Saved by Grace

Grace slowly opened her eyes. Her head pounded and the pain throbbed in her arm. Her legs felt as stiff as a rock. She tried to move, but the pain all over her body seemed unbearable. She wore a light blue fabric which barely covered her back and legs. The room was cold and painfully bright. Her blond hair spilled on her shoulders and her make-up was smeared on her cheeks.

“Sweetie, are you okay?” her mom asked. Grace saw her mother’s teary eyes meet up with hers. There were dark circles under her eyes. Then Grace saw that her legs were covered in casts, her arms in bandages. Her stomach and chest was burning with pain. The rest of her body hurt more. She couldn’t remember what had happened, it was almost as if she were dreaming, but had no clue what was going on in the dream.

“Where am I?” Grace questioned. She wondered how long she had been here and if she had passed out. Grace was filled with sadness seeing how tired her mother looked and wondered what was keeping her up at nights. Was it her father? If that jerk had touched her mother… She burned with anger in her heart. Grace couldn’t believe that he was even her father. He didn’t deserve a family, or her mother or even her. He deserved to be alone. Her dad was not a human being to even dare to touch her mom in the first place. Grace couldn’t understand why he wouldn’t just agree to get a divorce. He didn’t love them nor did they love him. His excuse was that he would miss Grace too much. Why would he lie to her? She was old enough to understand what was going on anyway. He probably needed her mother for the little money she earned working day and night.

Grace was interrupted in her thoughts when a person in a blue scrub standing to her left answered her, “Grace, you’re in the hospital. You were in a car accident.” Grace was puzzled until all the memories started to fill her head. Remembering the pain of the glass entering her arms and chest made her cry.  She could almost feel the side door slamming against her body, her ribs crashing in the air bag. Then she recollected why she was driving. A sudden horror overcame her entire being and she trembled with fear. Grace couldn’t escape from the feeling. Grace shouldn’t have left home.

Grace hadn’t even noticed that she was rocking back and forth crying like a baby. The nurse seemed concerned and motioned for the mother to come with her, leaving Grace alone.

Grace’s mom asked with a concerned look, “What is wrong with Grace?”

The nurse calmly said, “She’s experiencing trauma from the accident. With therapy, she’ll get better over time. If therapy is not sufficient, she may have to go to a psychiatric ward, but I think you should be more concerned about whether or not she lost her memory.”

After a few hours she was rolled down to therapy. The therapist invited her in the room with a wide smile. He introduced himself as Dr. Moore. He asked questions about her family and what were her hobbies. Something about this man made Grace think that he was faking the whole I-really-care-about-you-and-not-doing-this-at-all-for-money act. He had a cheesy smile and didn’t stop smiling once. He finally asked the question that Grace dreaded to answer: “Can you tell me about the accident?” he asked, wearing that corny smile. She wouldn’t dare to talk to him. She couldn’t talk. It hurt too much to remember. Slowly all the memories came to her swirling around in her head like a tornado. Her head pounded and pain struck her as she remembered the car accident and all that had happened before that. Dr. Moore lost his cheesy smile. Instead he had a concerned face. “It’s fine if you’re not ready to talk yet.” He told her to breathe in and then out. They shook hands and she was taken out of the room.

The nurse rolled her in her squeaky wheel chair to her room. She didn’t want to think about her accident, but it was too late, Dr. Moore had set her off. That was all she could think about. With tears streaming down her face, her mind was filling up with memories. The nurse moved her into the bed carefully, trying not to hurt her and almost ran out of the room.