The Drunkard's Daughter

Matthew

I remember the gun firing. Kara's father falling to the floor. Officers lifting me to the bed and pressing a towel on my leg. Pain, so much pain. It felt like fire ants crawling inside of me. I almost blacked out from it while the paramedics tended me. Then I saw Kara, her head rolled to one side as a paramedic called for another. Then, nothing.

---

I awoke in a hospital bed, an I.V. in my arm. Soft beeping came from the heart monitor next to me. I tried to sit, but a shooting pain came from my side and my leg.

The gun.

The medics.

Kara. Oh Kara.

"DOCTOR! NURSE! ANYONE?!"

I yelled from my bed, the heart monitor starting to beep faster. A doctor and a nurse rushed into my room, worry on their faces.

"Check his leg and side now."

The doctor ordered. He came to me and the nurse started to pull the blanket off.

"Sir please calm down-"

"Where am I? Where's Kara?!"

"Sir, your at Mercy Hospital. Please calm down."

"Where is she?!"

I exclaimed.

"Sir if you don't calm down, you may begin to bleed again."

"WHERE IS SHE?!"

The doctor sighed.

"Kara Windmere is in the next room. She is still asleep. She's alright, just having a blood transfusion."

"Can you tell me when she wakes up?"

I asked, relaxing. I barely noticed the nurse as she checked the bandages, I only cared about Kara.

"Yes. We will alert you immediately."

The doctor smiled, grabbed a clipboard and walked out of the room. The nurse followed him.

---

Kara awoke four hours later, giving my anxiety a little bit of calm. I knew that after what we had gone through, nothing would be the same. We had both witnessed a suicide, the other being in extreme pain, and the psychological trauma following will leave us as different people.

Kara would come visit me, since I was unable to move for weeks, she would be the one in the chair.  Kara had to get fifty-three stitches, one for each cut her father gave her.

I wasn't sure who left the whole thing in worse shape. I had physical pain, while Kara had to live with the emotional scars given to her.

And yet, I knew it wasn't over.

---

"Once you're able to get up and moving, I'm sure my grandmother will take us in. She wanted to for me since my mother's death, but my father was a problem."

Kara said, talking about our future of living here.

"Kara,"

I said softly. She stopped talking.

"Yeah?"

"While you were still asleep, the lawyer who was in charge of my parent's affairs came."

She nodded. I sighed.

"My parent's placed me in the care of my aunt, who lives in California, until I was eighteen. Which until then would I receive the family business and wealth. So, once I'm okay to travel, I'm leaving."

"WHAT?!"

She yelled, her hands gripping the chair.

"No! You can't leave! Not with all we've been through!? I need you here."

She exclaimed, tears threatened to fall from her deep brown eyes.

Oh her eyes, how I was going to miss them.

"I turn eighteen in five months, until then I have to live with my aunt."

"What about school?! What about graduation?! What about us?"

"They'll switch me over to a school there. I'll finish school there, and then come back. Please Kara, I don't have a choice. The last thing my parents wanted for me was to be with family. I have to go."

Her eyes were on the floor, her blonde hair still.

I wouldn't see it sway anymore.

"When would you come back?"

She asked quietly.

"I don't know."

---

The few weeks I had left in Michigan went by so fast. Kara and I spent every second of it together. We would wander in the hospital together, she pushing me in a wheelchair. Our favorite spot was the huge windows in the cafeteria that overlooked the city.

It was the end of December when I was allowed to travel. I was set to leave on New Year's Day. Kara and I spent New Year's Eve packing. We talked about the upcoming year, not even mentioning that I wouldn't be here for the first five months.

The day went by faster than I wanted, until Kara and I were on the hospital bed watching the ball drop.

"...THREE! TWO! ONE!"

The announcer on the TV cheered, confetti showering New York's Time Square.

"Happ-"

I was saying when Kara turned and pulled me in, kissing me hard.

"Call me every day."

She whispered when we broke away. I didn't even respond, just kissed her again.