Glass Castles

February 11th 2014

February 11th 2014

The hospital smelt like damp litmus paper from the chemistry lab in his old high school. The doors flipped open and shut, but each time a different door would open and tell a different tale of tragedy, and each time a story was told, a new person would react in a different way. Troy Montgomery was simply waiting for his story to be told.

Never, even in his wildest dreams, had he fathomed that he would be sitting on a hospital bench with his head being firmly held by his hands, trying to knock off the bloody image of the woman whom he thought he could never forget. His memories of the incident remained fuzzy, maybe so because he wanted them to remain that way. He chose to only remember flashes of the incident; the car that came hurtling out of nowhere and knocked the wind out of not just her, but him and the bloody aftermath which involved one too many oxygen masks and three nurses, wrapping up the wounds in gauzes and dressing.

"Troy", a new voice said and he felt the bench beside him wobble slightly, "I didn't expect you to be here"

"Neither did I", he admitted and finally undid himself from the headlock position.

"Don't blame yourself for this", Aris said in an even tone, even though his eyes were red and his cheeks looked freshly tear-stained, "This could have happened to anyone. It was just an accident"

Except it wasn't.

"Perhaps", Troy trailed off and looked at the white flooring that reflected the yellowish pallor of the lights. Troy didn't know why she was there when it happened, or why she looked the way she did. She was supposed to look happy in her white gown and wear a smile so giddy, that it would knock the breath out of whoever caught sight of her. She was also supposed to be at the church, walking down the aisle on a path of petals, not on some tarmac roadside where there was a high possibility of the car hitting her.

"Today didn't turn out the way we wanted it to turn out for many reasons", Aris said, "We all could have just gone home and called it a day".

Troy looked away at the light on the ER that was still red. It had been that way for at least 2 hours now. Something seemed very wrong.

"I don't know Aris", he finally said, "I don't know".