Still the Ground

Potatoes

When I slowly opened my eyes I saw that same stained ceiling as when I woke up the first time. But this time, there was a man sitting on the bed. I was very drowsy and everything looked blurry, but I think the man was talking and... petting my face? I was barely conscious but luckily everything was slowly returning to normal. He kept on talking and petting but I didn't understand anything. As I was regaining my consciousness, his voice was getting louder and louder. He wasn't talking, he was shouting and the patting on my cheek felt more like he was slapping me. After a while, I could finally understand what he was saying: "Wake up! For Christ's sake, wake up! WAKE! UP!".

"Oh! Almost! Wake up better!" The man shouted at me while still remorselessly slapping me in the face.

"Ugh... wha- Ehm... stop... slapping... please...pain...everywhere." I stuttered with all my effort.

"Nope! Not good enough!" He said as he gave me one last slap.

And that one last slap actually woke me up.

"Okay! Okay! I get it, I'm awake! I'm awake." I said as I tried to get out of the bed, but I suddenly felt very dizzy and fell back on the bed.

"Yeah, you better not do that, you probably have a concussion." Said the man while he lit up a cigarette. It was a Lucky Strike cigarette... those were my cigarettes! He just opened one of my packs, the bastard.

"Dude! Those are mine, give them back!" I took the pack and lit a cigarette for myself.

"It's okay, you have enough packs left." He said as he gave me a little sarcastic smile.

"So... You think you could tell me, y'know, what the fuck? Like, what's your name, how did I get here, who are you, why did you-"

"Calm down, I get it. Well, my name is... ehm, Dokter Hose von Kartoffel. I found you in the luggage storage of a bus. You were wounded so I treated you, you should be grateful. Oh and you ruined my luggage, you're gonna have to pay for that." He said as he interrupted me in the middle of my sentence.

"How could I have possibly ruined your luggage?" I asked confused.

"I think you really liked my luggage and tried to hug it with your forehead, really hard." He replied with a long pause "... or the luggage may have moved around a bit and gently hit your head when I made a sharp turn and almost made the bus do a side-flip." He said as if he was asking a question, but it was clear he just didn't want to admit it.

"So you are the bus driver?" I asked

"Yes."

"So this is your fault?"

"Quite possibly."

"And you took me to your home because if your boss found out you injured somebody you would get fired?"

"Maybe."

"And you realise your name means "Potato Pants" in German?"

"Yes I do."

"Are you gonna tell me your real name?"

"Most likely."

"Tell me your name."

"It's Toby, Toby Black. Yours?" He laughed.

"My name is... my name is Ace Branco" I sighed.

"Oh! That sounds latino-ish-like!" He replied happily. "But why the sigh?"

"You don't know what Branco means, do you?" I asked

"No, not really." He said with a big question-mark on his face.

"Good."