"I was on my way out here with a now ex-boyfriend," Allison begins. She's leaning against the door to the hospital room, Amelia leaning on the other side.
"What made you come here?" Amelia asks.
"It was more-so my ex's idea. He really wanted out, and I did too, and I thought he'd be my ticket out of there. I wanted to leave so badly. I was in a terrible place at the time.
"I left the day the explosion happened," Allison continues. "It was astronomically bad. There was some error with the extraction process the night before. They spent all night trying to fix the problem, but they ended up making it a whole lot worse. The news reporters said it was like the bombing of Hiroshima came to the Outback.
"I didn't know it had happened until I got to the city, and I was watching the news in some pub and they were reporting on it. I couldn't believe what I was watching. I just left there not even twenty-four hours ago, and now more than half of it was completely obliterated.
"The main part of the town was done for. They said it was nothing but ash and debris. You didn't know if it was a person's ashes or something else. The outer regions didn't suffer so much."
Allison's voice cracks slightly. She has never told the story to anyone before. No one knows what she has been dealing with for the last five years.
"They found him on a hill that's a ways out of town," Allison says. "There were two explosions, and they believe that the second one created a shockwave that pushed him back and he hit his head. The search and rescue team found him just in time. He wasn't burnt or anything, he just had the bleeding head. They managed to sustain him while flying him over to the city, and he has remained comatose in this hospital ever since."
"What was he doing up on the hill?" Amelia asks.
Allison shrugs her shoulders. "He worked at a 24 hour supermarket. He owned it, actually. The time the explosion took place was roughly around the same time he was meant to finish up. But, he was on the hill, and it's because of that he's still alive."
"Must have been fate," Amelia suggests.
Allison shakes her head. "I don't believe in that. He was in the right place at the right time."
"Whatever became of your ex?"
Allison laughs solemnly. "It didn't work out in the end. My husband died many years ago, and I haven't been able to connect with anyone since. Then along comes this young thing and he just kept chasing after me. I thought this is what I wanted, this is what I need right now. I abandoned my son to live a life with him. But, just as my son predicted, he didn't help me in the way I needed help."
Allison and Amelia exchange a glance. Amelia looked sorrowful, deeply sympathetic with what Allison has gone through.
"The day of the explosion always knocks me senseless," Allison says. "It floods me with deep and regretful emotions. It reminds me of what I have done. Every day I'm scared that I'd get a call from the doctors saying that he couldn't make it. He must have been so scared, and he was alone. He said to me the last time we spoke that he had no friends."
The door opens up, and there's a cheery female doctor on the other side.
"Would you like to come in and say hello?" she asks.
Allison nods. Amelia sits down by the benches. "I'll be out here when you need me," she smiles.
She walks into the room, and she sees her boy looking back at her. He immediately smiles.
"Hello," Allison whispers.
"Hello," he whispers back.
YOU ARE READING
Night Shift
General Fiction"It's the same routine every night. I've done it so many times I can basically lock everything down to the very millisecond. Hell, maybe even the very nanosecond. "
