One Among Us

by Paige Dearth

  “Sure. What’s going on?” Colby asked with concern.

  “I need to have Seth’s blood tested again. Can you hook me up with everything and get your friend at the lab to run tests?” Maggie inquired.

  “That shouldn’t be a problem. What’s going on? Is Seth sick again?” Colby asked, a little worried.

  “No, he feels fine, but he broke out in a rash. I need to know for sure what’s going on with him and was hoping your friend could run some tests on his blood to see if there’s anything unusual,” Maggie explained.

  A few days later, in the nurse’s office at Seth’s school, Maggie and Mrs. Booker looked at the rash on Seth’s torso.

  “Does it itch?” Mrs. Booker asked Seth.

  “Nope. I’m fine. Aggie worries ’bout everything,” Seth commented.

  “Well, young man, you’re lucky to have someone who worries about you so much,” the nurse told him.

  Mrs. Booker tied off Seth’s arm in order to draw his blood again.

  “I hate this, Aggie. Why do I have to keep getting these needles? They hurt,” Seth whined.

  “Because the only way we can treat whatever is causing the rash is to know what’s causing it, silly,” Maggie responded in a voice that told Seth he needed to stop complaining.

  After Seth left to go back to class, Mrs. Booker handed Maggie the vials of blood.

  “Let me know if they find anything unusual,” the nurse instructed.

  Maggie met Colby shortly after she left the school and handed him the vials of Seth’s blood.

  “I need to know the results as soon as possible. Something isn’t right, and we need to get him medicine to make all this shit stop. Seth is so tired of being sick all the time,” Maggie said before she left.

  Colby went straight to the clinic and gave the vials to his friend, the lab technician, who asked, “What are his symptoms?”

  Colby explained, “Several months ago, the kid was really sick. High fever and vomiting. Then he started to feel better. After a few days, he had a couple of seizures. He was feeling fine for months, but now he has a rash across his torso. My informant wants to know if you find anything unusual in his blood so she can get the kid the medicine he needs.”

  The lab technician wrote some notes as Colby described what had been going on with Seth. Then she picked up the vials of blood and gave Colby a nod. “I’ll call you when I have the results,” she stated.

  Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Four

  When Colby got Seth’s blood-test results, he paid for two hours with Maggie at Rock’s apartment. As he walked through the door, his grave demeanor revealed that he had something serious to say.

  Maggie stood back and took a long look in his direction. “What’s going on?” Her heart was racing as she watched Colby struggle with his own emotions.

  “Seth’s blood test results came back,” Colby said.

  He grabbed her by the hand and led her over to the old sofa. Once seated, he turned to her.

  “What? You’re freaking me out,” Maggie said, not knowing what to expect.

  Colby drew in a long, deep breath. “Seth has AIDS.”

  Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Five

  It took several moments for Maggie to process what Colby had just said.

  Seth has AIDS.

  Seth has AIDS.

  Seth has AIDS.

  Finally, Maggie shook her head. “They must have mixed up his blood with someone else’s,” she stated in a small voice.

  “No, Maggie. There wasn’t a mix-up,” Colby said.

  Every fiber of Maggie’s body was rejecting the news that Colby had delivered. She was trying with all her might to change what she’d just heard. Seth couldn’t have AIDS. It wasn’t possible. Ding, ding, ding…her mind had hit on the truth, and it was quite possible that Seth had AIDS. But she continued to reject the information.

  “No, it must be a mix-up. We didn’t ask for an AIDS test. Your friend must have confused Seth’s blood with someone else’s,” Maggie ranted with an edge in her voice.

  He could see her breaking down. “My friend at the lab asked about Seth’s symptoms, and I gave her a rundown of the last five months. So, she decided to test him for AIDS,” Colby explained.

  Maggie refused to allow Colby’s words to penetrate her brain. Pulling her voice from deep within her throat, Maggie asked again, “What did she say?”

  When Colby swallowed, the gulping sound seemed to resonate off the walls around them. “The results showed that Seth has stage-three AIDS.” He let his words creep into her conscious mind and waited for her next question.

