Since You Been Gone

Since You Been Gone: Chapter 5

Dawn pressed her palms against the tears in her eyes and leaned her elbows firmly against her knees. All she could think about as she sat in the hard-cushioned chairs in the hospital lobby was the possibility of Que being paralyzed for the rest of his life. Somehow she felt the blame for it.

How could she have just let him walk away and say nothing at all? Maybe if she had been around, maybe none of this would have happened. She felt like she could have prevented it somehow.

Dawn was still unclear on how it had all happened. She didn't know how he'd been hit or who had hit him - at the time, she was more concerned with whether he was okay. Now, that she knew he was, she wanted to know all that she could. She picked up her Blackberry to dial the number at the police station where she had been told to call for more information. Dawn scrolled through her contacts to find the number, but right as she was about to hit the call button - the device began to vibrate. It was Que's mother.

"How's he doing?" She asked, skipping their usual greeting. Her voice sounded thin and urgent.

"He's fine, but-"

"Thank you, Jesus," His mother sighed, cutting Dawn off mid-sentence and breathing a deep sigh into the phone. "Oh, thank you, Jesus"

Dawn thought for a moment. How was she supposed to tell her that her son might be wheelchair-bound for life? Her heart broke just thinking about Que's mother's reaction.

"Did they say anything else?" His mother questioned, after she had thanked God one more time.

"Uh, yeah", Dawn whispered softly, cupping the phone close to her face. "There's - there's a chance he may end up paralyzed."

Suddenly Dawn couldn't hear anything at all on the other end of the line, not even his mother's exasperated breathing. There was only total silence for several seconds. Dawn glanced at the call time running on her phone; it said she was still on the line. "Hello?"

"Hello." A tearful voice returned to the line.

"They told me the way he'd been hit may have had something to do with it." Dawn raggedly spoke, wiping away the tears that were falling from her eyes with the blue scarf she was wearing. "I'm so sorry."

Earlier that day his mother had seemed on the edge of madness when Dawn had told her Que had been hit. She had cried and deeply sobbed for almost ten minutes straight, as Dawn who was crying herself, weakly tried to console her. At the time, she had needed to be consoled too.

"We're going to pray through this," his mother finally spoke, expressing a sudden confident resolve.

"My baby is still here, and that's what matters most."

"Yeah, you're right." Dawn sat up in the chair, feeling a bit more confident herself. "Prayer works."

"Baby, please just keep me updated", She sniffled. "And be strong for the both of us. I know you're a fighter."

She told Dawn one more time to call her at the slightest bit of information, and then ended their conversation with a whisper-soft goodbye.

"Prayer works," Dawn said to herself flipping her Blackberry in her hands. Her eyes were dry again.

Who said he was going to be paralyzed for the rest of his life? It was a chance - just a chance that he could be paralyzed.

Feeling more at ease, she looked through the contacts in her phone again and found the number she had been given. She was going to find out exactly what happened to Que, and she wanted to know everything...

*What Happened?*

Qwanell snatched the keys off the counter and stormed towards the front door. Before opening it, he took one last look at the inside of their house. He tried to concentrate on the small things, like the brown, black, and white vase they'd bought on their trip to Europe. Or even the large, red and white shirt thrown on stage by a fan at one of their concerts that read, 'No texting (Dawn).'