The Fast Lane

Chapter 23

I opened my eyes, suddenly very alert. I looked around at the white walls that seemed to be glowing, the white sheets of the bed that covered me, and the white hand of the person sitting next to my bed. I followed the extended arm to see whose hand was holding my own and was surprised when I saw Sam.

She glowed as she sat next to and watched me. I laughed, a little upset when I realized that I wasn’t actually awake. After laughing for about ten seconds, I stopped at the sudden realization that I could very well be dead.

"Am I…?"

Sam laughed. “OH no Lord you’re still alive. Just pretty unconscious. You lost a lot of blood when your ankle was crushed by that rafter.” I observed my leg under the sheets of my bed. It looked fine, but probably because this was a dream. Or I guessed it was. 

I reached up and touched my head where I had been hit. No scar or cut.

"When you wake up you’ll feel it."

"Great," I said, leaning back against the pillow.

"Speaking of, you should probably wake up now. Harry’s freaking out. I just wanted to check on you," Sam said, patting my hand. "Just clear your head and you’ll wake up."

I closed my eyes and tried to think of nothing. I could still feel Sam’s hand on mine though, and after about 5 minutes I got irritated. “It’s not working.” I opened my eyes and looked at her - but it wasn’t her. Harry was sitting next to the bed, half laying on my legs and holding my hand. The room was the same hospital room that I envisioned in my dream with Sam, but much more gloomy. I looked out the window and saw that it was dark, so it was either late at night or early in the morning.

I sat forward and brushed the hair on the back of Harry’s head. I wanted to throw myself onto him and kiss him over and over but I was in so much pain from my head and my ankle that I didn’t feel I like I could do much more than sit up a little bit. He didn’t move when I touched him. I laid back in the bed and tilted my head back to look up at the ceiling, groaning in pain.

"Oh good you’re awake," I heard a voice say. I sat up pretty quick and peered into a corner where someone was sitting in the dark. As the tall man came closer, I recognized the face to be the stranger that found me and took me to Harry. "He’s been sitting there waiting up for you for days. He finally fell asleep sometime after dinner today."

"How long have I been asleep? Or unconscious?"

"About 4 days."

My stomach grumbled. The man passed me a plate with some cold pizza on it and I hungrily took a bite. He watched as I chewed slowly and then swallowed.

After a few long minutes I smiled weakly. “You found me?”

He nodded. “As soon as the storm died down a bit Harry called me and Joel to come help him look in the fields for you. He said he figured you were trapped in the storm somewhere based on what he heard on the phone. We asked a lot of neighbors if they had seen you and thankfully one of them told me they saw you running down the road earlier that morning. I saw the broken house and figured you’d probably tried to hide.”

I nodded and took another bite of pizza. “And your name?”

"Oh I’m Caleb," he said cheerfully, stinking out a hand for me to shake and then pulling it back awkwardly when he remembered my condition.

"Well thanks for finding me, Caleb." I shifted my leg, suddenly noticing it felt heavier than usual. I lifted the sheet saw a large, black cast that covered majority of my foot and came up to my knee. "What happened?"

"Well when I found you, you were under a huge rafter. Your head was bleeding from something before that had knocked you out and your ankle was stuck under a rafter from the ceiling of the house. It took me a while but I lifted it off of you. I sliced my hand open on a nail too, check this out-" He lifted up one of his hands a showed me a large gash from the bottom of his middle finger to the bottom corner of his palm. It had been stitched up a few days before. I shuddered when I saw it. Caleb observed the cut himself, obviously proud of his battle scar.