Room 3014

one

Soft mumbling echoes in my ears. A beep of a monitor, a constant rhythm like a metronome. White blurs of a sterile surrounding, the faint ticking of a clock.
"Back to you Alice." a quiet deep voice speaks.
"Thank you Jerold, last night there was a horrific accident right here at the center of Dougansville. A maroon 2018 Chevy Colorado hit a small silver Chevrolet Cruze between 7 and 8 PM. We have reports that the man driving the Chevy Colorado was under the influence. There was one fatality in the midst of this collision, a young 12 year old girl, named Cassandra Andrews was the victim."
The voice continued to speak but I heard no more.
"Casandra" I spoke softly, "Where's Cassandra, where is my sister?!"
I yelled and tried to sit up, the doctor's and one police officer rushed over and pushed me back down. I felt the vein popping out of my neck, I was shaking, "Where the hell is she?!"
I screamed at them and felt a pool of tears emerge from my eyes.
"Bro, she's dead." I heard a familiar voice speak. Jacob, my best friend was sitting down with his legs up on the coffee table with his feet crossed and his hands behind his head. His hair looked even darker in this bright room than it usually did, his dark eyes glistened with greediness, his tattoos screamed pain, and anger.
"Someone get him out of here," one of the nurses ordered. The excruciating pain of my baby sisters death hadn't even begun to set in.
The same nurse that ordered Jake out of here came over to me, her dark blue eyes were like an ocean, an escape from this hellish fire. "Tristan," she spoke with a sweet and melodic voice, "last night during the calamity, the truck struck the side where Cassandra had been sitting, causing damaged internal organs, which means her spleen ruptured due to the force of the seatbelt, causing internal bleeding, lowered blood pressure, and vomiting, she was awake this morning, she was light-headed and weak, we couldn't get her bleeding under control in time to save her. I'm so sorry to say this Tristan, but you're sister is gone. Here," She said handing a letter wrapped in an envelop, "She wanted me to give this to you." the nurse grabbed my hand and wiped a tear from my cheek, she gave me a warm smile, and left the room.
I couldn't bring myself to open the envelope.
Two young officers came into my hospital room to ask questions about the incident, so I had to push aside my grief. "What can you remember from last night?" An officer with blonde hair, golden eyes, and a serious facial expression asked me.
"I can't remember much." I explained trying to think about the events that happened last night, "That's alright son, take as much time as you need." I started to remember some things, "I remember... I remember that I was hanging out with my best friend-"
"Who is your best friend? We need the specifics, every detail."
"My friends name is Jacob Ackerson, we were just hanging at his place, playing video games and such. Then I received a phone call from... from... Cassandra," It gets harder to say her name each time, then a nurse walked in and started examining my body, she started with my visibility, and hearing, then my heartbeat and movement.
"Honey, can you move your fingers?" She asked as I wiggled my fingers, "Good, how about your elbows? And your shoulders?" Everything that she asked me to do, I did. "Excuse me, Mr. Andrews, you were saying..." the officer interrupted.
"Oh right, sorry sir, I had received a call from my sister, and she said that she needed a ride home from volleyball practice, so I left Jacob's house, and went to go get her, I picked her up around 7:15 and we were heading home." "What about your father? From our records he's still alive, why couldn't he pick her up?" I laughed a little, "Dad? Him pick my baby sister up? That's a joke, he would never do such a thing. All he does is drink, go on 'business trips', and bring young women home, I make the money in this family, I pay for everyone, I pick up my sister, I take care of her on my own, just me and her. Whatever money that deadbeat son of a gun makes goes to his loads of 'fun'. ever since mom died 10 years ago, its just been me and... her."
I looked down at my hands, they were shaking as they held the letter that said "To My Big Brother, Tristan." in Cassie's hand writing, with hearts all around it.
The nurse was still examining my movement, she got down to my legs, she seemed pleased with how well I was doing so far.
"Okay honey, one last thing, we'll start with your toes, try moving your toes." I tried to move them, "try again," she said a little dismayed, I tried moving them again. "What's going on?" I asked with anxiety bubbling up inside of me. "Try moving your legs" she said. I tried my hardest but nothing happened.
"Nurse, why can't I move my legs?" I uttered softly, I felt my eyes bulging out of my head, my heart was pounding like a drum inside of my ears, the room was going fuzzy again. "Nurse what's going on? Do something, anything, please help me move my legs, I want to move them, please, please." I grabbed my legs, "Move," I whispered, "Move!" I yelled at them, "please." I felt a tear stream down my cheek, "Why? Why?" I repeated.
"Honey, I'm going to go and grab the doctor really fast, stay calm, I'm sure its nothing." The nurse said as she walked out.
My breath was shaky, "Now Mr. Andrews, I know you're in a state of shock at this moment, a lot has happened, but you heard the nurse, she thinks it's nothing, can you please finish your story now, so we can go and let the doctor do what he needs to do?"
"Right, yes, I-uh I-uh, where was I?"
"On your way back..."
