Losing Jack

Chapter 13

At 4.30am Beth had been jolted awake to yelling and loud crashes going on in the house. She had sat up startled at first thinking it must have been a burglar. It had taken her a few moments to get her bearings, then she realised where she was – “Oh hell its Jacko,” she had mumbled sleepily to herself, scrambling to get out of her bed.

He was having another of his night terrors - it was like a really bad nightmare and as he played it out he was destroying his room and more than likely harming himself in the process.

Every fibre in her body wanted to go into his room, to wake him, comfort him and to tell him it was just a bad dream and she was here to make it all better. But she knew that wasn’t an option, Jude had told her once about them. When he was in the middle of one of his terrors he wasn’t aware of what he was doing, which made him violent, even dangerous.

Beth guessed that was why Jude had a custom made lock fitted to Jacks bedroom door. The key was kept inside his room, so if he woke up during the night all he had to do was turn the key to get out, and he had been taught to always lock his door after him when he was going to bed. But it could also be opened from the outside if they needed to get into his room once he had locked it.

Beth stood at his locked bedroom door listening with bated breath, hoping that he wouldn’t hurt himself too badly crashing around in there. She wondered if he was was reliving his accident all those years ago.

Beth hadn’t been in Mt Barker when Jack had his accident, but she knew what had happened, it was all over the news. He died twice on the way to the hospital, the last time was for 7 minutes, starving his brain of oxygen.

Against all of the odds the paramedics had brought him back to life on the way to the hospital and he had fought like a warrior and survived. Between his head injuries and lack of oxygen he had lost a lot of his cognitive abilities, poor thing had to learn how to do everything all over again. But some of the things he lost just couldn't be learned over.

Beth often wondered if he understood what had happened to him, if he knew how much he had lost. She hoped he was unable to comprehend, that he remembered nothing of his life before his accident.

She also knew there were others in the car that night and wondered which would be worse, being permanently brain damaged like Jack was, but more than likely oblivious to it all, or the fate of the others who would have to live with the horror of what had happened that night every day of their lives. Beth knew first-hand about living with stupid mistakes and regrets.

After a while the screaming and thrashing subsided and in its place was sobbing, like a child. Beth knew Jack had woken up and he was afraid, so she unlocked his door, turned on the light and entered his bedroom.

“There, there” she soothed, “its ok, Beth is here now” she said helping him up from the floor. He had wet himself and his flannel pyjamas clung to his legs. His blankets were strewn across the room and one of his sheets had entwined itself around his legs, like the tentacles of a massive octopus. He weakly kicked at it to free himself.

Trembling as Jack stood up Beth saw his face was ruddy and tear streaked and he sobbed quietly to himself, “nooo, nooo not dead.”

Blood trickled from his lip where he had bitten it. On closer examination Beth found it was only a small mark, apart from that he was unharmed, just terrified.

“Come on now, let’s get you all cleaned up and back in bed eh,” she soothed encouragingly. Opening his wardrobe door she found him a clean pair of pyjamas and led him still shaking into the bathroom. Putting the pyjamas on the vanity cupboard next to the sink for him to change into,  she turned on the shower and made sure the water was just right before leaving Jack to get cleaned up and put on the fresh pair of pyjamas.

While Jack showered Beth set about putting clean sheets and blankets on his bed, and putting the old ones in the washing machine. Jack emerged from the bathroom as she was just folding down the top sheet over the blankets.

“You look much better, let’s get you back to bed all nice and cosy hey,” folding the blankets and sheet over at one corner Beth motioned for Jack to jump back into bed. When he had climbed in she tucked him in extra tightly and sat next to him on the bed and began humming a lullaby and patted his arm until he had gone to sleep.

As she stood up from the bed Beth saw the flash of a torch coming from outside – Sandy she thought to herself and quickly made her way to the front door in an effort to catch her before she left.
----------
Thanks for reading,  I hope you are enjoying Losing Jack. Please vote and comment if you think this chapter deserves it  :)