A Year Away

Chapter 7

I hear a beeping and see light.

Hell is brighter than I thought it would be.

A man's head appears. He's speaking, something in English, and it take me a minute to realize that I can understand him.

"What?" I croak, my voice raw.

"Mr. Hemmick, can you hear me? How do you feel?" He repeats.

"I, uh, I'm okay. Is this hell?"

The man shakes his head. "You are very much alive, Nicholas."

I'm neither excited nor disappointed about that.

"There are people here to see you, can you handle that?"

I nod.

"Okay, I'm going to send them in." He walks out of my feild of vision and I realize I'm staring into an LED light and the beeping is a heartrate monitor.

I'm in a hospital.

I make myself sit up slowly and look around. German hospitals look a lot like American hospitals.

I freeze.

Or am I in America?

The heartrate monitor starts beeping a little quicker and I know I'm probably about to have a panic attack.

The door opens, and the concerned faces of Liesel and Peter Klose fill the hallway. I feel tears falling down my cheeks and I sob out a thank you. They start crying as well and I'm wrapped up in a hug by the both of them.

"You don't need to thank us." Mrs. Klose says, rubbing slow circles on my back. "We're just glad you're okay."

"You gave us quit the scare." Mr. Klose says.

"I'm sorry." I sob.

"Don't be." He assures.

They give me some space and when my watery eyes clear, I find Erik standing awkwardly in the doorway.

"Are you okay?" I ask.

He flinches at the question. "What does that mean?"

"You told me something about you and I.... It had nothing to do with you. Please know that."

He looks me in the eyes, some of his confidence coming back. "I told them not to call your parents."

My eyes go wide. My parents would have called me home if they knew. Erik knew that. He knew I didn't want to go back home. I have half the mind to snap at him. To tell him he had no right to keep such important information from my parents, but that would be such a lie. "Thank you," I say softly.

He nods.

"The doctor says you can come back with us." Liesel says timidly. "If you'd like that."

I nod. "Yeah, I would."

I could tell there was more they wanted to talk about, more the wanted to ask me about, but they were willing to hold their tongue long enough for us to get somewhere and little more private and a lot more comfortable.

I was given clothes the Kloses brought for me to change into and they left the room. When they came back in, I was all signed out and we could leave when I was ready.

I left as soon as they told me.

The car ride was quiet, but you could feel the tension in everyone as we drove back to the house. We pulled into the driveway and all shuffled into the kitchen where we sat at the kitchen table the same way we always did: Mr. and Mrs. Klose on one side, Erik and I on the other.