After the Rain

Chapter Twelve

     Natalie, Adam, and Sauli followed a doctor into Tommy's hospital room. The room was dull and it smelled like lavender cleaning spray. It was overpowering, strong enough to give someone in a coma a headache. Tommy lay motionless in his bed, the only sound a faint beeping coming from the EKG at his bedside.
     "He's very lucky," said the doctor. "But he'll be alright. We already pumped his stomach and gave him a saline drip through the IV to keep him hydrated. I'll be in later to check on his charts." And with that, the doctor left and Natalie sat beside Tommy's bed, taking his hand. 
     "I don't know what's worse," Adam said."The drinking, the depression, or the bitterness towards Ellie."
     "I just don't understand why he's—" Sauli began, but Adam finished.
     "Being such a jerk towards her?"
     "Exactly."
     "There's something he's not telling you," Natalie muttered. "I know it."
     Just as last time, Tommy only woke to vomit, then fall back into his coma for two straight hours. Finally, his eyelids fluttered open, and he woke with a hoarse moan and a bad cough. The lights were too bright and his head throbbed horribly, relentlessly.
     "Nap time's over, Tommy," Adam said, his voice dripping with angry, sarcastic concern. "Wakey-wakey."
     "Dad," Natalie said. "Stop."
     "No, he's right to be an ass," Tommy rasped and coughed, his voice weak. He felt something taped underneath of his nose and reached up to rip it off, but Natalie caught his hand.
     "No, you don't." She let go of his wrist, talking like a mother chastising her child who had reached for the cookie jar before dinner. "You need that."
     Tommy sighed, looking over at Adam and Sauli. "Alright," he said after a long moment of tense silence. "Bring it on."
     "Bring what on?" Sauli asked.
     "The lecture. The rant about how I almost drank myself to death—again."
     Adam took a deep breath, his arms folded across his chest. "I shouldn't have to lecture you this time. There shouldn't have been a "this time;" there shouldn't have even been a first time! You should know better, Tommy. Do you know what it's like to get a call from some bar tramp I don't even know saying you're pretty much face-down on the bar, nearly dead? Do you understand how terrifying it is to think that I nearly lost my best friend—the man who is practically my brother—again?"
     "It's unbelievable," he went on. "that you would do this to yourself again! That was exactly how your dad died and I don't want to be the one who has to be putting you in the ground! Maybe you don't think like something like that could happen to you, but you're wrong. Look at what happened to Terri."
     Tommy flinched. "Leave her out of this. She has nothing to do with it."
     "The hell it doesn't!" Adam yelled. "You've been a zombie since she died. You do absolutely nothing but mope around! No—moping would be better because that would actually qualify as something. Of course, I shouldn't really expect anything else. This isn't just unhealthy, Tommy, it's sad."
     "You wouldn't understand," Tommy grumbled, anger seeping into his voice.
     "What don't I understand, Tommy?" Adam asked, louder than necessary. "What's the big secret, huh? You expect us to go along with this like it's normal, and when we want to help you, you shut us out."
     "Adam, enough." Tommy pressed, trying to be firm, but his voice wavered.
     "What, you can't handle the truth?" Adam turned to leave. "Come home when you're normal again—when you're you again. I'm sick of you breaking your promises."
    Adam left without another word. Sauli hesitated, unsure what to do, then followed him out. Natalie hugged Tommy and kissed him on the forehead, disappearing through the curtain that separated him from an empty bed beside him and the door.
     Tommy was left alone in the silent room. He curled over on his side, ignoring the pain that shot down his back and the sloshing uneasiness that was his insides. Wrapping his arms around himself, Tommy cried. Not actually cried, but silently, the tears slipped off his face, making him feel weak. The tears felt numb on his skin.
     Tommy never felt so small, so alone.
     So empty.
     Closing his eyes, wave after wave of pain crashing into him like the relentless tide, the tears continued to fall as he gradually spiraled down into unconsciousness.