The Life of Lilac Hill

Chapter Two: The Aftermath

Beep beep beep.

I turn my head towards the sound but my neck is so stiff that it doesn't move. I open my eyes and I'm greeted with a white ceiling. My dad is asleep in one of those uncomfortable hospital chairs. He snores quietly. Strong smells of flowers fill my nose, yay allergies, and I sneeze. My dad jerks awake and smiles at me from the chair.

"Finally up, huh?"

"Um...yeah? What happened?" I pull my hand up and run it through my hair, which is hard and stuck together.

"You and your mother were in a car crash. You don't remember? The guy that was driving the car that hit you was dead at the scene. They moved your mom up to ICU."

My hand is covered in red flakes which I identify as blood. I suppress the urge to scream and run out of the room, away from my problems.

"Dad, I know moms okay, but what about me? Why is there blood in my hair?"

"Use deduction Lilac. What do you think happened?"

My eyes dart around the room quickly. " Well I'm in the hospital, so I'm obviously injured in some way; We were hit by an oncoming car; Moms in ICU; I have blood in my hair-weather it's mine or not is a different story-" my head starts pounding, "possible head injury, broken ribs; I'm hooked up on a morphine drip so the pain must have been pretty bad, especially since I was knocked out by it," my vision starts to go blurry. "Um...I don't know what else." My god why won't this pounding in my head go away!

"Go back to sleep. You'll have it all figured out when you wake back up." I stare at my dad taking in every last detail. The tattoos running down both of his arms, his black dew-rag over his short hair, his work shirt with burn holes in it. I try to memorize these things, try to stay awake, but the morphine takes over, and I'm back in the blissful darkness.

I don't know how long I was out, but I do know that when I woke up again it was dark out and Chris was on the couch. He flips through tv channels, the few that they have anyway. His dark blonde hair is ruffled and his blue eyes glint in the light of the screen.

"Anything interesting?" I say. His head snaps towards me.

"How long have you been awake?"

"Long enough to know that you've been through every channel at least once."

"Lil, have they told you yet? About..."

I stare at him, "no...told me what?" He shifts uneasily as he stands up, his expression changes to dark and grim, his eyes are black now.

"Go to sleep. You'll know soon enough." He reaches over and ups the morphine drip. I'm out in seconds.

It's morning now, Chris is no longer here-probably at school- and my dad takes his place.

"I got you some bacon!" He says handing me a piece. "But the drugs might make it taste funny..."

I grin and take a bite, then spit it out into a napkin. " nope. You can have it back."

"Here the smoothie'll problem taste better." The cup he presses into my hand is cold, and water drips down the sides. "I don't want anything..." I set it on the table tray thing-I don't know what they're called-

"Daddy, what is everyone talking about when they say 'you'll find out soon'?" I fiddle with the cord that clamped onto my finger.

He sighs. "Your mom is fine. She's recovering quickly. You on the other hand...." He stops and looks at me. "Your brain is swelling. The doctors can't get it to stop. You go into surgery tomorrow, if they can't get it to stop, you'll be released when you're stitches are taken out, and...."

He doesn't have to continue. I know what he's trying to say. If the doctors don't stop the swelling, I'll die.

I turn up the morphine, and slip into unconscious.