I Can't Get Up

Chapter Twenty-Eight: A Letter

Chapter Twenty-Eight: A Letter

As far as any cliché life story goes, the guy doesn't die.

This is what happened with Carter.

Buried underneath the ashes of the plane was an unconscious, but living Carter Parks. He was alongside a girl, who also managed to find life in death. The both of them are now in the closest hospital from the crash area, where Drew, Hallie, and I are going to see them seven hours after the crash. Well, mostly Carter.

"This way," the nurse gives us a huge smile that reassures me that everything will be fine.

She leads us into a light blue room, where there are two beds. Both patients have air masks on and casts in many places of their body. The only difference is the bed farther from the door has a mop of brown hair, while the one closer possesses a mop of blonde.

I try to be strong for his sake, but he's not awake, so what's the point? I fling myself across the room to Carter, being careful not to hurt his sleeping self even more. Hallie doesn't react the same way I do and certainly not Drew. Hallie brushes past me with her head held high but I know that she's dying on the inside. Drew tries to calm me down, the only reason he came on this trip with me. It could also be because Carter's dying, but the two of them just don't co-exist well in my mind.

Once I stop crying, I get a good look at Carter's wounds. Both legs are broken. Neck is broken. Left Arm is broken along with an amputated right one. His hair has been half ripped or burnt off. I can see scars and scabs everywhere. Who knows what injuries are carried underneath the soft hospital blanket?

I give a sad smile when I have a chance to look at Carter's face. He's still handsome under all that hospital gear. That's when I notice his lack of breaths. I stare at the Cardiac Monitor, which shows his heart rate and tells us whether or not he's still living is going very slowly. It's making me even more nervous.

"He's doing better," the doctor lies. I was so fixated on Carter, I never even saw him.

I want to tell him that I am not a fool, but I don't. After all, he's the one we're depending on to keep Carter alive.

"He woke up for about fifteen minutes two hours ago. We tried to get him to eat, but all he did was write on this torn up peice of paper. After he blacked out again, we tried to find what he was writing, but it seems as if he has hidden it," the doctor shakes his head with stress.

This makes me feel only slightly better, but it gives me full determination that I have to stay be his side every last minute of his life. I want him to awake again. To talk to me. I need to hear his voice one more time.

As soon as the doctor realizes none of us are going to talk to him, he leaves us alone with Carter. I let Hallie whisper a few words in his ear and kiss him on the forehead. It's when I remember what she told me.

'Carter was the only person I knew I could trust and well, a few years later, I fell hard for him'

She was going to tell him how she felt, but now look what has happened. I've wasted all this time worrying about myself when there are other people to worry about.

Dove. Her baby's father is practically certain to be Carter. Now the poor little boy will have to go throughout life fatherless. Even if my father hasn't been the best, I know that my life would be completely changed without him.

"Can I have a moment?" I look behind me to Drew and Hallie.

They both scurry out of the room a bit too quickly and the realization that I there is not another conscious soul in this room makes me shiver.