Hospital

This will be the last I do in this story for a while. I don't want to put up the whole thing online, you know. I will post some here and there however.

I could hear a beeping noise coming from my right. I just wanted some sleep and that alarm clock was making that desire difficult for me to make happen. Not that I wanted to go back to dreaming that horrific dream I had been having, but my body was aching. I needed the rest. I tried to make myself comfortable as I was in my bed, but for some reason it felt lumpy. I began to breathe deeper and inhaled once through my nose. It smelled horrible. All clean and sanitary, like I was in a psyche ward or something.
I tried to ignore that pestering sound, but it wasn't about to go off. I was going to have to hit snooze or something if I planned on getting anymore shut eye.
I reached over and smacked it with my hand, trying to shut it up. Instantly I regretted that decision.
A scream ripped from my throat as I opened my eyes wide. My pulse skyrocketed. My breathing started to become more sporadic. My body froze in shock as I caught a glimpse of my arm. My forearm was wrapped up in gauze and I didn't even want to know what else. Different kinds of goop had been generously slopped all over my arm. Taking a look at my bicep further up, it was covered with little nicks of dry blood. Bringing my eyes to my left arm, I saw an IV sticking in my elbow. A blanket was laid on top of my body, but I didn't need to see my foot to know that it was hurt, badly. Not to mention the soreness I could feel all up my right leg, most likely caused by bruising. I sunk my head back on the pillow and groaned as a wave of pain flew up my leg from my foot.
That's when reality began to sink in. I hadn't had a dream.
I could feel the blood pumping in my veins, pumping through my arm. That beeping noise didn't stop, but instead began to go faster and became much louder. My instinct was to smack it again, to shut it up, but I was afraid of the pain it would cause. Not that that mattered much anymore. I had a constant throb in both my forearm and foot.
"Oh, no. What happened?" a far too high pitched voice questioned. I turned to face her. A nurse, Kathrine, had made her way into my room. I stared at her blankly for a moment but quickly recovered. A million questions ran through my mind now that there was someone to answer them.
"How long have I been in the hospital? Why is my arm throbbing? What's wrong with me? Where are my parents? They were with me before." My mouth was running a mile a minute and I couldn't stop the words from breaking free. I was worried and concerned. No, those weren't the right words. They didn't bring enough meaning or emotion. Overwhelmed, I thought. And even that is an understatement.
"Well," she hesitated, "how much do you remember, Macayle?"
I don't know, I thought. What did I forget?
Another pulse of pain overwhelmed me and I flinched slightly. "Um, can I first ask you to give me some pain meds? Morphine, Oxycontin, Lortab? Anything? Even a Tylenol would be appreciated at this point."
"I'm so sorry. I'll put another dose in your IV right now. Perhaps you could tell me what happened as I do so?" She walked over and shot some more of some medication into my bloodstream, all the while keeping her eyes on me. I nodded slightly.
"Well, I had just made the winning shot at our state basketball tournament, when I got shoved, and something happened to my ankle. My parents started driving me here, I was in a lot of pain..." I drifted off, thinking about all the types of pain I went through. I really needed to stop dwelling on my brother. The nurse waved her hand in front of my face. I blinked a few times, shaking my head.
"Sorry, did I zone out?"
"Yeah, you did. You feeling alright?" she asked, concerned.
I raised an eyebrow at her. "What does it look like?" I asked back sarcastically.
"Right. Stupid question deserves stupid response. Well, do you remember anything else, Macayle?"
I thought about what happened after I thought about Aaron. I didn't want to remember those vivid moments though. "Yeah, uh. We got in a car wreck. A truck, I think, hit my side of the car. I remember my dad leaning over to try and protect my mom, but then everything else is a blur. I can't recall the rest of it. I don't know how I got here. I don't know what's happened to my parents, if they're even alright." I paused, studying her face. "They are alright, aren't they?"
Her face scrunched up a bit. "Actually, Macayle, there's something you ought to know."
I felt the blood rush from my face. I could feel myself go pasty white, my arms and entire body go numb. This isn't happening. La, la, la. Nothing is wrong. She's just playing a joke on me.
