Chapter 76: Chapter 76

TOBY.

The attention of the whole room turned toward Ruby who was trying to console a crying child. When she approached the girl who was sitting by herself I knew it was trouble. She was trying to be nice to a lonely girl but I knew it would backfire. Anyone could tell she was minutes from breaking down in tears.

"It's okay, don't cry," Ruby said, holding the girl to her chest but she just cried louder. The other adults in charge approached them to help Ruby out. She looked like she was about to panic. The other children seemed to be feeling left out as the crying girl held all the adult's attention, so they too looked like they were about to start crying. The cameraman we hired to take pictures of our good deeds walked in at that very moment and began doing his job. The look on Ruby's face at that very moment was priceless.

The pictures he took in that room would probably be useless because almost every child in that room was in tears. I tried my best to console as many children as I could. The rest of the adults in the room tried to do the same except for my dad. It just reminded me of how he handled my emotions when I was a kid. He would tell me to suck up my emotions and if I didn't he would just walk out on me. Even the cameraman calmed a kid down by showing him his camera. I gave a few kids money in exchange for their silence, Ruby gave me a look when she noticed what I was doing.

"What? It's effective," I said with a shrug. It was more effective than her and my mother's approach of cuddling the crying children but I wasn't going to say that. It just made them cry all the more. Ruby had a few successes making funny faces and tickling the younger children but as for my mum, I doubt she consoled even one child. After we managed to settle most of the children down we continued our hospital tour. Before we left, their gifts arrived, some teddy bears, blankets and other little things children love. Sharing them helped stop the crying. I was surprised by how much my mother was into the whole thing, but my father could only pretend to be interested when the camera was pointed at him.

Next, we visited the wards. It was not as exciting as the art room, these children looked sick. Most of them looked slim and gaunt in their hospital gowns. We went from bed to bed sharing little presents and Ruby tried to cheer the children and parents with funny stories and jokes. We got a few laughs but the air in the room was still gloomy. Most of the children here were in a lot of pain or too doped up on painkillers to feel anything. It was so sad that such little ones had to go through such.

Walking into the ward for toddlers and babies hit me the hardest. Looking at all those tiny babies suffering reminded me of Jeremy. It made me thankful that he was a healthy crybaby. I looked at Ruby and the look on her face told me that she was thinking the same thing. When our eyes jammed tears rolled down hers. Without thinking, I walked toward her and put an arm around her. I only second-guessed myself when I was already holding her but the way she relaxed in my arms made such thoughts fly away.

My father carried a sick child after telling the photographer to take shots of the moments. He lifted the baby out of the hospital crib smiling all the while smiling. The baby poured milk out of its mouth and on the shoulder of my dad's favourite suit. The look on his face was priceless. He set the baby down carefully when we could tell he wanted to do the opposite.

"Babies will be babies," he laughed when he noticed all eyes were on him. "Let me go and get cleaned up." He marched out of the ward after that. I hid a laugh and Ruby elbowed me as she did the same. We completed the rest of the tour without him.

"Thank you for coming. What you've done today means a lot to so many families. So many children will receive the treatment they need to beat cancer because of your donations."

I felt guilty at their heartfelt thanks. We didn't deserve any thanks because we weren't doing this with clean motives.

"It Is our pleasure, the children have done more for us than we've done for them," my mum said. Ruby nodded in agreement.

We stepped outside to see that the car Ruby and I came in was gone. The only car parked was the limo my parents came in. I walked over to the driver's window and knocked as my mother slipped into the car.

"Where is my driver?" I asked my parent's driver.

"Your father sent him to the dry cleaners with his suit, he said you would all ride together," he replied.

"What took you so long to finish with that disgusting place," my dad said, irritating the hell out of me. "You almost made us late for an important meeting, with important people all because of a bunch of dying children of lowlife people," he hissed when no one answered him. I was about to say something and it wasn't going to be pretty but then Ruby put a hand on my thigh to silence me. I put my hand over hers and played with the stone on her ring. I ignored my father's complaints for the rest of the ride till we reached the venue of our next meeting. Our driver met us there with my dad's jacket in hand. He was sweating profusely as he came running.

"What took you so long," my dad said. The man couldn't say a word, he just looked on in disbelief at his words. My father brushed him aside and proceeded to enter the establishment.

The moment we entered the five-star restaurant we were ushered into a private room where my dad's political friend and his family were waiting for us. The brought his wife and their daughter who was one of Yasmin's colleagues along with him. I couldn't gauge what type of meeting this was. After we exchanged pleasantries we settled down and placed our orders. The two fathers conversed about business and politics. I contributed to their discussion here and there while the rest of us ate in silence. My mum hated the man's wife for some reason I wasn't aware of so she ignored her.

Yasmin's friend eyed me throughout dinner. I excused myself from the table to use the toilet only to be startled by her when I exiting the restroom after doing my business.