Landon and Lauren planned to go to the park to run together the next morning. Lauren was up first and she went to knock on Laura's door.
Landon opened the door.
"Ready to go?" Lauren asked.
"Yeah, but I have to do something first." he said. "But come in. I need your help for something."
Lauren stepped inside the house for the hundredth time. There was a great comfort that overcame her in the house.
"Okay,"Landon started, "I need you to help me leave my mom a note so that she doesn't freak out."
"Okay," she said.
Landon took out a piece of paper and a pen.
"So what do you want me to do?" she asked him.
"I just need you to make sure that I follow the line on the paper and to tell me how much to move my hand over so that I have enough space between words."
"Okay."
With that, Landon began to write his note waiting until Lauren told him it was okay. When he finished writing the note, Landon left it on the refrigerator, holding it in place with a smiley shaped magnet.
"Okay," he turned to where he had previously heard Lauren's voice. "Let's go."
Lauren walked behind Landon, and when they got to the door, Landon opened it for Lauren to go first. She whispered a thank you as she passed by. When he was sure that he had given her enough time to pass, Landon closed the door behind him.
Lauren waited for him and they walked around the park as their warm up. Then the second lap was their run. Lauren grabbed Landon's hand. "That way we won't lose each other."
Landon nodded. They both ignored the sparks that shot through their arms and the warmth that dispersed throughout their body.
They continued running around the park for another ten laps. After that, Lauren led Landon towards the sidewalk so that they could run around the neighborhood.
Landon was thinking about how great running with Lauren was. I need to do this more often, he thought.
Everything felt right for him. For once in a while, Landon forgot that he was blind. It was something that he was grateful for. He was grateful that Lauren made him feel like he wasn't blind. It made him feel like he was four again, when he could actually see.
These moments with Lauren were ones that he cherished deeply. Of course, Lauren could never take the place of his brother or his mother but she was the one that always made everything a little better, not that his mother and brother couldn't. But Landon's mother and brother couldn't always be there. Lance had work and Laura was busy doing her own thing. Landon knew that Lauren could be there for him, after all, it was what she was doing now.
"You feeling okay?" Lauren asked Landon.
Landon nodded. "Yes, ma'am. I am absolutely fine."
"Good."
They continued on their run, taking it one step at a time, when all of a sudden out of nowhere there was a scream. It was a scream that was begging for help and they both instantly knew it was a male. Landon and Lauren picked up the pace. Lauren made sure that Landon was okay with the pace she was going at. She didn't want him to fall and hurt himself, but as she picked up the pace more and more she found that Landon was keeping up with the pace.
It seemed like an eternity before they came to the screaming male and Lauren immediately saw that there were about six guys kicking and punching the guy, who was on the floor.
"Hey!" both Lauren and Landon screamed.
"Leave him alone." Landon screamed again.
The six young men, seeing that they had been caught in the act left in a run. they left the guy there. Even from afar, Lauren could tell that the guy on the ground was in pretty bad shape. He was just laying there and there were spots of blood visible around his head. Lauren made sure that Landon was with him as she knelt down besides the young man.
When she saw the young man on the ground, she was shocked. His face was covered in blood from the repeated punches that the six guys had given him. Lauren was sure that at least one of them was wearing a ring, because those marks were too much to have been by hand alone. But that wasn't what had shocked her the most. As she looked at the bloodied face, she recognized him. The young man on the floor was Ray!
"Ray?" Landon asked.
Lauren turned to look at Landon whose hand was holding Ray, and her shock grew even more. How was it that he knew? How did he know it was Ray on the ground?
"Hey, buddy," his voice was heard again. "Everything is going to be okay. Don't you worry, okay? We're going to call an ambulance, okay? You're in pretty bad shape and I don't think we should just take you home. Don't worry. Everything will be fine."
Lauren took this as her queue to take out her cell phone and called 911. The thing was that earlier Lauren wasn't going to take her cell phone. She wasn't going to need it anyway, so she decided to leave her cell phone in her room. But at the last minute, she changed her mind and took it with her. And thank God, I did, she thought, if not we wouldn't have been able to call the ambulance.
After the ambulance arrived, Landon and Lauren accompanied Ray. When they got to the hospital, they asked the nurses if Ray had had a cell phone in his pocket or something. The nurses answered with an affirmative, but they refused to give the cell phone to Landon or Lauren. They explained to the nurse that they had to call Ray's mother, because she didn't know he was here. After a few more minutes pf explaining and trying to persuade, the nurse finally gave them the phone.
Lauren searched through the contacts until she found one named mother and she pressed it so that it would speed dial. After that was done, she handed the phone to Landon, since Ray's mother knew Landon very well.
"Hello?" Mrs. Hayes answered.
"Hello, Mrs. Hayes. It's Landon." he said.
"Oh, hi Landon. How are you?"
"I'm doing fine ma'am."
"That's good. What can I help you with?"
"Nothing ma'am. I'm calling about Ray."
Landon instantly felt a change in her voice as she answered. "He's not here right now."
"We know, ma'am. We're calling from the hospital."
The panic grew. "Why are you calling from the hospital?! Where is Ray?!"
"Ma'am I need you to calm down, okay? You need to be calm because I don't think Ray would want you to see him in this state."
Heather's voice became low. "What happened to my son?"
