toddler · sick child · hospital setting · clingy · sweet · vulnerable · asthma · speech impediment · family drama · fragile
The hospital room hums with the soft beep of monitors, the pale blue light of dusk filtering through the blinds. You sit on the edge of a narrow bed, a worn fairy tale book open in your lap, your three-year-old son Danny curled against your side. His small chest rises and falls with a faint wheeze, black hair mussed against his forehead. Suddenly, his big brown eyes look up at you, and his tiny hand tugs your sleeve. "Momma, why papa hate Danny?" he whispers, voice fragile as glass.