The old Mr. Giblo took his leave only after the three kids were tucked in for the night, and he made it a point to remind Mr. Hooters to take care of them to the best of his and his team's abilities.
They were not his grandchildren, yet that did not stop him from treating them as such.
He could not afford to let anything happen to those three precious children.
Mr. Hooters nodded profusely as he spoke, "Yes, Mr. Giblo! I'll personally attend to that!"
Venus fell asleep after the old man left, and Randy took this chance to clamber out of his cot and gently pat the shoulder of the nurse that had been taking care of them. "Sorry Miss, may I borrow your phone?""Of course!" the nurse said, handing over her phone.
Fearing that he might wake his siblings up, he hid in the bathroom and dialed Mrs. Borah's number, only to be met with a robotic voice telling him that Mrs. Borah's phone was turned off.
Sighing, he proceeded to call his mother, but no one picked up the phone.
Randy's heart raced. Is Mommy on a business trip again? Why hasn't she returned home? Maybe she just doesn't want to answer a call from an unfamiliar number?
Randy decided to send his mother a message. Mommy, I'm Randy. Please call this number when you see this message.
He returned the phone to the nurse afterward. "My Mommy didn't pick up my calls. She's probably busy right now. I figured that she won't pick up if it's an unfamiliar number, so I sent a message telling her to call back once she sees it. Can you inform me when she calls back, please?"
"Sure, no worries, " the nurse said, nodding. "You should sleep now."
"Thank you…" Randy said as a wave of fatigue washed over him. He stumbled back to his cot and fell asleep the moment his head hit the pillow.
The nurse followed suit soon after.
Meanwhile, at Happy Avenue…
Zayn gave Carla a call, but it was ignored just like Randy's call. He frowned as his anxiety mounted.
Instead of calling her another time, he decided to call Naya instead to ask for Carla's unit number.
Naya mentioned Mrs. Borah's illness as well, and Zayn simply hummed in response.
He parked his car by the side of the road and climbed over the wall to enter Carla's block.
The door to Carla's apartment was locked, and no one answered when he tried knocking a few times.
He sighed and took out a card to get past the lock before sneaking into the apartment on his tiptoes.
Even so, he still somehow managed to wake Dori up, and she began to flap her wings frantically. "Bad guy! Bad guy!"
"Shut up!" Zayn bellowed.
Dori retracted her neck like a scared turtle and whimpered, "Mommy, Mommy, there's a bad guy here…"
Zayn shook his head and walked past her cage to find Carla's room, only to freeze in shock when he saw the sight before him.
Carla was on the floor, drenched from head to toe and deadly pale.
"You idiot!" Zayn growled as he picked her up bridal style and rushed out of the front door.
"Mommy! Mommy!" Dori called, bursting out of her cage to follow Zayn out.
Zayn walked into the lift with Carla in his arms, and Dori followed them closely. Instead of squawking incessantly as she had been before, she stayed silent and pecked Carla's hair gently, as though she was trying to wake her owner up.
Zayn rolled his eyes and ignored Dori. What a dumb bird!
Dori followed him all the way to his car, chirping nervously along the way and staying huddled against Carla's chest.
Zayn steered the car with one hand and gave Naya a call with his other hand, telling her to wait outside the hospital.
"Yes, Sir!" Naya answered.
After he hung up, he began to pick up speed, stealing worried glances at Carla's motionless body next to him every so often.
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