My Complicated Life

Chapter 20

I woke up the next morning with a banging feeling in my head. Sometime in my sleep I must have rolled over on my side and now the bandaged wound was pressed against the bed. As I rolled back onto my back an unbearably sharp pain struck my head and without thinking, I screamed. I could not have stopped myself from screaming even if I wanted to. Jason came running in, followed by Uncle Dave. I grabbed the sides of my head as if it would make the banging stop. All of a sudden, a nauseating vibe spread through my body and I held my stomach with one hand, my mouth with the other. Though Uncle Dave did not catch on, Jason did and ran to find a trash can. As soon as he returned with the trashcan, no one had to help me sit up as I threw up.

“Ugh, just make it stop!” I cried out as if someone could. Shut up Callie. You know what yesterday did to him.

Jason left the room with Uncle Dave and returned alone with an ice pack. I propped myself up against the wall so that I was now sitting up. Jason handed me the ice pack and instead of applying it to my head, I rested it on my hip. Yesterday I had not realized it, but when the door hit the tree, it caved in, leaving a nasty bruise on my hip. The frozen ice pack stung the slot of bare skin, turning my now purple and yellow skin bright red.

“Is your arm okay?” I asked.

“Yeah, I think so,” Jason answered as he sat down next to me on the bed.

“Are you okay?” I asked, this time looking him straight in the eyes. He hesitated before answering.

“I hope so.” He knew I heard him last night, but neither of us wanted to say anything about it. Without looking at him, I took his hand and squeezed it tight with my own. I do not know why I did, but it made me feel just a little bit better.

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            For the next few days, I did not do much. After the first couple days, my head stopped hurting. I discovered more bruises, though the worst was still the one on my hipbone. My head ached from time to time, but the ibuprofen usually helped it go away. Lily called and said that when we got home she would help me remove the stitches. I guess your supposed to leave them in for about ten days, at least that is what she told me. Jason and Uncle Dave did not do much for the next few days either except take Jason's truck somewhere to get it repaired.

            I was no longer battling the pain in my body, but my mind. Every night since the crash, I had these horrible dreams. They felt so real, even though I would have experienced something similar the night before. In the morning I would realize it was all a nightmare and try to push the horrifying thoughts from my brain, but it felt useless. I knew why I was having them, and they only got worse.

            As the time for us to meet Dad again crept closer, I became more nervous. On our last night in Noma, I called my mom.

            “Hello?”

             “Hey Mom, it’s Callie.”

            “Oh hi! How are you?”

            “Um, okay I guess.”

            “What’s wrong?”

            “Uh, well the other night we got in a car wreck, but I’m okay now.” Though the car wreck was not what was really bothering me, it was all I could bare to tell her.

            “Oh my gosh. Are you injured?”

            “Uh yeah, but it’s okay. I just had to get stitches on my forehead.”