I Broke The Girl I Loved

I Should've Been There Sooner

My phone rang beside me, startling me awake. I checked the clock on my bedside table to see that it read 3:30am. The ringing stopped so I closed my eyes, slipping back into sleep until my phone rang again. I picked it up and saw that the caller was my mom so I answered it.

"Darla, it's 3am," I grumbled.

"Where are you Jayce? Didn't you read the note I left for you?" Her voice was shaky but urgent as she asked me. I was half asleep and couldn't remember what she was talking about.

"What note?" I asked back.

"The one I left on the kitchen counter," she said frantically.

"Oh. That note," I said, as I remembered seeing a note on the counter. "I didn't read it."

Darla made a noise that sounded like she was trying to suppress a sob. 

I slowly sat up. "Darla, is everything alright?" I questioned.

"Jayce, read the note and please get here soon," she said.

"Wait, but wha-" She hung up.

I heard the urgency in her voice but it was three in the morning and I didn't feel a need to rush. I casually got out of bed and grabbed one of the shirts off my floor, putting it on as I made my way to the kitchen. The note was left right where I'd seen it the night before. It was dark so I flipped the switch to turn on the kitchen light and picked up the note, scanning it's contents:

Your dad got in an accident. Ambulance took him to Valley Hospital, meet us there. -xoxo mom

Now I felt a need to rush. I dropped the note and grabbed my keys, booked it to my car and slammed the door behind me. Valley Hospital was half an hour from here but it was 3am and there were barely any cars on the road so I got there in fifteen minutes. I parked my car next to Darla's silver Range Rover and got out. Valley Hospital, like most of the places in Dankwoods, was small and there were only two entrances; the main one for visitors and family and the emergency one for the ambulances arriving with patients. As soon as I stepped through the doors I spotted Darla and I quickly made my way to her.

"Hey. What happened?" I asked.

She turned around and as soon as she saw me she wrapped her arms around me. I wrapped my arms around her shaky body and rubbed her back as she sobbed into my chest, creating a wet spot on my shirt. Evie sat, sound asleep, in a chair across from a sad painting of flowers.

As soon as you walk into the hospital you see the front desk and a bunch of waiting chairs. To the right of the front desk is a hall full of hospital rooms that runs down about four rooms before turning to the right where more hospital rooms are located. On the left of the front desk, where we were, was the waiting area for the surgeries. Darla had continued to sob and I stood there,  holding her, with no clue in the world what had happened to my dad. I didn't want to cause her to cry more but I needed to have an idea of what was going on.

"Darla? Can you please explain to me what happened?" I asked.

Her sobs continued as she held onto me tighter. I walked her over to the chair next to Evie and sat her down. Her body slumped against the back of the chair and I bent down to see her face. The tears streamed down her face and dropped off her chin onto her lap. Her eyes were glossed over and her gaze was fixed blankly on the floor. When I spoke she looked up.

"Darla, please," I begged her.

Darla breathed in and wiped her nose on the sleeve of her burgundy cardigan creating a trail of snot along it. I stood up and looked around for a box of tissues until I spotted one on the front desk.

"Can I borrow this?" I asked the woman behind the desk as I walked over and grabbed the box of tissues.

"Sure thing sweetie," she responded in a soft voice.

I thanked her and took the box back to Darla. She grabbed a few tissues and blew her nose.

"Your father," she started. "He was on his way home from work and he called me to tell me he was going to pick something up for dinner. He was mid sentence and the next thing I hear is a loud bang." Her lip quivered and her voice was wobbly as she continued, "I'm calling out and he won't respond so I hang up thinking it's the service. I called him again with no response so I turned the tv on while I waited for him to call me. Forty-five minutes passed and I got worried. I was calling his number and then the house phone rang so I picked it up. It was a woman who lives up the street and she saw your fathers car with the front smashed in on the side of the road. She told me the name of the only hospital in Dankwoods so I wrote you a note and then got in the car and drove down here."

She put her head in her hands and sobbed again. I still needed more answers, like how long he'd been in surgery and when he'd be out so I went back to the front desk.

"Excuse me? Can I ask you about a patient in surgery?" I said. The woman looked up upon hearing my voice.

When she looked up her lips turned up into a soft smile. Her hair was grey and tied up in a ponytail. She was sitting in front of a keyboard, her fingers on the buttons, ready to type the name I would say to her.

"Of course. Name please?" She asked me.

"Wilson Maxton."

Her fingers moved fast across the keys and before I knew it she was speaking again.

"Mr. Maxton is in surgery for fatal damage to the brain. It says here that there was a fracture in the skull and bleeding in the brain," she read off the screen with a worried look on her face.

"Why do you look so worried?" I said.

She took her eyes off the screen and looked up at me. "Son, these procedures can be tricky."

"No. He will be fine," I responded firmly.

Right as I said that the doors, by where you wait for people in surgery, opened and a middle-aged man wearing a nurses uniform and gloves came out and called Darla's name. She stood up and I moved away from the front desk and walked over to where they were standing.

"Is he family?" The man asked as he looked back at me.

"Yes," she said.

"Okay. I am sorry to inform the both of you but the procedure didn't go as planned and Mr. Maxton died three minutes ago."

My heart dropped and my vision blurred, spots of black blocking parts of the hospital. I heard sobs and I knew I should have stayed but my legs were already moving and I was running. Out the front doors and into the parking lot. Past the main road and into town. Across the field with the tiny hill by The Dreamery Creamery and down the side street by Judy's diner. I kept running disregarding the aching pain in my legs. I ran and ran and ran. My legs carried me past the school and past my house. They carried me out to a neighborhood I had never been before. I cut down a side street and ran to the end where the street stopped and the woods began.

I ran into the woods kicking dead leaves up as I did. Sticks broke under my feet and the wind rushed past my ears but I never stopped running. I didn't see the tiny stump in the ground in front of me so when I ran I tripped on it. It caused me to lose my balance and my body flew forward. My chest hit the ground, knocking the wind out of my lungs. I rolled onto my back and shut my eyes, struggling to catch a breath. I dug my nails into the dirt below me as the air rushed into my lungs. I gasped and coughed as the air coursed through my body. My eyes were still shut and I had clumps of dirt in my hands and under my fingernails. My body hurt and my legs ached so I didn't move. I laid there, eyes tightly shut, with only one thought in my mind; I should've been there sooner.