  “How many stages are there? I read about AIDS a couple of years ago. Aren’t there, like, six stages?” Maggie’s voice screeched with desperation.

  Colby put his strong arm tightly around Maggie’s shoulder. “No, Maggie. There are three stages.” He paused, trying not to rush through the information. “Stage three is the worst,” he said sadly.

  Maggie leaned into Colby. Her chest heaved as the reality of the situation seeped into her emotional being. She lowered her head, and her tangled hair covered her face. As much as she wanted to argue that it wasn’t true, Maggie knew the truth deep within her soul. She had brushed away the dark feelings over the last three years whenever Seth got sick. It wasn’t until his illness five months ago that the seed of worry planted itself deeply in Maggie’s belly. Even then, she continued to dismiss her dark thoughts, pretending that her gut feeling was all an illusion. She ignored her instincts, and now her world crashed down upon her like a block of cement.

  Maggie cried for close to an hour before she could speak again. She looked into Colby’s eyes, searching for a tiny glimmer of hope. But she saw nothing but sorrow there.

  “What can I do for him? Is there medicine he can take?” Maggie managed.

  “There’s medicine to keep him comfortable, but the disease has gone too far. I’m so sorry,” Colby said.

  An hour later, when Colby was leaving, and Maggie’s next client was entering the apartment, she realized that her life before this moment wasn’t as bad as she’d thought. Before she learned that Seth had AIDS, there was a sliver of hope that one day, they’d all be free and maybe even happy.

  She wanted to leave Rock’s shabby apartment, her home of prostitution, but the ramifications would be too great. Now, more than ever, she needed to be there for Seth. At the end of the long afternoon, she trudged back to her apartment. Inside, Seth was sitting on the floor with an open book, working on his math homework. Maggie went to him slowly and sat beside him.

  “How are you, sweetie?” Maggie asked in a gentle voice.

  Seth looked up at her, the ache in her voice startling him. “Fine. What’s wrong?” he asked.

  “Nothing’s wrong. I just wanted to know how you feel,” Maggie said, not knowing how she would ever be able to tell him the truth.

  Maggie lifted his chin. Noticing the first purple spot on his neck, she stifled a groan that was lodged in her throat. The mark wasn’t there a week ago. Had she been so busy with her ridiculous life that she failed to see Seth degrading before her eyes? Guilt and remorse took hold of her. As she stiffened, and her eyes swam in a sea of regret, she began to rub his back softly.

  “What’s wrong, Aggie? You’re scaring me,” Seth said, his senses electrifying his body.

  Juju had been lying on the mattress, watching and listening to Maggie and Seth. She, too, was able to see the physical transformation in Maggie, and knew that whatever it was, it had to be bad news. She moved off the mattress and onto the floor next to Maggie.

  Maggie looked from Juju to Seth and took the plunge. “Your blood-test results came back today.”

  Maggie paused, trying to regroup. She willed herself not to cry.

  “And?” Seth asked innocently.

  “And…it shows you have AIDS,” Maggie whispered.

  Seth shrugged. “So? What does that mean? Do I gotta drink more Gatorade?”

  Juju’s eyes filled with tears,
and she shot up and went into the bathroom. She knew, without being told, that it wouldn’t be good if Seth saw either of the girls being overly emotional. Besides, she had to process what she’d just heard.

  “Sure,” Maggie answered. “Drinking Gatorade is good. But this disease is a really bad one.”

  Seth looked at Maggie, his blue eyes curious. “What does it mean? I’m gonna get better, right?”

  “I don’t know, baby. I just don’t know a lot about it yet,” Maggie said honestly.

  Seth stared down at his textbook. “Is it something that the other kids in school can catch?”

  “No, it’s not like that,” Maggie said with certainty.

  “So what are we gonna do?” Seth asked, feeling the gravity of the situation, but not understanding what was happening to him.

  “Colby is going to help us get some information on how we can help you. So, for right now, we’re going to wait to hear back from him,” Maggie explained, trying to buy time before having to fully explain AIDS to Seth.