"Yes, I was on my way home with Cassie and it started to rain, and the roads were not so clear anymore. We were driving through the intersection at Goodwin Street and then I remember bright lights, and yelling for Cas, and trying to grab her away from the window, I remember her screaming for me, I remember her in pain, she was scared, she was so scared, if I would've maybe payed more attention or maybe looked both ways just one more time, we wouldn't be having this conversation right now, and I would've made my baby sister some pancakes and eggs and maybe sausage if thats what she wanted, because we always did that on Saturday mornings, just a fun breakfast, whatever she wanted." I sighed.
"Thank you, that's all we needed." The officer said as he stood. As the door creaked, he popped his head back in and said,
"Mr. Andrews, I know right now that it's hard, but give it some time, you will be my thoughts all week, good luck."
I sat in the stillness of the room, the rhythm of the monitor, the ticking clock, the TV was now off and I just sat in shock, I feel nothing close to the slightest bit of gladness, I just want to rewind time.
It took another two minutes before the doctor came in, "Mr. Andrews" He said, I looked at him with no expression, "that's me."
"I'm going to do another examination, the nurse said you were having trouble moving your lower body, from waist down. Is that correct?"
"Yes sir."
"Try moving your toes, then foot, then legs, got it?" he said. I tried, but nothing happened, I just stared at the wall ahead of me waiting for something like miracle to happen.
"Okay I'm going to go prep the CT scanner, or do an MRI, we need to see what is going on." I nodded my head, and he left the room.
A few hours later they had my test results in, a spinal cord injury was the obvious answer. "Mr. Andrews, I'm sorry to say but you have Paraplegia, a condition where you can no longer move your body from waist down."
"So you're saying I'm half paralyzed?"
"Yes, but it could just be temporary, but most cases like yours are not. I want you to stay here at the hospital. You're gonna need to be checked on everyday, I'll have your dad bring you something from home if that helps you feel more at ease here."
"I think I'm okay, I don't need anything from him."
"Are you sure, you could be with us for a while." I thought about it, and told him what I wanted.
"Okay Mr. Andrews, I'll go make the phone call."
*tick, tock, tick, tock*
I had fallen asleep to the song the clock sang to me.
"Tristan!"
Screams filled my ears.
"Cassie?"
I saw someone rip her out of the car and she screamed, trying to hold onto my arm. "
Help!" she cried, piercing my eardrums. I unbuckled to get out of my car and grab her, but there were giant bricks holding my legs down.
"Hold on Cas, I'm coming!"
I struggled to move my legs, I tried pushing the bricks off of my legs, but they were stuck there.
After the lightning struck the field in front of my car, I looked down and the bricks were gone.
I jumped out of my car and ran to see Cassie laying on the side of the road, her face was full of fear and agony, blood seeped from her stomach onto her shirt.
"What have you done to me?" She asked and gave her last breath, I looked up and there was a man with a shaggy beard, blue eyes, tall, he had a pot belly, and crazy long hair. He gave a sinister grin and disappeared, when I looked back down Cassie was gone, I fell, no longer being able to move my lower body.
"Cassie? I'm so sorry."
I woke up from this terrible nightmare to see my father sitting in the chair next to my bed. His eyes were puffy, and red, which made it hard to see his light blue, almost gray eyes. His shaggy brown hair was a mess, and he hadn't shaved this morning. He was looking down at a brown stuffed teddy bear, with a blue bow around his neck, and a happy face.
"Dad?" I asked, but he didn't look up.
"I told your mother that we should never have kept you, but she wanted you, an unplanned child, we were just teens messing around, she was 16 and I was 17, I told her you would be the one to ruin our lives, I told her but she wanted you anyways."
"Dad? What are you-"
"Don't talk over me young man, I'm still your father."
"My father? Really? You're no father to me, I had to raise myself, teach myself right and wrong, heck I even taught Cassie everything she knew, where were you? Drunk? Sleeping with some dumb young adult? Right, who am I? I just forgot you were there for me when I... what was it? Oh yeah when I smashed your bottle of beer, and you beat me, right, how could I forget, along with that other time, one of your 'mistresses' hit on me and you made me pick my own belt to be beaten with. The only reason I call you dad is because you gave my mother the ability to be my mother. Get that through your thick skull. Cas and I will never be known as your children, only our mother's. Heck, I'm more of a father figure to her than you ever were."
He got up from his chair and came closer to me and slapped me across the face, "Listen here boy, you would never have been anything like a father to her, a father would never take the life of their own child. You murderer!"
He grabbed me by my clothes and started shaking me.
"Don't you dare ever say that I wasn't a father to her, because I was you piece of crap. You never will be anything like that-"
A nurse rushed in and pulled my dad off of me. "Sir, you need to leave!"
"And who are you to tell me what to do?!"
"Get out of here now or I will call security to escort you out, you are not welcome here sir, not while your son is here."
He ripped the teddy bear a bit and threw it on the ground.
"Boy, you are not welcome in my house after today, you hear me? Go find a new place to live, I don't associate with people who hurt my children, especially when you killed my baby girl!"
He yelled and stormed out. The nurse grabbed the bear and handed it to me.
"Did he hurt you really bad?" she asked.
"I'm fine, thank you," and she left the room.
I looked down at the stuffed animal, it was Cassandra's favorite thing to hug when she was sad or in pain.
"You seemed to work well to take the hurt away from my sister, can you grant me one wish, and take this pain away from me?" I uttered under my breath and hugged the bear, "please?"