"I don't know what other way to say this, ma'am. But Lauren and I went running and we found that six guys were beating a guy up really bad. We got closer and we realized it was Ray, so we called the ambulance and we're here at the hospital."
"Okay, Landon. Thanks for calling me. I'll be there right away, okay?"
"Yes, ma'am. We'll wait."
~~~~~~~~
"I want to know about my son!!" Heather Hayes told the nurse.
"I'm sorry, ma'am, but there are no clear news about your son please calm down. We all need you to calm down and sit down to wait. There's nothing else I can do."
"But he's my son!!! You have to tell me what's going on!"
Landon approached Mrs. Hayes and tried to calm her down. He was afraid that she would have a panic attack.
"Mrs. Hayes, please. What she's saying is true. You need to calm down. You need to be strong. I'm sure that he's doing fine. Doctors take extremely long periods of time to give you any news about the people that you want to know about."
Heather looked at Landon. She knew he was blind. But she was amazed at how good he was with everything despite the fact that he was blind.
She looked at Landon and immediately a peace went through her. She couldn't explain it but it was there. He was right though. She needed to be calm so that the doctors can do their job without unneeded pressure.
Heather nodded and walked over to the chairs with Landon. When they were all seated, Heather turned to Lauren and Landon and said thank you to them for helping her son.
After thanking them, she turned to Landon. "Thank you for doing this for my son. I won't have any way of paying for this...ever. I know my son has done horrible things to you, but still you helped him. He felt so guilty and he repented. He told me that he would go to apologize to you for everything, but that he wasn't sure you would forgive him.
And after you forgave him, it was like he couldn't believe it. It made him even more guilty because you just forgave him like that, without any fuss or any screaming or anything. I knew he was shocked but I also knew he felt he didn't deserve it.
My son has done many things, but I always knew that he cared about you. He never once said it, but I knew he did. And I'm pretty sure that he would have done anything for you.
And I am so grateful that you were here with him--that you are here even after all he did to you. You're an amazing young man and I can't ever thank you enough for doing this, even when it wasn't your duty."
Landon spoke. "Mrs. Hayes, it was my duty. Ray was my best friend. He's still pretty special. I know why he did all of what he did and I understand him. He was just trying to cope. He wanted to take his anger out in something and this is what he did. I don't hate him. I never could. He'll always be my best friend, that boy who did everything with me, the one who would get in trouble with me, the one who always looked out for me and the one who I was the closest with."
Heather had tears in her eyes. She was about to respond, but the doctor reached them.
"Raymond Hayes' family." he said.
Heather jumped up and approached the doctor. "That's me."
"I don't have good news ma'am." he told her.
"What do you mean?"
"He's in pretty bad condition. It appears that whoever attacked him, attacked him out of anger. There are many broken bones, the ribs among these. He needed a few stitches on his face where it appears that he was hit by a sharp object and there was a crucial hit to the head.
This crucial hit caused a hemorrhage in his brain. We couldn't intervene surgically so the only thing we could do was do our best, but we need a consent form because he's underage. We can't do anything without the permission of a parent."
Heather couldn't contain her tears as she heard the news about her son.
"Do it." she said between sobs."Do everything you can to save him. That's all I ask of you."
The doctor looked Heather in the eyes and gave her a solid nod. Then he went back to the emergency room.
~~~~~
Landon walked up to Heather. "Everything is going to be okay, Mrs. Hayes. Everything is going to be okay. We just have to have faith."
Heather looked at Landon, but she couldn't say anything. She was still sobbing and nothing could make her stop.
Landon stayed with her but there was nothing he could do to help her, so she left her to go to Lauren. Times like these, Landon knew that Heather wanted to be alone because there was really nothing no one could do. Not unless they were her husband or her son.
Landon walked over to Lauren and sat next to her. Lauren was beyond worried. She felt like everything was falling apart. She hated when people got hurt and today, she saw the worst in human beings.
Reaching his own hand out, Landon searched for Lauren's hand and held it in his. Lauren looked at him and was relieved to know he was there with her. Despite everything that had just happened, her heart fluttered and she felt the butterflies in her stomach break free. But she also felt safe. Despite everything, she felt safe when Landon was here next to her, even when she was worried sick about Ray.
"I'm sorry about Ray." she whispered.
"So am I." Landon answered. "I feel horrible that Mrs. Hayes has to see her son here. I feel horrible that this has happened to him because I still care about him, and I know that he did awful things to me over the years but he does not deserve---he does not deserve what's happened to him."
"I know."
"Did I do something wrong?"
Lauren looked at Landon. Sadness had overtaken his facial features. There was so much sadness and pain and worry in his eyes. Lauren hugged him.
"You didn't so anything wrong, Landon. This isn't your fault. There's nothing you could have done to make this happen."
"But I'm the one who told him something that day, it's my fault that his friends are mad at him. I have no doubt that those six guys were his friends, the ones he left to apologize to me."
"Landon," she paused to leave the embrace and she took both his hands, "this isn't your fault. Ray has a good heart and he chose to apologize to you because he felt he had to. That's what makes him a good friend, Landon. And you forgave him, which makes you a good guy, too."
"I don't feel like a good guy."
Lauren kissed his cheek. "You are a good guy. Don't ever doubt that."