  Seth shrugged again. “OK.” He went back to doing his math homework.

  In the early morning hours, after Maggie returned home from her shift at Doubles, she sat on the bathroom floor with Juju and explained all that Colby had told her.

  “Are you saying it’s too late?” Juju finally asked, needing confirmation.

  “Yes.”

  The two young girls sat on the cold bathroom floor and wept.

  Juju finally spoke. “At least he isn’t sick right now. That’s good, right?”

  Maggie nodded. She knew there was nothing good about what was going to happen to Seth. She’d read everything she could get her hands on, trying to find out if there was any way to stop the disease from advancing further. She held out hope that the diagnosis was wrong, but she knew that she was simply avoiding the truth.

  Maggie and Juju moved into the room where Seth lay sleeping on the old mattress. They squeezed onto the single mattress on either side of him, and each put an arm over him. It was a sleepless night, as each of them swam in their murky thoughts of the future.

  Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Six

  Thirteen-year-old Seth’s health declined over the next two months. It was as if once they knew that he had AIDS, someone had opened the spigot on his illness. The young boy couldn’t walk a block without having to sit on the curb and rest. He had chronic diarrhea, and fever overtook him on a weekly basis. Seth had purple blotches on his torso, back, and neck. Maggie and Juju watched as the disease ate away at him, removing all signs of the young, adorable boy they’d raised together over the past five years.

  Seth’s health was so fragile that Maggie went to talk to Rock about his condition. She walked into the house of whores just as Armando was dragging a new girl upstairs. Maggie’s thoughts shifted to when she’d arrived at the house. The days she’d spent in the vertical box in the closet. The humiliation and dehumanization that had taken place to break her in. Her heart melted for the poor young girl with big, brown, innocent eyes who was being dragged up the steps. She gave the girl a knowing look, but she was as helpless as ever to change anything.

  Rock stepped into the room and stopped in his tracks when his eyes set on Maggie. “What the fuck are ya doin’ here?”

  Maggie didn’t hesitate. She dove right in. “We found out a couple of months ago that Seth has AIDS.”

  “Yeah? Dat ain’t my problem,” Rock said.

  “Well, a couple of things. First, it’s impossible for him to walk around and collect money from your dealers. It’s physically impossible,” Maggie began.

  Rock raised an eyebrow skeptically.

  Maggie didn’t leave any time for him to object. “So, maybe you have someone who can replace him?” she asked sheepishly.

  “Girl, you don’t tell me how to run my fuckin’ business. So the kid has AIDS. So what? Lots of people have AIDS,” Rock stated.

  “Seth is in the final stage of the disease,” Maggie said, a tiny sob escaping from her throat.

  The hookers who were listening gasped. All of them knew Seth. He was a good kid, and they saw him on the street all the time. Several of the girls put their hands on their chests and over their mouths, shocked at the news. Rock looked over at the girls, and without understanding the stages of AIDS, realized that it must be bad.

  “So what does that mean? He’s gotta get medicine? Are you here to ask me to pay for his fuckin’ medicine? ’Cause if you are, you can turn the hell around and walk right back out that door before I give ya a well-deserved ass beatin’,” Rock advised.

  “No, Rock.” Maggie stated assertively, her voice rising to just below a shout. “I’m not here for your money. Stage three means it’s too late. The disease is eating his body. Every day, he gets closer and closer to death.”

  Maggie was about to scream at him and tell him what a piece of shit he had been to all of them. She wanted to lunge at him and rip his eyeballs from their sockets. But in a matter of seconds, she regained control and thought better of it. Striking out at Rock wouldn’t get her what she’d gone there for.

  Rock noticed the other girls waiting for his response. The last thing he needed was a whole group of unruly bitches to tame.

  “I can have Joey pick up his route. Now get the fuck outta here and get back to work,” Rock declared.

  “That’s not all,” Maggie said. “I need time to spend with him. Between screwing every Tom, Dick, and Harry at your apartments and working shifts at Doubles, I don’t have any time to spend with him.” Her eyes bore into him as she pleaded. “I can’t let him die like this, Rock. Not alone. He’s only a kid. He deserves to have someone there with him…” Maggie paused. “To see him through this until he’s gone.”

