Waves

CHAPTER 042

NORA

The day of her surgery was the day after the man on the beach had died. Nora woke with a feeling of heavy dread in her stomach, already fearing the same fate for herself as the man had the day before. Death.

It wasn't going to be a deadly surgery at all, and there was little risk of anything that bad happening to Nora, but the thought was still in the back of her mind as she dressed in sweatpants and a t-shirt with an oversized hoodie over the top.

She grabbed her phone and stuffed it in her hoodie pocket, but not before checking the date. May 23rd. Her birthday was in sixteen days, and she couldn't wait to be twelve, even thought it wouldn't be celebrated at all. Nora couldn't even remember if she'd told Mouse when her special day was.

She was honestly grateful that he didn't know, since Mouse had already done so much for her and she didn't want to add anymore to her growing list of debt that she could never have paid off in the next five or so months of her stay. She couldn't believe that she'd been in Australia for almost seven months, either.

There was a soft knock on the bathroom door right as Nora finished brushing her teeth. She spat the toothpaste out in the sink and quickly rinsed her mouth, before pulling it open to reveal Mouse standing there. He was dressed similarly in jeans and a gray hoodie with a logo that Nora recognized from one of the local surf shops.

"You almost ready to go?" Mouse asked her softly, since it was still very early in the morning, "We have to leave in ten minutes."

"I just have to finish my hair," Nora promised.

"You know you're going to have to take the hair style out when we get to the hospital?" He responded, raising an eyebrow at her antics as she grabbed her hairbrush.

"I know," Nora said, "But humor me, okay?"

"Humored," Mouse closed the door to the bathroom quietly and let Nora do her thing.

She did her hair in a braided half-up half-down sort of thing, the same sort of thing that she would wear to school, or to special occasions. It would be just as easy to take out as it was to put up, which she was also grateful for, since she knew that she would have to take it out in about an hour.

She stepped out of the bathroom and turned the light off, before tip toeing into the main area and pulling her converse on. She didn't eat, since she was about to have surgery, so she wasn't allowed to have any sort of substance after midnight the night before.

"Ready?" Mouse asked her. He was leaning against the front door, a flash of silver betraying that he already had the keys in his hand, and his phone hanging out of his hoodie pocket.

"Yep," Nora agreed, stepping out of the apartment with him after casting one last glance at the still moonlit sea. It was nearly four o'clock in the morning, and her surgery was scheduled for 5:30. She would be done by noon, and then stay the night in the hospital and the rest of the week at her home before she could even start to think about going back to school.

Oh, and she wouldn't be able to talk for three weeks after the surgery.

Yay.

When she and Mouse reached the underground garage, Nora slipped into the backseat and buckled her belt, glancing behind them as Mouse backed the car up and pulled into the lane. After seven months, she was finally used to driving on the left side of the road. Now, watching cars in America felt strange. Like the Americans were wrong and the rest of the world was right.

"Nora?" Mouse asked from the driver's seat.

Nora looked up. He was staring at her in the rearview mirror, his eyebrows furrowed in concern, "You alright?" He asked.

"I think so," She responded, "Just a little nervous."

"Well, I should hope so. You'll be alright, though. You have a good doctor, and he'll do well with you."

"I can still-"

"If you offer to pay for it one more time, I'm going to lose my-flip my lid, Nora," Mouse corrected himself quickly before he cursed, making Nora laugh.

"You know, for as much effort as you all put into not cursing around me, I'm no stranger to it," She pointed out with an eyebrow raised in amusement.

"Still, we don't want to expose you more than we have to to it," Mouse said, "We're lifeguards. Our natural instincts are to protect people, and whether that be their mental state or their physical state, we still want to help."

"Fair enough," Nora couldn't argue with that logic. She had seen rescues many times over the summer, both on Bondi Rescue and because she watched Mouse and his friends work on the beach occasionally. She knew that they cared about both mental and physical health almost equally, since mental health could sometimes be the reason physical health was declining.

She was also aware that Hoppo, the head lifeguard, had frequent mental health checks with all of his guards. After a few of his people left from their own mental health becoming too bad, he was very careful to make sure that people weren't overworking themselves too much and neglecting their own needs to care for others.

"When will we be there?" Nora asked.

Mouse glanced at the digital clock on his dashboard and bit his lip a little bit, "We should be there in about twenty three minutes. We're right on schedule, so we'll be there right at 4:30, kiddo."

"Okay, cool," Nora looked down and began to play with her hands in her lap, not wanting to focus on the fact that she was just about to have surgery. She could feel her stomach beginning to tingle with more nerves after every minute that passed.

Exactly twenty three minutes later, Mouse pulled into the hospital parking lot and stopped the car. It was time for them to go inside.