When It Rains In Ocala

30- Remember The News

If there ever comes a day when we can't be together, keep me in your heart, I'll stay there forever.
-Winnie The Pooh

Cold. I was so cold. I’d never felt so cold in my life. I’d taken a shower while Brendon flushed the toilet as a prank, I’d had a dance practice in a winter rain in just my shorts and a tank top, I’d even had ice cream until my brain froze. But I’d never been this cold in my life.

The police officer assured me that everything was going to be okay and that I was going to be fine as I rode to the hospital in the back of the police car with the sirens blaring as the car zoomed through the lanes of late night traffic right behind the ambulance that was holding Evan. My poor Evan.

They wouldn’t let me ride with him, even after all of my pleading and begging and nasty sobbing, but they allowed me to ride in the police car, so I did. I huddled into the hoodie and clung to it as I sobbed for everything that was slowly flashing before my eyes. Everything was falling apart and it was in just the blink of an eye.

Once we finally got to the hospital, they rushed Evan into the emergency entrance, but the police wouldn’t let me go with him.

“You’d just get in the way, I’m sorry.” One of them had told me, but it was soft and echoed, like he was on the other end of a cave or something even though he was only a few feet away as he led me to the main entrance of the ER. “We’ll stay with you and make sure you’re not alone.”

I didn’t answer him, I just followed him and his partner, who was a redheaded woman, into the ER and as the man spoke to the front desk of the waiting room, the woman led me over to the waiting room chairs and helped me sit down in one of them as she sat beside me. I curled into the chair, savoring the little bit of warmth that it gave me.

“Can you tell me your name?” The woman asked, taking one of my hands in hers as I continued to sob uncontrollably.

I nodded, of course I could. “M-M-Maggie.” I sobbed.

“Okay, Maggie.” She spoke calmly, but it was still faint and echoed, I really had to struggle and focus to understand what she was saying. “My name is Olivia.”

“Y-You have to- to make sure that E-Evan is o-okay.” I cried.

“Evan is alive.” She assured me, but that wasn’t too assuring as I sat there, soaked in the rain water, my tears, and Evan’s blood. It was everywhere, ratted in my hair, smeared on my face, drenching the hoodie and the dress underneath, it was everywhere. How can he be okay if I have all of his blood?!

“He can’t leave me.” I whispered to myself, feeling the room start to spin.

“Maggie, you need to stop crying, okay?” Olivia told me with her hand squeezing mine. “You’ll be able to see Evan soon, but you’re going to get yourself sick.”

I nodded and tried to calm down my breathing, but it was hard. It took me ten minutes to finally be able to open my blurry eyes and see clearly the redheaded officer sitting in the chair beside me. My head was pounding, and I was still feeling deathly cold, but my chest wasn’t heaving anymore and I was quiet.

“Good.” Olivia gave me an encouraging smile, but it didn’t make me feel any better about this sick situation. “Now is there anybody you want me to call for you?”

But I didn’t answer. I didn’t talk at all. I just pressed my lips to the back of my hand and remained silent, not wanting to talk anymore. It was like my mind was spinning inside of my head and dissolving at the same time. My heart was in my throat, beating a bazillion times a second and I felt numb to everything. Olivia’s words were falling farther into the cave, so I ignored her and focused on a man on the other end of the waiting room. I think his wife or girlfriend was having a complicated birth from what I overheard. He was scared.