I had a small window to my right that overlooked the parking lot. There was a small TV that I probably could see, but it was so far away it would never be worth the trouble. Underneath the TV were a few chairs with a couple of bags and pillows, where it looked like someone had been sleeping. To my left was the door that looked right at the nurse’s station and a vending machine.
I can’t remember much.
Except being dreadfully sore all over my body.
And there might have been a horn blaring.
But after all that, I just remember silence and blackness.
I began drifting and dreaming. Some were good dreams while others were bad.
I always saw her in them though. She was always somewhere in them. Whether it be in the forefront or just in the background.
She was always there.
I don’t know how long I was out, but I finally began to hear sounds.
At first I thought it was a metronome and I was back in high school during marching band season, but as I listened closely, I realized it was a computer. A heart monitor.
The steady beat began echoing in my ears as I suddenly remembered what happened.
I was walking along the sidewalk back from the store when I tripped. That was nothing new though. I tripped all the time. But this time there was a kid, probably no older than 13 riding on his skateboard coming the opposite way of me. As I stumbled, I must have gotten in the way of his path because he ran right into me, not quick enough to move the other way.
That couldn’t have been the reason why I ended up in the hospital though. Someone running into me with a skateboard was certainly not that tragic.
But if I had fallen off the sidewalk, into oncoming traffic, now that’s a different story.
I had fallen off the sidewalk and into the gutter. A car had just pulled out of the driveway behind me; he was too close to the curb and didn’t see me laying there and ended up running right into me.
I remember feeling my leg crunch underneath the weight of the car and the way my side just buckled inward as a couple other crunches were heard.
That’s when I started to lose consciousness though.
I think I remember the teen skater whipping out a cell phone and dialing 911. And another driver pull over to rush to my side to see if I was okay while the car that hit me sped off around the corner.
And then I blacked out.
I don’t remember the teen skater kept apologizing to me as we waited for the ambulance because he thought it was his fault.
Or my parents running into the emergency room with tears in their eyes, demanding to know where I was.
Or the blood transfusion I had to receive upon arrival because apparently I lost so much blood.
I just remember my dreams.
Her. Always being there. Protecting me.
As my eyes fluttered open, I saw the private hospital room unveil itself before me.
I had a small window to my right that overlooked the parking lot. There was a small TV that I probably could see, but it was so far away it would never be worth the trouble. Underneath the TV were a few chairs with a couple of bags and pillows, where it looked like someone had been sleeping. To my left was the door that looked right at the nurse’s station and a vending machine.
I let out a deep breath as I took it all in.
Not a mere five seconds later, my mom walked in.
“You’re awake!” She cried as she ran over to my side and sat down in the chair next to the bed (that I assumed she sat in as often as she could).
Smiling a little, I replied, “Hi Mom.”
“Oh, sweetie. I love you.” She sighed as she hugged and kissed me. I tried to reach out to hug her back, but felt a sharp pain in my side and immediately retracted.
“Ouch.” I winced.
“You better not move, honey. You’ve been pretty beat up.”
Feigning a smile I said, “Ya. I kinda remember.”
“Really? We weren’t sure how much you would. With all the blood you lost and the trauma.” She rambled on.
I saw in her eyes a huge weight lifted off of her shoulders. I know how worried she must’ve been. Both her and my dad.
Just then my dad walked in the room. His reaction was quite the same as my mom’s and this time I remembered to let him hug me, not the other way around.
They began explaining to me all that had happened since I had been in the hospital. Apparently I had been unconscious for four days because of the amount of blood I lost. (Funny thing is, I don’t remember bleeding at all). During that time they had caught the guy who had hit me and he was currently sitting in lock-up, waiting for a trial date. The good Samaritan driver and young skateboarder had been by to check on me the previous day. From what I gathered, my parents would want to invite them over for dinner when I was out of the hospital for what they did for me.
