Broken By Reality

Chapter ❶❻

***
Incoming call from: KaRly💟
I clicked the answer button
me: "hey is everything alright"
Karly: "yea. Sorry if I scared you."
Me: "No problem. What's up?"
Karly: "Since it's a sunny day and all, we should go for a walk. Plus, I need to tell you something. How fast can you get here?"
Me: "ASAP"
I clicked the end call button immediately. What she had said rang alarm bells in my head. It spelt out problem with a capital P. Rushing for my shoes, I pulled on a pair a canvas, not even thinking about which foot was which, and started to head for the door.
"Wait. Keys. Keys. Keys. Keys......" I repeated over and over again as I frantically searched for those beloved keys. "Ha. Gotcha." Bounding down the stairs of the lobby, I searched through my contacts to find the taxi number. "Dial. Come on. Come on. Pickup already." My brain was in crazy mode
"Yes. Hello. Can I get a taxi for Miami Sunlight Hotel.....yes. Okay. Um LAICH. Okay. Thank you." Waiting impatiently for the taxi guy to arrive, many things ticked over in my brain more than once. Things that I didn't exactly want to think about to this second.
"Hello." Greeted the guy driving the vehicle as I dramatically clambered inside.
"Hey." He took off and headed for the quickest way possible to the hospital. I glanced at my piping hot watch. The time displayed was 8:17am. It had been nearly 15 minutes since I had left. Even though I knew that that I had been pretty quick, something inside of me told me that it wasn't quick enough.
***
Rushing into the hospital, a sigh of relief came over my body when my eyes were greeted by the beautiful and happy face of Karly.
A loud exhale of breath quickly escaped my lungs as I ran up to her, and hugged her tighter than anything. We pulled away and smiled contently, looking deeply into each other's eyes. My hands were on her shoulders, hers were placed gracefully in her lap.
"Oh Karly. You scared me. Are you okay?" A touch of worth was slightly noticeable in my voice
"I'm so sorry for scaring you. I'm okay. It's okay. Everything's okay. How are you?" Her calmness was comforting
"I'm good thanks." A few seconds of silence hung over us.
"So about that thing you wanted to tell m........" But I was cut off
"Don't worry. I'll tell you after. Now, about that walk?" She insisted on not telling me
"Of course. Shall we go?"
"We shall."
***
Walking the same track as last time, the shady palm trees still stood proudly over the warm orange concrete. The waves still eagerly washed against the sandy beach. And Karly? Well, she still stood lovingly by my side.
"Beautiful day huh?"a soft voice broke into my silence thoughts
"Yea. It's amazing. How's your ice cream?"
"Delicious in a thousand different ways." About 5 minutes of utter silence loomed between us. It wasn't an awkward silence, but more like a admiring silence.
"Haven't you ever thought about how, just like the waves of the ocean, two humans are nothing alike. I mean like, ever since I was a little girl, I've spent so much time at the beach that I came up with this theory. We are like waves. And just like waves, life is short so we need to embrace every second. There are highs, and lows. Some of us don't make it all the way, but most of us do. Some of us are stronger, more powerful than others, and some of us are just gentle pushes.........................Wayne, I need to tell you something. Something important." My stomach churned into a rough sea "When they sent me here to LAICH, because the equipment was more advanced they could see that.......Wayne,.......I have a brain trauma." My body froze with shock and Karly tried hard not to brake down into a crying fit. I didn't know what to say. Anf Karly obviously didn't expect me to know what to say, as she just waited for it to sink in.
"Wait.......you what?" It was pretty clear that she knew that I was going to say this.
"I know, Wayne. I know." at this point she buried her head into my houser and started to quietly sob. I rubbed small circles on her back to help clam her down. After a few minutes, she pulled away, her face now slightly red.
"Wayne. I didn't want to tell you this. Please understand that."
"I know Karly. It's okay. I'm not angry at you because it's not your fault." I whispered this part almost silently "I understand." We hugged in despair for what seemed like just seconds before Karly half pulled away and looked into my sorrowful eyes. Our faces were so close that our noses were nearly touching. her soft voice spoke once again, but this time it was like she as telling me a secret. A secret for the whole world but only for my ears
"And the worst part is......." she managed to get out through a fit of tears, "They've only given me three weeks to live." everything inside of me dropped. I couldn't imagine a world with Karly. My vision blurred for a few seconds as caught my breath.
"Did you say...."
"Yes Wayne, three weeks." She once again nestled into my black shirt, and sobbed a river of tears. My eyes started welling up, but I didn't want to cry In front of her. It would've just made things so much worse.
"It's okay Karly. It's okay."