Just after Mali's friends slash colleagues left, in came Lei's kids, dressed in their school uniform. Ed had left too, to get Mali another coke.
It seemed like Mali was never going to rest. Lei shrugged sheepishly when Mali gave her a look. But Lei had been the one to tell their driver to bring them over. She hoped Mali would show some bit of emotion when she saw the kids, that she'd finally acknowledge and feel the hurt of losing her child.
"Aunt Mali!" The little girl, Aura, jumped onto the bed, causing Mali to grunt, and enveloped Mali in a hug.
"Are you okay, Aunt Mali?" asked Isaac, Aura's older brother, as he stood by the side of the bed, seeming really worried.
"Where are you hurt?" Aura pulled back and asked before Mali could answer Issac, her face a few inches away from Mali's.
"I'm fine, you guys," Mali assured them. But she knew they were smart enough and wouldn't believe that, so she added, "I just happened to get a really bad stomach ache that needed me to be hospitalised, that's all."
"Is it cancer?" Isaac asked innocently.
Lei's eyes widened, and Mali giggled. "No, it's not cancer, Zac."
"Okay, that's good," he said, turning away and digging his phone from his pocket. He went to sit on the couch by the wall, the one Napo had been previously sitting on.
"Aura, get off of your Aunt, she needs to rest," Lei said to her daughter.
"Okay, mommy," the little girl replied and kissed Mali on the cheek before spreading her hands for Lei to lift her off.
Lei rolled her eyes, but went ahead and picked her up and planted her down. Aura liked being babied even though she was well over eight years old.
Ed walked in with two cans of coke, gave one to Mali, and offered one to Lei.
"Oh, no, that shit will kill you." She refused to take it.
"Language, mommy," Isaac chided Lei, without looking up from his phone.
"Sorry, baby," Lei replied.
Ed put the coke on the table by Mali's bed. He looked between the two kids and asked, "And who might you two be?"
"He's Isaac, but we call him Zac," Aura introduced his brother first, and then herself, "And I'm Aura."
"Yeah," Zac agreed, his focus still on his phone, "her name's an acronym of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy."
"No, it's not!" Aura shrieked.
"It is." He nodded his head towards his mother. "Mommy said so."
Aura glared at their mother, but Lei pretended to not be listening to their conversation. So Aura shifted her attention back to her brother. "Well, Mommy may have told you that, but she didn't tell you that she named you after someone who was almost killed by his own dad."
"What?" Zac stopped pressing on his phone, and scowled at his sister. "What are you talking about?"
"It's there in the Bible," Aura smirked. "You should read that book, and stop playing those stupid video games. Maybe then your soul will be clean."
"It's your soul that needs to be cleaned."
Lei tried hard to hold back her laugh, but she was doing a poor job at it. And so was Mali. Ed looked from Mali to Lei, then at the kids with amusement.
"Aren't you two too young to come with such comebacks?" he asked the two siblings.
"You can't be Leilani's child and be stupid," said Zac before shifting his attention back to his phone. "Otherwise you'll be bullied."
"Yeah, they know better," Lei spoke with a proud grin. "I don't like stupid kids."
"Also, no offence," Led spoke with a confused expression on his face, "but aren't you a little young to have two kids?"
"He's adopted!" shrieked Aura at the same time Zac calmly said, "She's adopted."
Ed looked at Lei who burst into a fit of laughter.
Mali giggled. She told Ed, "One of them is adopted. They both don't know who."
"But I'm sure Zac is the adopted one because he's ugly, he doesn't look like Mommy and I," mocked Aura.
"Your face looks like poop," taunted Zac. "Just yours, not Mommy's."
"You look like a cyborg."
"Weirdo!"
"You're the weirdo!"
"Hey, hey, quit it you two," Lei chided them. And then added, "You're both weirdos."
The kids laughed, creating a warm, delightful ambience in the otherwise grim room. Mali smiled, tears brimming in her eyes as she looked at the kids. But she refused to cry. Again. Lei gave her wry look and let out a soft sigh of defeat.
"Who are you by the way?" Zac suddenly asked.
"Are you my aunt's new boyfriend?" Aura added another question.
Ed opened his mouth to answer, but Lei beat him to it with, "I think we should all give Maliah some space now. She's tired."
The kids stood up and said their goodbyes to Maliah, wishing her well, before leaving together with their mother. Ed followed suit. But before leaving, he'd asked Mali if they could meet again some time, and Mali couldn't think of an excuse to refuse him, so she agreed.
After everyone left, Mali was once again left in the silence she did not prefer. She grabbed her sketchpad and started brushing lines with the pencil Lei had brought.
Later in the evening, Dr. Nguyen walked in, checked Mali's vitals, and noted something on the clipboard she retrieved at the end of Mali's bed.
"What do you think of this gown?" Mali suddenly asked, lifting her hand. "I really don't think it's my color. I look better in scrubs."
"Forget it," replied the doctor, "you aren't getting discharged yet."
Mali narrowed her eyes at her doctor and tried to remove the drip attached to the back of her hand, pulling the pieces of tape loose along with several hairs and chunks of skin.
"Jesus. Do we always put this on with super glue?" she mumbled, fidgeting with the tape. She finally yanked the needle and the tape off, and a tiny dollop of blood oozed.
"Dr. Manghini!" Dr. Nguyen exclaimed.
"I'm leaving," Mali told the doctor.
She stood her ground. "No. You are not."
At the end of the day, Mali didn't leave. Because as it turned out, there were people who could say no to her, and Dr. Nguyen was one of them, if not the only one.
Her brothers came by that evening, bringing food for her that was not allowed in the hospital. Since they didn't care much for rules, they'd snuck it in, not that anyone would've stopped them anyway.
"Good news, I'm getting discharged tomorrow," Mali announced with a mouthful.
"Swallow first," said Napo with a grimace, "then talk."
Mali gave him a look.
"Where are you going to go?" asked Led.
Mali's eyes widened slightly, as she suddenly came to the realisation that she wasn't going to stay with Peter anymore.
"Just come back home, girlie. Please," Warren begged. He wasn't above begging when it came to his sister.
"No," Mali refused. "Old Franc is too far, and you know I don't like driving."
"We have drivers, Maliah," Napo reminded her. "At least put some effort in your excuses."
"Well, then I just like the city," she spoke with a slight shrug, and continued to stuff her face.
"Where are you going to stay then?" asked Led.
A beat passed as she swallowed. "I guess I'll just-"
Lei walked in at that moment and interjected with, "If you say you're going to stay at a hotel, I'm going to be greatly offended."
Lei and Mali were so close they practically shared a brain. So, most times, if not all the time, Lei knew what Mali was going to say before she even said it. And vice-versa.
"Lei, I can't impose on you like that. You live with-"
She cut Mali off again, "She's coming to live with me."
Mali gave up.
"One of you please go pay my bill, and tell them not to give you the employee discount," Mali told her brothers, and Warren and Napo looked at Led expectantly. He narrowed his eyes at them before turning to leave, grumbling something about how being the youngest sibling was a curse.