“He’s awake! He’s awake!” Jonah said, but his voice grew distant as if he left the room.
A man peeled back my lids and shined a light in them. I cringed from the light. He started examining me and asking me questions.
“Mr. Blackwell, can you open your eyes?”
I tried to peel them open but the overhead light was too much. “The light,” I tried to say but felt something down my throat. My hands went to my mouth and I tried to pull them out. I was starting to gag.
“No, Mr. Blackwell, don’t pull that. We had to intubate you.”
This confused me.
“Don’t worry. We’ll get the doctor to examine you quickly to take it out.”
My head lolled back and forth, too heavy to pick it up.
Bridge approached my side. I could tell it was her because I recognized her perfume. “Spencer,” she told me, holding my hand, “you’ve been out for a week now. You were in a coma.” She sucked in a breath, trying to compose herself. A week? How’s Cricket! I wanted to shout. “You didn’t react well to the removal.”
I tried to nod or open my eyes but I wasn’t able to, so I squeezed her hand as best I could.
She wept into my shoulder. “Spencer, this has been the hardest week of my life.”
I squeezed slightly once more.
“Spencer,” I heard a new voice ask. It was Dr. Caldwell.
He examined me and confirmed it was okay to remove my tubes. On the count of three, he pulled them out and I fought for air, finding relief about ten seconds later. My eyes opened slowly and I took in my surroundings. Though it was too bright, I could see all the people who cared about me.
Most of Cricket’s family and my sister were there, as well as my mom.
My eyes watered at the sight of her. “Mama?”
“Yes, baby,” she said, kissing my face. “You really had us worried.”
I smiled at her.
“Where’s Cricket?” I asked the room.
“She’s in physical therapy,” Jonah said. I tried to get her out, but the lady at the desk wouldn’t let me past the doors. “She is doing so well, Spencer. She’s like a brand-new person.”
o;Why in the hell is she crying?” I asked.
“Spencer,” he spoke, readying me.
And my blood ran cold. “No, she’s fine. She has to be. She’s got to be,” I said, sitting up, ignoring the blinding pain.
I started pulling tubes out of every part of me and swung my legs over the side of my bed. They both stood and tried to restrain me, but I pushed them with the leftover strength I had. I stood up and nearly passed out. I started to walk out of the room when three nurses came in, shouting about my sensors.
When they saw me they pushed a button and a few seconds later, a male orderly came in. It took all six of them to put me back on the bed. A random guy in an overcoat came in and administered something in my arm, making me drowsy, and I fought them until the black consumed me.
It turns out they kept me sedated until I’d recovered fully.
And they woke me the day of the funeral.
Bridge walked in the room with a black suit. “I don’t believe you,” I told her.
She turned around, her baby belly looking pretty in her black dress.
“I know,” she said, her voice sounding like sand. Her face looked like she’d scrubbed it with the same.