Life after Death

Life after Death: CH4

“Go with Rainey,” I told her. I could hear my plea in my voice, and I hoped she could too. She touched my hand, nodded and told me she loved me before turning right at the end of the corridor, following Rainey’s stretcher. I let my arm hang over the bed as I was wheeled in the opposite direction from my wife, my child and my sister. In that moment, I felt more alone than ever.

~

“Oh, dad,” Dan sighed and I snapped out of my daydream. “Why did you tell mum to go with Aunty Rainey then?”

“Because, son,” I put my elbows on the dining table, clasped my hands together and rested my chin atop of them. “There are times in life when others are in more need than yourself. I might have been in pain, but I was going to live, which was not something I could guarantee for Rainey.”

“Oh,” He said simply. He thought about that for a moment, then his face broke out into a grin. “I can be pretty annoying sometimes, huh?”

I laughed. It felt so good to laugh like that; at something so simple. “Yeah. Back in the day, when you were younger, you kinda were. But now? Now you’re just lazy.” I winked at him and returned his grin.

We laughed for a little while longer, sharing the moment together. A moment so simple, yet so effective.

“Anyway,” Daniel waved his hand in front of him, as if he was ushering away our laughter and our conversation. “What happened next? Where did you end up? And was Rainey alright?”

“Well…”

~

 I was taken into my own private hospital room, where they gave me ten stitches for the wound in my head. I had an X-Ray on my knees. The doctors connected me to an IV drip, gave me morphine and prescribed me some pain meds. When the X-Ray results came back, it showed that I suffered something they called a Patella Fracture, which is a broken kneecap to you and I. When I was lying on the bed, the doctors asked me to straighten my left knee, which was the one that was broken, and raise it in the air. It was painful and a bit of an effort since I was tired, nauseous and feeling slightly faint, but I managed. They said that because I could raise my straightened leg, they didn’t have to operate on my knee. They gave me a leg brace, which kept my leg dead straight. It was uncomfortable to begin with, but after a while the pain in my knee began to cease. Whether that was because of the drugs or the brace, I wasn’t sure. Just as I was about to ask the nurse if I could go visit Rainey, she left the room, ultimately leaving me alone with my thoughts for a good half hour.

In that time, I absorbed my room; something I hadn’t been able to do whilst the doctors surrounded me.

It was your standard hospital room: a simple bed; a small, old TV opposite me on a shelf against the wall, all of which were painted a light blue; some machines that measured my heart rate; my IV drip bag hanging on a metal hook next to my bed, and finally, a large window with simple grey blinds pulled down over it. The blinds were open, however, despite being down, which allowed me to get some view of the outside world. The city lights of Winchester made the far horizon glow, and the night sky outside was pitch black, just as it was when Rainey and I were admitted.

The thought of her made me wonder where she was, how she was doing. Was she alive? Was she going to be okay? Would I be able to see her?

My questions were about to be answered when the petite, brunette-haired nurse walked back into the room again.

“Mr Jacobs,” She said softly, checking my IV levels. “How are you feeling?”

“Better,” I murmured. “My knee doesn’t hurt so much. Everything else is just numb.”