Somewhere In Between // Niall Horan

Chapter 17: Worry

❝ I am afraid that Wendy did not really worry about her father and mother. ❞

~~~

February 21, 2013

California

   Whitney was in deep sleep when she heard a noise in her room.  She woke up, her eyes drawn immediately to the door staring across the room at her.  There wasn’t any sign of movement or anything, no doctor or nurse coming to check up on her health.  The only change was the vibrant bouquet of flowers that replaced the dead, shriveled one in the vase when she first came out of her coma.  Concluding that she merely imagined whatever she thought she heard, Whitney rolled over and closed her eyes.

   Wait.  There it was again.  It sounded like...someone breathing.  Yes, someone was in her hospital room and breathing rather loudly.  With a pounding heart, Whitney peeked through one eye and listened to the other person inhale and exhale.  “Hello?”

   “Oh!  Oh, you’re awake!”

   At the sound of the other person’s voice, Whitney sat up quickly and blinked away the sheet of light that clouded her eyes momentarily.  A petite figure slowly came into focus.  She had on a pink sweater even though it was quite warm in the room, had short brown hair, and wore a pair of glasses that were connected to the string around her neck.  The description was broad, but of the few people Whitney would expect to come to the hospital, it could only be one person.  “Mrs. Howard?” she asked.

   Judith Howard was her next door neighbor, the one who checked up on Whitney while she was all alone.  Sometimes, Mrs. Howard would pop in to just say hello.  Other times, she’d bring a homecooked meal and share it with her lonely teenaged neighbor.  They were quite close, and Whitney knew for a fact that Mrs. Howard was the one who found her unconscious because no one else had visited her after her parents had gone their respective ways.  What was it like for her to find Whitney collapsed on the ground?  Shaking away these thoughts, Whitney quickly rubbed the sleep from her eyes and exclaimed, “Hi, Mrs. Howard!”

   Mrs. Howard smiled widely at the girl.  “Hello, dear!  Thank heavens you’ve woken.  Goodness me, I couldn’t stand another minute in that horrid chair.  My back was about to give way!”

   Whitney smiled widely back.  Of course Mrs. Howard was here, of course she was.  Her seventy something-year-old neighbor had always been there for Whitney ever since her dad went to jail, and it was no surprise that she was here in the hospital now.  “How long have you been here?”

   “Oh, no more than half an hour.  I would have come sooner, but I had to wait for the cookies to finish baking.”

   “Cookies?”

   “Yes, cookies,” Mrs. Howard said blithely.  “They’re in there.”  She pointed at the ground where Whitney’s plaid backpack was lying near her feet.  The backpack looked full to bursting; there was definitely more than just cookies in there.  “I also brought some clothes, your favorite movies, and some other things to keep you busy.”