"Macayle, you say your dad tried to protect your mom, right? Well, I'm sorry to say that your mother is believed to have died on impact. The second impact. Another car hit you and your parents just moments after the truck." I gasped. My hands flew to my face, but no tears came. "The second impact caused shrapnel to break off, and multiple parts hit your father. One relatively small piece in his arm and two others in his right shoulder and the right half of his chest. It punctured the lung. Your father is now in the ICU, but he's in critical condition. They don't think he's going to make it, nor do they know how long he'll last."
I could no longer feel the pain in my body. My mom was gone. My dad was dying. My brother passed away years ago. I was broken. And I thought I had nothing to live for when we were driving to the hospital? If that was nothing, what do I call this?
I was numb. I didn't know if that numbness was caused by the pain medications or from the shock, but from wherever it was, I was grateful for it. I couldn't handle anymore of this. Not today. Not ever.
My entire family is dead or dying. I have no one.
"I want to go see my dad. I don't care if he's in the ICU. I don't care that I've got a bunch of machines hooked up to me, pipes inside me, or whatever. I need to see him. Now."
"I don't know if we can do that..." Kathrine said warily.
I just stared at her in disbelief. Surely, she did not just say that.
"Excuse me? You just tell me that my mom is dead and my dad is dying, but you're not going to let me even see him before he passes away and I never see him again? You have got to be kidding me!"
I was furious. There was no way this girl was going to keep me from seeing my dad at least one more time while he still lived.
I scooted to the edge of the bed and swiftly got up before falling back to the bed. I groaned in pain again. Apparently walking was not going to be happening any time soon. Kathrine gave me a slightly smug look. Bad idea. Fine then. I'll crawl.
Just as I started to get down on my hands and knees, Kathrine ran over to me, frantic.
"Hey, now, slow down slugger. I don't think so. Give me two minutes and I'll be back with a wheelchair, alright? Just two minutes. Breathe."
I took a deep breath as she walked out of the room. I sat on the bed impatiently. I couldn't even swing my legs to and fro because of my injuries and I was sure she took much longer than two minutes. Or so it seemed.
"I can let you go see him for a little while, but then you'll have to come back and rest. Your body is not ready for any of this and can't cope with so much stress with so little sleep and rest."
I nodded mechanically, not really listening to her. I didn't really care at the moment. I was going to see my dad.
It just so happened that the ICU was on the other side of the hospital so it took forever to get there. But when we finally did, I was relieved for about five seconds before pain enveloped me.
I now understood why they were sure he wasn't going to make it.
Although they had removed the shrapnel, you could tell from the swelling and bleeding, even through the bandages, just how serious it was. I asked if I could go in and see him and Kathrine promptly wheeled me in.
Just by looking at him my face was contorted into something awful. Slowly, I reached out and touched his hand, just about the only thing that wasn't wrapped up. His eyes drifted open and a small smile came on his face as he recognized who I was.
"Macayle, I'm glad... you're ok," he said in between his heavy breathing.
"Hey, don't talk dad. I'm doing fine. Don't worry about me." I was starting to choke up. I didn't know how long I was going to be able to see my dad like this.
He reached out slowly and brushed my hair out of my face. He let his thumb rub my cheek for a moment before he brought his hand up to his mouth. Kissing it softly, he then returned it to my cheek. I saw a tear trickle down his cheek and suddenly my own vision was blurred.
"I love you, Macayle. I'm so proud of you. So proud. I love you."
A choking noise came from my throat. Saying I love you was never something that happened in my house growing up. This was huge.
I tried to put a smile on my face. "I love you too, Dad," I whispered softly, but I knew he heard me. His eyes began to twinkle and a soft smile played about his lips. And then he let his eyes drift closed. His hand dropped from holding my face. The heart monitor went dead.
And with it went my dad.
Doctors immediately came rushing in, hoping to revive him. I tried to watch as long as I could to see what they were doing to try and save him. But then I saw the dejected look on the Doctor's face. He said something I couldn't hear, and a nearby nurse wrote something on a clipboard. The Doctor's eyes met mine before his face fell.
"I'm so sorry," was all he said.
Gone. All gone.
My mind was like a swarm of bees. I couldn't hear anything after that except the shallow breathing coming from somewhere. It took me a moment to realize it was me. I felt myself sweating and going light headed. These shallow breaths were not helping anything. I looked around the room frantically, searching something—anything. I needed something stable in my life, but it seemed like everything that meant anything was being ripped out from under me. The tears started to stream down my face and once again I was so overwhelmed, my mind shut my body down.