MEET YOU AGAIN, MY MAFIA

Beep... beep... beep... beep... She hears the beeping sounds of the machines connected to her body. Her body stirs, but she responds with an excruciating groan. Slowly, she opens her eyes, squinting them before quickly shutting them due to the brightness of the room. She tries again, letting the light enter her eyes little by little until she finally opens them and runs them around, only to realise that she is hospitalised. She tries moving her body, but there is so much tension, especially because she was immobile for a long time, lying in the same position, relying on machines to keep her alive. She is befuddled, thirsty, and tired. She is tired from lying on the bed; she can feel how much her body desires to stretch and ease that tension. Luckily for her, her mother walks into the amazing shock of her life. Her only daughter has swindled death. She stood in the middle of the room, her hands covering her mouth and her eyes shining through the tears. To be honest, she lived in prayer, faith, and hope — not sure if the sun will ever rise on her daughter again, but here it is today; all bright and early as it illuminates through the humongous window. She stares at her mother, trying to get her IQ to work, gathering every information she can remember about how she ended up here, and when the first hint hits her mind, she gasps through the oxygen mask, only for her to cough and whimper. Her mother ran out, shouting for the doctor, and then rushed back, now standing by her daughter. “It’s okay. Mama is here now, it’s okay,” But that did not stop her from weeping through her hoarse throat. She cried, screaming the name of the love of her life. “Benjamin!” “Calm down, Jasmine,” Her mother comforted her in her sweet voice as she softly brushed Jasmine’s arm. The nurse rushed in and seeing that Jasmine was having a mental breakdown from trauma, she sedated her, and Jasmine slowly went back to sleep. Her mother silently wept beside her. She did not only weep because her daughter had just woken up from the ICU, but she cried because the moment she looked at her daughter, she saw a complete stranger whom she had never given birth to. This felt like someone had stolen her daughter’s face and replaced it with theirs. It felt so wrong, but it was how it had to be; at least she thought so. The doctor soon walked in and examined Jasmine before she declared that she was well enough to respond without a ventilator, so she would soon be moved out of the intensive care unit. *** Two hours after Jasmine was moved to a normal ward in a private room, she woke up to both her parents being beside her. She knew that her father could be furious with her right now. She remembers everything that went down before she ended up here, but she was not about to apologise for that. She is still going to continue her journey as soon as she gets discharged. “Water, please,” Jasmine asked in a hoarse voice. Her mother made her a glass of water, throwing in the straw, while her father helped her sit up on the bed. “Thank you,” She said to both of them after they nursed her. “Please take me to Benjamin, I need to see him,” Jasmine pleaded to her parents. “Jasmine, you need to rest and get better first,” Her father disputes. “No, dad. I have rested enough. I need to see Ben; take me to him, please. He needs to know that I’m okay,” Her father let out a low growl in annoyance. “Let’s rather wait for the doctor to check up on you first, honey. Please listen to your father,” Jasmine’s mother says. “Honey, we missed you so much, can’t you see? We are so glad that you finally woke up from a coma. You don’t know how much I have been looking forward to this day. I prayed every day that God would take me instead of you. You have a full life ahead of you, and I want you to experience it,” She cried. The guilty conscience was doing the talking because she could not bear the stranger look that her daughter had. She knows how much her daughter is going to hate her, but what more could they have possibly done to prevent their daughter from running away ever again? Jasmine pulled her mother’s hand and held it in her hands. “Mom, it’s only been a day,” Jasmine said, causing her parents to gasp. “What? What are you talking about, honey?” “The accident happened yesterday, right? Why are you talking as if this accident happened a long time ago?” Jasmine ran her eyes between her father and mother who could not keep eye contact with her. “What is going on?” Dumbfounded, she asked. Her father cleared his throat and got the courage to look into his daughter’s eyes. This was his chance to say it – say something that would mess up his daughter’s emotions. “Jasmine, baby; I need you to calm down because what I am about to tell you now will make you gloomy. There is no easy way to tell you this, but I am going to try to say it as it is,” He started. “Just say it, please,” He exhaled before he continued. “The accident was very tragic, baby. I know that we were not seeing eye-to-eye before the accident happened and, to be honest, it opened my eyes even more to see what mattered most. We thought we were going to lose you… arriving at the scene, seeing the car that rolled several times with your daughter inside it, God. Anyway, that was two months ago and now we should focus on getting you better,” “Two months ago!?” Jasmine exclaimed with tears streaming out of her eyes. “Yes, honey. I am sorry, but you have been in a coma for two months,” Her mother added, tearfully. “Benjamin needs to know that I woke up, please. I need to call him. Where is he; is he okay? He must be sick and worried about me,” Jasmine cried. “Uhm, honey… Benjamin did not survive the accident,” Her father blurts out. Jasmine pauses for a moment, looks at her parents, and laughs bitterly. “I know that you hate Benjamin, but don’t do that, especially now. I need to call Benjamin now,” She contends. “Honey, this is the truth. Benjamin had severe internal bleeding and