Yellow (editing)

Everything is Blue

My mom drove really fast – and let me tell you something, I did not know she had that potential. I guess you learn something new everyday.

I spent most of the car ride to the hospital sat at the back, fiddling with my white cane and trying to pick out what the songs on the radio are, while listening to my mom and dad bicker over what we were going to do and how we were going to get there faster. The rain was pounding steadily on the hood of the car, and I re-adjusted the seatbelt against my neck so that it wasn't digging into my skin. My head and shoulder still kind of hurt from when I tumbled through the window, and the thoughts about Barry racing through my mind certainly did not help cope with the pain. The car stopped. 

"So you got a call?" I quietly asked my dad, but my mom answered.

"Yep. The hospital called us. Said he put us as his emergency contacts and when his maid – Nancy, I believe is her name – found him, the first thing she did was call 911. And now here we are."

"Barry's going to be alright, bud," my dad chimed in, and reached back to put his hand on my knee reassuringly. When I was younger dad would always stick his hand behind the driver's seat and ask me to give him a high-five, which at times was hard for little Finn (the blind thing and all). Whenever I had a tough day or if people were making fun of me, my dad would reach his hand back and let me hold it. His hand was so big that my little hand was fully wrapped within his, and no matter what happened that day I felt better. My hand's almost the same size as his now, so the effect was gone. It was a thing we did, and it only wore out a few years ago, when I started caring about the world and such.

"Okay," I brushed a strand of my hair off my face, "but what the heck is his situation? It's not serious or anything right?"

"Don't say 'heck', Finnegan," my dad ordered. I'm pretty sure if I had the ability to roll my eyes I would've rolled them so hard I would be blind anyway.

"Whatever," The car hit a bump and everything I had brought along with my clattered to the floor of the car. I scrambled them up, back onto the seat. When mom had told me it was Barry we needed to see, I immediately took anything that may belong to him; including 'Dotted Sidewalks' and 'Blue', which I figured would be something sentimental for him. I set everything down and cleared my throat, "What's his situation?"

"We don't know, Finnegan. Be quiet." My mom said, her voice full of tension, but sweet at the same time.

I shut up.

I'll be honest, I supposed it was Egan at first when my mom burst into my room, and I might as well have fainted right then and there from the fear I felt. There was this one time Egan gave us a real scare in sixth grade when he had an asthma attack from the cold air and almost died. Thankfully his mom was nearby and gave him his inhaler – which was right in the nick of time. Anyway, it almost disgusted me when I was not as worried when mom mentioned Barry. Well, in my defense, it was because my mind convinced me that there was no way Barry couldn't be in the hospital. He was Barry. My pain-in-the-butt tutor Barry, the spit-in-my-face Barry, and the trudge-through-hail-and-snow-for-a-class Barry. It was pretty dang simple. Barry was invincible to me ever since I knew him, and it never wore off, not even when I started to care about the world. Everything changed and either got worse or better... and I still hated Barry with all my heart and soul. It was a thing of ours.

Dad turned the radio up, and I finally realized that it was playing 'Kiss Me' by Sixpence None the Richer. Totally inappropriate song for the moment, because, a) nobody was going to be kissing (hopefully), b) Barry – my beloved jerk tutor – could very well be a goner, and c) the tune was much too happy and that's... well... inappropriate. As much as I tried to make it a movie scene, sometimes songs don't line up to feelings. Resting my head against the cold window, I kept my mouth open so the car vibrations wouldn't make me clack my teeth together noisily, but eventually mom swerved and I ended up receiving a minor concussion from banging my head on the glass.