a folding chair directly outside the door, reading a paperback thriller.
Toby stood on his toes, his forehead pressed against the glass. Mrs. Henderson held his shoulder, allowing him this single ten-minute supervised contact before his transfer hearing.
“Grandma,” Toby whispered, his breath fogging the clear panel.
Evelyn’s eyelids fluttered, turning slowly toward the sound. When she recognized Toby, a weak, beautiful smile broke across her parched lips. She raised a trembling hand, motioning for him to come closer, but the deputy shook his head firmly at Mrs. Henderson.
“No physical contact, regulations,” the deputy muttered without looking up from his book.
Mrs. Henderson knelt beside Toby. “She can see you, Toby. That’s what matters right now. The doctors say her heart rhythm is stabilizing.”
“Why does that man have a gun outside her door?” Toby asked, his small voice thick with bitter confusion. “She didn't hurt anybody. She’s seventy-two years old. She can’t even run!”
“The law doesn't look at age, Toby. It looks at paperwork,” Mrs. Henderson explained gently, her professional armor cracking further under the boy’s unblinking, accusation-filled gaze. “She took you across state lines without authorization. To the court, that looks like a crime.”
“It wasn't a crime! She took me because they hit me!” Toby yelled, pointing a shaking finger at the deputy, then at the closed hospital corridor. “In that foster home, they made me sleep in the garage when I dropped my milk! Grandma saw the marks! She went to the police and the police told her it was family business! So she took me herself!”
The deputy’s eyes slowly rose from his paperback. He looked at Toby, then looked at Mrs. Henderson, his brow furrowing slightly.
Inside the room, Evelyn began to cough, a deep, rattling sound that set off a low amber alarm on the monitor above her bed. A nurse hurried inside, adjusting the IV drip and checking Evelyn’s pulse. Evelyn kept her eyes locked on Toby through the glass, her pale lips forming words over and over again:
Be good. Don't fight them. Be good.
Toby pressed both palms flat against the cold surface. “I’m not leaving you, Grandma. I’m not going back to a home. I promise.”
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Arthur walked down the corridor, his heavy footsteps announcing his arrival before his shadow crossed the glass. He held a blue folder this time, not the manila one. He glanced through the window at Evelyn, then looked down at Toby.
“The judge moved the emergency custody hearing up,” Arthur said quietly. “It’s in forty-five minutes. And someone unexpected just filed an appearance petition.”
