new beginnings

Superman

I woke up choking on my vomit and Ron yelling.

Oh, hell.

I was shaking, almost like I was having a seizure, maybe I was. I couldn't breathe.

Then the once quiet noise faded back into Ron's yelling.

"Carl! Carl!" he repeatedly yelled, holding on my arm.

I was terrified. I tried to move, but I couldn't. I kept shaking.

Ron flipped me to my side and the vomit oozed out of my mouth. I was still shaking and I couldn't breathe. His yells turned into desperate cries.

He started giving me CPR, desperate.

But nothing helped.

He pulled me back on my side and I stopped shaking.

"No! No! Please... Carl," he laid his head on my chest.

I felt a sudden surge of energy and I vomited on the bedside floor. I could breathe.

"Ron," I said softly.

"Carl!" Ron yelled. I saw his face, tears were streaked all over it. I laid on my side trying to catch my breath.

He held my hand until I could speak. "Ron... I'm sorry... for drinking all of that," I whispered with all the power I could.

"You're okay. I'm just happy you're alive," he gave me a relieved smile and put his head on my chest and squeezed my back gently.

I got the strength to put my hand up and put it on his head and stroke it softly.

"I'm tired... stay with me," I said weakly and shut my eyes.

"I've been here the whole time. Why would I leave now?" he said and stroked my hand.

"I'll read to you," he grabbed a novel off the other bed and started reading.

- ONE HOUR TIME SKIP -

"It was Sunday afternoon. The resting horses nibbled the remaining wisps of hay, and they stamped their feet and they bit the wood of the mangers and rattled the halter chains. The afternoon sun sliced in through the cracks of the barn walls and lay in bright lines on the hay. There was the buzz of flies in the air, the lazy afternoon humming. From outside came the clang of horseshoes on the playing peg and the shouts of men, playing, encouraging, jeering. But in the barn it was quiet and humming and lazy and warm."

Ron was reading aloud from the middle of the book he started when I fell asleep. He was still here. I laid silently without opening my eyes listening to his rugged but soft voice talking away. After I slowly got up, and felt a lot better, but still felt dizzy.

"How do you feel? You need anything?" he asked me while helping me sit up.

"I need to get outside. I feel so lazy. Fresh air sounds so nice right now," I said and shakily pushed myself off the bed and tried to make myself look decent.

I put on my hat and slowly started walking out of the room and Ron insisted he stood behind me in case I fell.

I walked down the stairs and the clock said it was four o' clock in the afternoon. I shuffled out the door with Ron and sat down on the porch swing with him. He looked around before he took my hand.

"You know how you said you would probably not save me? Well, guess what, you have. I don't know what I would've done if you didn't help me all those times. You saved my life. Not just today, but since I've met you. You've given me hope and I actually look forward to the future now," I looked at him deep in his gorgeous eyes.

He was speechless.

"Call me Superman," he said and smiled at me.

"Alright then, I will," I joked and tightened my grip on his tough hands.

My superhero is an average person.