What I Thought I Didn't Need

Chapter 2

Things had been awfully quiet in the house. Enrique had left about 5 minutes ago. Last I checked, James was home. I had this strange sense to go check in on my brother. I jogged up the stairs and knocked on his room door. No answer. I knocked harder this time and waited. Nothing. I slowly opened the door. And there he was on the floor in the middle of a big puddle of blood. I felt sick and immediately called an ambulance. Then I called Enrique to meet me at the hospital. Finally I called my parents. I grabbed my purse and ran outside to my brother's car. He didn't usually let me drive but I figured that didn't matter right now.

At the hospital I met Enrique just as my phone rang. It was dad saying they wouldn't be coming because they had a lot of work. I threw my phone onto the pavement in fury causing it to break. Angry tears stung my eyes as we quickly walk towards the entrance of the hospital. Enrique had heard the conversation with my dad so he knew what was going on.

Why would something like this happen to us? Was this karma for something I did wrong? I thought I'd always been good. This made no sense to me whatsoever.

We were waiting endlessly in the waiting room when a stranger walked up and handed me a small booklet. Without looking to see what it said, I simply thanked the kind man. He patted my shoulder and said, "I hope the good Lord helps you through whatever it is you're going through. God bless you." Before I could thank him again, he left, leaving me speechless. I leaned my head on Enrique's shoulder. He stroked my hair. It was quite comforting. I glanced up at him and our eyes met.

"Well let's check out what's in there?"

"Nah. We can do that when we get home." He said nothing more and put his head on mine.

I was full out crying now but I didn't care. It felt like we had been waiting for hours when the docter finally pulled us aside into another room. As soon as he closed the door I asked, "Is he gone?"

The doctor look at me and Enrique sympathetically and didn't say anything. I buried my face in Enrique's neck and cried. He put his arms around me giving me a tight hug. Finally the doctor spoke. "He's not dead." I looked up at him, hope stirring. "He lost a lot of blood. Ten more seconds and he wouldn't have made it." This caused me to continue to cry. Hard.

I finally pulled myself together and asked what happened. The doctor asked us to sit down. We did as we were asked and took our seats. Enrique putting his arm around me for comfort. "He was shot." Enrique gave my shoulder a slight squeeze. "He was shot in the stomach. It hasen't done too much damage. We have done an operation and he should wake up soon. He will be fine." I couldn't believe what I was hearing. But now tears of joy spilt over the brims of my eyes.

"When can we see him?" Enrique asked.

"He probably won't wake up within an hour, but you're welcome to go see him now."

"Ashton?" It was Enrique. I looked him in the eyes in response. "Let's go." He said. I nodded and he held my hand as we went to the room where James was.

There he was. Completely limp. He lay there motionless. This sent another wave of tears. I had a big lump in my throat and was already tired of crying so much. My eyes were swollen and my makeup was probably a mess. We sat there in silence for a few minutes just looking at my brother. I excused myself and headed for a bathroom to make myself look a little more human like. I washed my face and reapplied my makeup. This made me feel a lot better. I hurried back to the room, and it turns out I was gone for almost half an hour. I sat back down where Enrique was reading the booklet that the man had given me. He seemed really interested so I asked him what was in it.

He answered with, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him, shall not perish but have eternal life. Wow interesting. I used to go to church when I was little. My Aunt Trish used to take me. We moved away and I haven't been to church since."

I gave him a look that said I wasn't buying this whole 'God' thing. "Enough of this garbage." I said as I stuffed the booklet into my shorts pocket.

Just then we heard a low moan come from the bed. Was James waking up?