  Maggie’s shoulders dropped, and her chest heaved. For the first time, she allowed others a real glimpse of what she was facing. A couple of the younger girls rushed up behind Maggie and put their hands on her shoulders. Rock looked around the room. He didn’t want to see the little shit stain die, but shit happens; life happens. Regardless, he wasn’t about to let her stop working. He and his men needed the income.

  “Well, see, now that seems to be a personal problem. You ain’t no good to me or that kid if ya ain’t makin’ money. You’ll need to find a way to work it out or find me the money you’ll be giving up,” Rock grunted.

  It was a small Latino girl who spoke first. “I’ll stay out longer every day to turn two more tricks a day. Will that help?” she asked in Maggie and Rock’s direction.

  Rock eyed her; she had surprised him. Before he had a chance to respond, three more girls offered to do the same thing. Within a matter of minutes, all but three of the girls were offering up extra services to make up for Maggie’s loss of income.

  Rock glared at them as if they had gone mad. “If you fools wanna spend more time spreading your legs so this dirty bitch can have some time off, then be my guest. But let me tell ya, if any of you come up short, I will be your worst fuckin’ nightmare.” He turned his deep black eyes on Maggie. “Your shifts at Doubles stay.”

  Maggie nodded, and then he walked past her and left the house.

  Once Rock was gone, Maggie turned to the girls. She’d been a friend to many of them. She’d helped most of them get acclimated to the streets. Maggie had treated the girls with respect and had given them a shoulder to cry on over the years. And unbeknown to any of them, she was helping to set them free as she provided information to Colby about Rock’s organization. That part, taking down the whole organization, took years. It was important to make sure that when the time came, no man was left standing. Colby had assured her, though, that someday, Rock and all of his associates would cease to run Kensington.

  Maggie hugged all of them, even those who didn’t offer their services for her temporary freedom. Just as she was leaving the house, Armando was coming down from the second floor. He sneered at her. “That little bitch up there is almost as tasty as you were,” he said, licking his fingers as if he’d just eaten
something delicious.

  Maggie’s expression remained unchanged. Instead, she turned away and walked out the door. On her way back to the apartment, she stopped at the library. Seth had been talking about going to the seashore. He’d never been anywhere, and some of the kids at school had talked about it over the years. Earlier in the week, he’d said, “Aggie, do you think we can go see the seashore?”

  Maggie had explained that it wasn’t possible, but she felt guilty that she couldn’t give him what he wanted. Instead, she stopped at the library to pick up a book on New Jersey. She and Juju were going to dress up in the bikini “work outfits” she wore at Doubles. They were planning to put a blanket on the floor of the apartment and have a picnic. Juju had even gotten her hands on a cheap copy of ocean sounds. They had it all planned out for him.

  When Maggie returned home, Seth was bundled up on the mattress. He was cold all the time, and his shoulder and rib bones jutted out through his skin. Seth’s facial features seemed to have faded away, leaving the shape of his skull to dominate beneath his colorless flesh. Only his eyes remained blue and radiant. Joey knocked on the door a few minutes after Maggie arrived home, and the three girls set everything up for their day at the seashore while Seth watched from the bed.

  His breathing was raspy, and it took all of his strength to follow the girls around the small room with his eyes. Finally, Maggie walked over to the mattress.

  “OK, are you ready for your day at the seashore?” Maggie sang.

  Seth nodded, anticipation filling his eyes with wonder.

  Maggie took off her robe to reveal her bathing suit, as the two other girls came out in their makeshift bikinis. Seth started to giggle, and they all joined in as they looked at each other. Maggie got Seth settled on the blanket and covered him up to keep him warm. They ate hot dogs and potato chips, followed by ice cream. Even though Seth ate very little, he reveled in the feeling of being at the seashore.

  Maggie put her hands up in the air. “OK, now we need to go through our journey at the seashore.” She had checked out an oversized picture book at the library for the occasion.