A Room With A View

Chapter Twenty-Eight - Madeline

September 19th, Tuesday

Colin's hand twitched. Madeline held herself very still. She was afraid to breathe and wake him.

"Liney?" Colin said through cracked lips. 

Madeline blinked her eyes rapidly. "Yes, I'm here."

Colin's hand tightened around hers. "What are you doing here? Am I in the U.S.?" Colin tried to rise up on his elbows, but his arms shook and he slumped back against the pillow.

Madeline took a shallow breath. "No. I'm in Australia," she said quietly.

"Really?" Colin's eyes glistened. His Adam's apple bobbed up and down. Madeline gripped the edge of her chair and bit down on her lip.

Colin cleared his throat. "Did you, um, come to see my wicked scar?" he asked bravely, but Madeline could hear the slight tremor in his voice. 

Madeline tried not to look down at the padding around his stomach, the stitched-up lacerations where the fiberglass had shattered his ribs, the bone nearly slicing him through. She swallowed. "The girls will go mad for it," she said.

His fingers relaxed, but didn't move from her hand. "At least nothing happened to my pretty face."

That wasn't entirely true. He was bruised and battered, the stark white of the bandage over his broken nose shining out against his purpled skin. 

"Colin," Madeline started slowly, "you almost--"

His hand waved weakly. Madeline held her tongue. She wanted to tell him just how serious this was. Knowing Colin, his biggest concern would be losing his job. The fact that he nearly lost his life wouldn't register. This would just become another adventure, another stunt, another scar to show the ladies.

Soft footsteps sounded outside Colin's open door. A prim nurse wearing white Reebok sneakers came in and took his vitals. She smiled at Madeline while doing so, and moved to the opposite side of the bed when she was done.

"I'm just going to change the wrappings now," she said softly. She took Colin's right arm in hers and began slowly unwinding the bandage from his forearm. Madeline fixed her eyes on the Monet print across the room. She didn't want to see the ring finger that was now shorter than all the others.

"I'm sorry I didn't put your face on a shirt," Madeline babbled, breaking the silence. "I wanted to be wearing one when you woke up, but I didn't have time.

Colin flinched. Madeline instantly turned back to him, squeezing his hand. The nurse looked up from where she was dabbing at his stitches.

"I'm sorry, love. I know it stings." She worked more swiftly, carefully cleaning the wounds and cuts, before taking out a bundle of fresh bandages from a nearby cabinet.

"All done," she said soothingly. She neatly rewound the bandages around his arm.

"Can I get you anything?" she asked, looking at the both of them. 

"No," Colin said through gritted teeth. Whatever antiseptic she had used must still be burning him.

Madeline shook her head. The nurse gave them another smile, and backed out of the room, closing the door behind her.

It was quiet in the room without the nurse doing her work. The heart monitor beeped, and Madeline focused on it, watching the green spikes moving up and down, up and down. Something else was ticking slightly, but Madeline couldn't place what it was. Her brother shifted in the bed, and Madeline followed the wiggle of the IV tube from his wrist to the plastic bag of liquid hanging just to his left.

"You can stop crushing my hand."

Madeline jumped.

"Oh! I'm so sorry." She quickly let go.

"How are...how are you feeling?" she asked.

"Not as good as I look."

"Well you don't look too good.

Colin said nothing.

They lapsed back into silence. Colin's eyes were still closed, but Madeline could see them fluttering beneath the lids.

After a moment, he opened them and looked at her. "How's Mom?"

Madeline stared back him. Colin was the one brother whose eyes were honey brown, like their dad's. Everyone else's were just brown, or "chestnut", as Madeline liked to write on her resume.

"She's scared," Madeline answered. "We all are."

Colin nodded. He turned his head up toward the ceiling. "It was my fault," he said, so quietly that Madeline had to lean in to hear him. "Lou told me to leave the boat be until the water had calmed down, but we needed to run the engine if we were going to take customers out later. So I ran it, thinking Lou would thank me in the end." He paused. "I guess I should be the one thanking him now. He pulled me out."

The doctor had told Madeline what'd happened when she'd first arrived. Colin had taken out the new boat in rough waters, close to shore. In the valley of a wave, he'd hit a shoal lengthwise, and the gunwale of the boat had cut him all along his right side.

It had been a massive surgery. Madeline had been able to get a flight leaving at 1:00pm from New York. She'd paid a premium price for the shortest duration to Sydney, and had opted to take a cab to the hospital, not wanting to waste time on renting a car. The doctors had greeted her and ushered her to Colin's side, relaying the story and explaining which organs needed to be sutured and how many stitches needed to be sewn. It had scared Madeline so badly that she thought she'd walk in and see a patchwork version of her brother, someone pieced together from the shards they'd managed to recover. She'd almost fainted when she saw him lying there; battered, but still very much Colin. 

"I don't know if Lou will take me back," Colin continued.

Madeline made a noise in her throat. "I think that's the last thing you need to worry about right now."

A shadow darkened Colin's face. "Well, if he won't, then I can definitely make it to New York for your show."

Tears pricked Madeline's eyes. She smoothed the knit skirt over her knees and let her hair fall over her face. 

"You don't need to worry about that. I'm not in the show anymore."

"What? They cut you from it? I can't believe that. When I'm free of this--" Colin pulled at the IV tube "--I'm going to march up to that director and tell her what an utter piece of shit she is."

Madeline hesitated. Patricia wasn't a piece of shit. She was actually very kind. Madeline had spoken with her on the phone en route to the airport, to back out of the play. She was buying a one-way ticket to Australia after all, it wasn't likely that she would be making rehearsals. But she didn't want Colin to know that. 

"She is, isn't she," Madeline said instead. 

Colin's hand found hers. "I'm sorry, Liney. I really am. You'll show them when you have the Toby on your mantle."

Madeline laughed. She wiped at her eyes. "It's a Tony," she corrected, but Colin had already fallen fast asleep.

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Thanks for reading Chapter Twenty-Eight! How are you feeling about the story thus far? Please feel free to comment below. I take each and every comment to heart. Do you have thoughts on the medical accuracy of this chapter? The conflicted feelings of Phineas? The character voices themselves? Leave your thoughts below and I'll respond!