Light As A Feather

Chapter 7

"You ok kid?" I try to respond and the words don't come. Then I black out.

I'm in a hospital room waiting for discharge papers. After I blacked out I was checked into the hospital and given a room. I woke up and answered the necessary questions. They want to keep me over night but I freaked out and demanded to be released. I have to get out of here and see what's happening with Elly.  I'm still a bit foggy from my fall and a tad nauseous; I told the doctors I was fine though.

Finally, the doctor walks back into the room with discharge papers. She doesn't look too happy about it. I could care less about what she thinks, I'm not the important one right now.

"Did you ask about Elly Jacobs?" I hop off the bed and grab the papers from her.

"You can  wait in the waiting room, her doctors will update you when they can." The doctor gives me a sympathetic smile; it just makes me angry. Trying not to stumble from dizziness, I find my way to the lobby and make a follow-up appointment. Then I go to the waiting room on the surgery floor and begin my wait.

Each hour that goes by agonizes me. I start to cry, full out sobbing. People look at me and they judge me. I've never cried like this before; I feel like there's a hole being drilled right into my heart. I need her to be okay, I need her to be alive. If she lives I won't ever leave her side, I'll be there for her whenever she needs me. She's been there for me and helped me so much, I don't even think she knows.

I'm so afraid that this could be it, I've finally found the perfect person and now I might lose her. Nausea overwhelms me and I just make it to the bathroom. I puke up remnants of last night and then I just retch for five more minutes.

On my way out I see a doctor leaving the waiting room. "Are you Elly Jacobs's doctor?"

"Are you her brother? Declan?" I nod. "She is stable right now, but the next twenty-four hours are crucial. There were a lot more drugs in her system than what you found and by the time we got to her most of them were already absorbed into her bloodstream."

"Can I see her?" The doctor nods.

"Yes, but she is in a coma. Elly's brain activity is very low, if she doesn't wake up after twenty-four hours we may be looking at something more serious. Do you know where your mother is?"

"No, I don't. It doesn't matter, we're eighteen." The doctor seems confused by my answer; he leads me to Elly's room anyway. The words 'coma' and 'more serious' repeat in my head on the way there. What drugs did she take or do? She must've taken them while I was sleeping, I should have paid more attention to her. God Elly, why did you do this?

I'm not prepared for what I see when I walk in. Elly is laying on a hospital bed with tubes and wires all over. There is a tube in her mouth, which makes her look so helpless. Her hair is splayed around her head, like a lion's mane and her skin looks sickly, devoid of life. The doctor leaves me and I drag a chair next to her bed. Before I sit down I kiss her on the cheek.

"Elly, I'm here. I'll always be here; I love you beautiful. I don't understand why you did this, but I'm going to be right here when you wake up so you can tell me." I lean my head against her cold hand.

"You're so amazing in case you didn't know. So smart, so in touch with everything. You find beauty and worth in anything, even in me. I was depressed before you, I thought that my life didn't matter." I pause, old memories surfacing with each beep of the monitor Elly is attached to.

"I used to try to numb myself and my feelings with pills, alcohol and other things that were of easy access because I didn't want to participate in life." My mind flashes through all of the times my dad hit us. Being twelve years old and comforting my mom while blood runs down her nose. Using butterfly bandages to patch up Jack's arm after my dad threw a beer bottle at the wall and shoved him into the glass.