The two of them had stayed at the hospital with me the entire first day, waiting to see if I’d wake up. When the doctors said that I was stable, but it may be a couple of days for me to regain conscious, they decided to take shifts in going home and tending to our animals.
“There’s also something else.” My mom said, her voice a tad bit more serious now.
I felt my heart race slight and cursed the heart monitor in my head as it revealed my nervousness.
Did something go wrong when I was unconscious?
Was I paralyzed? No, I could feel my feet.
Did they find cancer or something else?
“It’s more like a someone else.” She corrected herself as she glanced out into the hallway.
I looked over towards the nurse’s station and saw what I thought was a hallucination.
There she was, my protector, standing there with her mom.
My heart beat loudly in my chest and I thought I didn’t even need the monitor to tell me how fast it was beating.
I wanted to to jump out of bed and run to her, but I knew that would be a bad idea; especially seeing as my right leg was in a cast.
My breathing got a bit shallower as my mom and dad got up and waved her forward towards me. They exited the room and stood beside her mom, pretending to engage in conversation as they watched the two of us out of the corner of their eyes.
“H-hi…” I breathed out slowly, wondering if I was still unconscious or not.
“You’re such a klutz.” She said shaking her head in what seemed like disbelief.
I chuckled a little, but refused to take my eyes off of her, almost afraid she’d disappear if I looked away.
“How did you know I was here?” I asked her.
“Word got around. Someone saw it happen who told someone who posted it on facebook and someone else told me.” She explained. Her eyes left mine as they examined the damage to my outer shell.
“And your Mom?” My eyes automatically flickered to the doorway and back to her, “She let you come?”
“Even she couldn’t’ve been able to stop me. She knew that. As soon as I found out you were in the hospital, she knew I’d be seeing you, no matter how much she disliked it.”
Both of our parents hadn’t react the way in which we had hoped when we told them we were together. They didn’t allow us to even talk to each other for the past several months, causing a large emotional strain on us all.
And knowing that through this whole time, she never gave up on me really sent my heart pumping.
“Scoot over.” She told me as she climbed over the small rail of my bed.
Carefully I moved over to the right side of the bed, trying to not move my body in a way to cause any sharp pains. However, she must have sent my body into a state of numbness because I honestly felt no pain anymore, just pure love.
In a matter of moments she was laying next to me in my bed, her one arm wrapped loosely around me as to hold me but not damage me anymore. Her forehead was resting against mine and I could feel her warm breath brush against my face.
“But what about your mom?” I asked, feeling slightly more concerned now by our sudden closeness.
“I don’t care.” She scoffed and squeezed me gently, “My baby needs protecting because she certainly can’t be left alone. She needs me.”
I felt a feeling of happiness run through my body that caused me to shiver. It was that old feeling again. The feeling I never thought I’d get back.
Unable to say much of anything, I whispered a tearful reply, “I love you.”
“I love you too.” She whispered back and snuggled her body a bit closer to mine.
A few feet away in the hallway, our parents were watching all of this and discussing.
“I know what I said before about keeping them apart,” Her mom started, “But watching them like this and how she was when she found out what happened to your daughter, I can’t seem to tell her no anymore.”
My mom sighed and said, “Ya. I know what you mean. She’s been happy the past few months at times, but nothing like now. You should’ve seen the way her eyes sparkled when she saw your daughter.”
“I know exactly what you mean.” Her mom replied, “She tries to fool everyone, but we all knew there was something missing. That little something that was only there when she was around.”
“That spark.” My dad added.
Our moms nodded in agreement as they looked over at the two of us in the other’s arms.
She was my spark in my life. She was my protector. She was the reason I always felt like getting up every day.
Her.
My one and only.
The love of my life.
As I carefully snuggled closer into her chest, she kissed the top of my head and lightly stroked my arm.
The sound of my heart monitor became slow and steady and our breaths began to mimic each beat.
Eventually we both fell into a soft slumber, knowing that from that point on, there’d be no separating us ever again.
We were two parts to the whole.
We would be together until the end of time.
