Another Reason To Live (Watty Awards 2014)

Chapter 25

Chapter 25:

*Five Days Later*

“Gregory Hamilton?”

Gerard quietly groaned and laid his head back against the wall of the waiting room. As each patient was called back, he grew slightly more impatient, though he didn’t actually admit it. I could tell, though, by how his lips were pressed together.

Donna looked down at her watch. “We should be going back any time now, so hang in there, honey.” She reached over and patted Gerard on his arm, which was resting on the armrest of his wheelchair, which he had been stuck in for almost two weeks.

“I know. I just can’t wait to get this thing off of me and onto crutches,” he replied, looking down at the cast on his leg.

Donna’s phone gave off a ringing sound, so she pulled it out of her pocket and flipped it open. “Your father wasn’t sure if you had your phone on you, so he says to tell you ‘good luck’ and that he wishes he could be here,” she read from the small screen.

Gerard smiled slightly. He was a bit disappointed that Donald couldn’t make it to the appointment today, due to the fact that he couldn’t get work off.

“Gerard Way?” the nurse called out as she looked at the clipboard in her hand.

We all stood up, excluding Gerard, and made our way to the doorway where the nurse was standing. She was a cheery looking woman in her mid-twenties – probably fresh out of medical school.

She led us down a back hallway, where we passed several smaller rooms and a nurse’s station. One of the rooms we passed had the Gregory Hamilton guy in it. He sat in a chair with his casted arm being cradled by his other arm as he waited for one of the doctors to come into his room.

I walked next to Mikey, with Gerard wheeling himself in front of us. He told us that the arm that was injured in the crash felt “perfectly fine” when he wheeled himself, but every once in a while, I would see him absent mindedly holding it, almost cradling it.

We entered a larger room that was made specifically for wheelchairs. Gerard positioned himself next to a low rising exam table, while Donna and Mikey sat down in the two visitor’s chairs that were against the opposite wall. I stood next to Mikey, leaning against the wall. I looked at Gerard to see if he seemed okay and comfortable, but he was already looking at me. When we made eye contact, he gave me a small, brief smile before looking down and picking at his fingernails.

“Mom, did you remember to bring the pill?” Gerard asked, looking up at Donna.

She nodded and reached into her purse and retrieved an orange pill bottle that was full of small, white pills. “Of course,” she replied as she gave it a little shake.

“Pills?” I mumbled, looking at Mikey. He leaned slightly in his chair to me and said, “Gerard doesn’t like needles, so my mom gives him an anti-anxiety pill that dissolves under his tongue to calm him down. Just in case if he freaks out.”

“Why would they need a needle to take off Gerard’s cast?”

He shook his head and looked up as the doctor came in. “They don’t, but they’ll probably use a saw, which is sharp and could ‘potentially hurt’ him,” he air quoted.

Mikey and I’s conversation overlapped the doctor’s introduction, as I tuned in when he was telling the room about what he planned on doing today. I quickly gathered that his name was Doctor Schafer, due to the embroidery on his white coat.

“I’ll take a look at his leg once the cast is off, give him a few quick reflex tests and check for swelling or discoloration, and if he’s in the clear, we can fit him for crutches and a boot to wear,” he explained, giving Gerard a smile.