brain injuries. Not even surgery helped him pull through. I am sorry,” “No! Stop lying to me… Ben is not dead, he didn’t die!” Jasmine disapproves of what her parents are telling her. “You are not sorry! You are happy, and I am hurt. Benjamin did not die, he is not dead,” She wailed, refusing her parents to touch her. Her parents were not yet finished telling her all the things that would break her heart, but they wanted to give her some time to calm down before they broke the news to her. The doctor walked in, not impressed. “What is happening here? Why is my patient crying?” The middle-aged female doctor asks, unimpressed. “Can I have a moment with my patient, please?” “Of course,” Jasmine’s parents both said, not making a move. “Alone,” The doctor ordered. Jasmine’s mother was hesitant, but she eventually got up and left with her husband. The doctor sat down on the chair and looked at Jasmine for a while before she started talking. “Hi, I am Doctor Peterson, and I have been taking care of you while you were in your slumber. Tell me, how do you feel?” “Sad, heartbroken…” Jasmine muttered. “Why?” “I am all alone,” She said, blankly and softly crying. “It’s okay to feel that way, but I want to tell you that you are not alone, okay? Listen, there is something important that I need to talk to you about,” “What’s worse than losing the love of your life?” Jasmine sadly asked, wiping the tears away. “As I said, I took care of you, and I got to learn quite a lot about your family. They seemed to make quite a lot of decisions on your behalf. Has it always been this way?” “Story of my life,” “Mmh, I see. Which is why I had to keep a big secret away from them. Uhm, you might have lost someone special, but you gained someone that could make you the happiest person for the rest of your life. Honey, you are two months and a week pregnant, congratulations.” Jasmine did not move an inch. She remained frozen, even her tears stopped coming out. She showed no emotion about how she felt about the news; not even the doctor saw through her. After a few minutes of silence, Jasmine finally spoke. “What decisions did my family make on my behalf?” She asked, totally ignoring what she had just said. “As your doctor, I am going to be forward with you, but do not panic, alright? You will be shocked, but for the growing human’s sake inside you, please try to be as calm as you can, do you promise?” “No, but I will try to,” The doctor pulled the hand mirror on the pedestal and sighed, slowly handing the mirror to Jasmine. She slowly raised the mirror to her face and the moment she looked, she gasped, touching her face as if trying to remove the skin. “What’s happening? This is not me, what happened?” Jasmine cried. “What happened to my face, get it off of me!” She screamed, causing her parents to run into the room. They realise that the truth that they have failed to tell has just been told or discovered rather, and their daughter is not taking it too well. They both knew that their daughter was going to hate them for doing this to her. “Please leave, all of you!” Jasmine skreiches. “Jasmine, I am sorry, but we had to. The accident ruined your face so badly we had to do something about it,” Her mother tried explaining, but Jasmine did not have it. “And that was my decision to make if I wanted the face surgery or not. I could have lived with the scars, but instead, you took a decision you probably thought was best for me when the truth is, you do everything for yourselves. You hate embarrassment, and it was clear I was going to bring more embarrassment to you. I want you to leave me because I never want to see you again! Don’t consider me as your daughter, because I no longer see you as my parents. You are dead to me!” Yes, she meant every word. She was so raged that even her tears were not there anymore. Whenever she glanced in the mirror and saw the stranger staring back at her, it was the more she cursed the day she was born. Her name is Jasmine Catriona Roche. She is twenty years old and currently lives in Berlin, Germany. Two months ago, before her life was at the mercy of the hospital machines, she was in a car, fleeing with her boyfriend, Benjamin. They both came from different societies and Jasmine’s parents were disapproving of their relationship because of race, wealth, and community differences. Jasmine came from a wealthy family, and they lived in the suburbs with gigantic houses with big pools in the backyards, but Benjamin lived in an average township. His family was not poor, but they did not have money to live in a suburb, eat in a fancy restaurant, wear designer clothes or drive luxurious cars. Speaking of cars. The two love birds secretly planned to elope, but their plan backfired horribly when Benjamin’s car rolled several times on a highway with them inside the car, but unfortunately for Benjamin, he did not survive the accident. Jasmine watched as her parents left the room. Her mother turned around one more time, probably hoping that her daughter would change her mind, but Jasmine was firm about her decision and even she knew that there was no going back there. In her mind, she knew if the accident had not happened, she could have been somewhere in the world with her husband and would not have been in contact with her family. So she was planning on going on with her life as if that had happened, but this time, it was going to be her and the little life growing inside her. She would hate for her child to be born into such a narcissistic family. She did not understand why her parents had to completely change her face when they could have just fixed it. Since her face has been changed without her concern, she also thinks it would be best for her to change her identity and start a new life somewhere far away from her parents with her baby. She has no idea how pregnancy works or how to raise a baby, but she trusted herself enough to make sure that she loves and protects Benjamin Massimo Bianchi's baby.