May 2010
“We'll make the clock stop, make your heart drop, then come alive!” The final words of the song by Boys Like Girls rang out in the arena as the thousands of screaming fans went crazy with applause.
“Thank you! Goodnight London!” Lead singer Martin Johnson shouted as he threw one of his hands up in the air. Sierra Daniels snapped a picture of him like that and then pulled her Nikon back from her face to glance down at the photo. It was perfect and she smiled to herself at how good it looked. The lights went out on the stage as the guys ran past her towards their dressing rooms.
“Great job tonight guys!” Sierra shouted as she held her hand up for a high five from each passing member of the band.
Glancing through a few of her pictures from tonight's concert, she sauntered backstage and headed out to where the band would be momentarily to sign autographs and take pictures. She wasn't technically required to photograph that part of the evening but she liked to do it anyway. It gave her a chance to see how the band would interact with the fans and that almost always gave her something interesting to write in her concert review for the small magazine she worked for. For being only 18 years old she had done pretty well for herself. Photography was one of Sierra's passions and getting to do it for a living was a pretty sweet deal. But the part she really loved was that she was a concert photographer, which meant she also got to spend her time seeing any artist of her choosing, for free, with a back stage VIP pass.
Three hours later after the longest meet and greet she had ever experienced in her entire life, Sierra was finally in her little black Honda on her way back to her downtown apartment. She flipped through the radio stations looking for something good when One Direction came on one of the stations.
“Ooh I love this song!” She said to herself. She had a habit of talking out loud to herself sometimes. Sierra started to sing along to the hit What Makes You Beautiful and she found herself dancing in her seat a bit as well. It's not as if she cared if she received strange looks from people, but it was also almost one o'clock in the morning so the chances of anyone she knew seeing her were rather slim.
She wasn't speeding. She was paying attention. She had her seat belt on. She was completely sober. She just happened to take her eyes off the road for one moment, and that was when it happened. She never saw the truck coming.
The collision sent Sierra's car spinning across the intersection and into the nearby telephone pole that her car was now wrapped around. The airbag deployed on the passenger side of the car where no one was sitting but for some reason, probably because her car was a beat up piece of shit, the driver's side bag didn't open and Sierra's face was now very well acquainted with the steering wheel. The windshield was shattered along with the driver's side window. Her door was completely crumpled into her, rendering her unable to move even the six inches she would need to get to her phone. The last thing she remembered was the taste of her own blood as it was filling her mouth.
“Sierra...hey, wake up...Sierra!” Her sister's voice rang inside her head. Slowly Sierra opened her eyes to see Amanda standing next to her hospital bed looking incredibly shaky. Her voice sounded odd, like she was underwater or talking through a bad phone connection. The light was so bright in the room and there were two doctors and a nurse all huddled together on the other side of the room.
“What...what happened?” Sierra asked, vaguely remembering a car accident.
“Hi Miss Daniels, I'm Dr. Shepherd and this is Dr. Grey,” the incredibly handsome, dark haired doctor said as he gestured to the very pretty female doctor standing to his right, “how are you feeling?”
His voice sounded the same as Amanda's had and while Sierra was thinking about how to answer his question, she stuck a finger in her ear to try and see if she could fix the strange muted sounds.
“Um, I guess I feel okay...” She said feeling rather confused as to what all the fuss was about.
“You were in an accident Miss Daniels. A pick up truck with a drunk driver ran a red light and hit your car. Lucky for you, there was a witness to the accident who stopped and called an ambulance for you.” Dr. Grey said.
“Wow...” Her head was pounding as the doctors continued to blab at her with all kinds of medical jargon. All she could think about was the sharp pain right above her temples and why she couldn't hear properly. Glancing down at her body, Sierra noticed she had a lot of bandages on her arms and her torso. That accident must have been worse than she remembered.
“We've done a CAT scan and an MRI and what we've found is that there is a lot of bleeding in your brain Miss Daniels.” Dr. Shepherd said just as Sierra was tuning back in. The worry on her face must have been evident because He quickly tried to assure her that it shouldn't be an issue but they were going to have to operate immediately to stop the bleeding before any serious damage could occur.
The doctors talked a little while longer about the procedure and explained that the bleeding in her brain was the cause of the minor loss of hearing. They assured her that as soon as they drained the blood that her hearing would go back to normal. As they left the room, another nurse entered and they began to prep her for surgery while Amanda went out into the waiting area to call their mother and inform her about the recent events. The next hour or so passed rather quickly as hospital personnel were coming in and out of her room getting her ready for surgery. As they wheeled her bed down the hall to the operating room, Sierra closed her eyes. The lights were so bright.
The last thing Sierra heard before she passed into unconsciousness for her surgery was the sound of her own voice.
“10...9...8...7...6...”
Sierra opened her eyes to find herself back in her room in the hospital, tubes hooked up to her leading to bags of fluids and machines to monitor her vital signs.. She glanced over and saw Amanda asleep in the chair by the window. A nurse was checking her IV.
My surgery must have gone well, I feel fine. She thought to herself.
But something was off. Something was very off.
Dr. Shepherd walked into the room and awoke her sister to give her an update on how the surgery went. He started to talk to her and kept shooting nervous glances at Sierra. That's when it hit her. She couldn't hear them. Literally no sound at all.
Her heart started to pound and she sat up quickly in her bed. Dr. Shepherd rushed over and tried to get her to lay back down. Her sister was crying and saying something to her but still Sierra heard no sound. Panic was rising up in her and although she knew she was screaming she couldn't ever hear the sound of her own voice.
She had never heard anything quite as loud as the silence that her world had just become. The sobs started coming and Sierra's whole body was trembling. She didn't know what or how or why, but she was very sure that something had gone wrong during her surgery and had taken away something that could not ever be replaced.
The worst part about it was not that her world had just become silent after 18 years of being able to take in the sounds of life, but that she was suddenly aware that the only music she would ever hear again would be the songs playing inside her head.
