Chapter 31
Three Years After
Amelia sat in her room. If that's what you could call it. Everything was safe-proof. There were no sharp objects or anything Amelia could use to harm herself or others. She was clinically depressed, so everyone treated her like a child. They walked on eggshells around her, like that would help.
"Good evening, Amelia," the nurse said as she walked in. Amelia didn't look up, she hadn't even realized that someone had entered her room. "Here you go." The nurse handed her a little paper cup with a few pills in it and another cup filled with water. Amelia quickly downed them, there was no sense in resisting.
The pills helped her sleep, something she could never do on her own.
"Tomorrow," the nurse started, "we're going to take you out to the common room. You need to spend some time with your friends." Amelia wanted to tell her that the people here weren't her friends, she only had one friend, Daniel. And Daniel was in a coma and it was all her fault.
"Okay," she said. Even if she declined, they would insist. There was no getting around it. What was the harm it could do, anyways?
Now
Daniel woke up with the sun, just like always. Only this time, instead of trying to go back to sleep, and failing, he shot out of bed like a bullet. It was Christmas day. Daniel was excited and nervous at the same time, this day would either be a family Christmas to remember (even though he wouldn't) or a complete disaster.
He walked through the hall to the guest room. Knocking on the door, he said, "Are you awake?" There was a crashing noise inside the room that prompted Daniel to open the door. "What's wrong? What happened?"
Amelia was sitting on the floor, the crashing sound must have been her falling off the bed. "You scared me," she said, laughing. "I was already awake, Danny."
"Oh, sorry," Daniel said, feeling awkward, he started to walk back out into the hallway.
Amelia stopped him. "Danny, come back!" she called
Daniel came back in. "What is it?" he asked.
She grinned. "Merry Christmas."
"Merry Christmas to you too," he said. "Let's go make breakfast."
She walked out of the room with Daniel and followed him down the stairs and into the kitchen.
"What are we making?" she asked, but she already knew the answer. It was their Christmas morning tradition to make pancakes for breakfast.
"Pancakes, of course." Daniel opened the fridge and got out all the ingredients they would need. "I may have forgotten a lot of things, but this tradition isn't one of them." The bluntness of his statement hit Amelia like a train. It was hard to accept that kind of thing, but Daniel seemed to have done pretty well.
The two friends started to make their Christmas pancakes and by the time they were done and had cleaned up their mess, there was a tall stack of pancakes on the table and a sink full of dirty dishes.
YOU ARE READING
The Story Of Daniel
Short Story"It's like everyone tells a story about themselves inside their own head. Always. All the time. That story makes you what you are. We build ourselves out of that story." ― Patrick Rothfuss Daniel didn't have a perfect life. But he did have his fami...
