ILLEGAL

Chapter 18

I drifted into another nightmare of the past. I was in a hospital room. Nearly everything was white, and the sterile smell of the room was making my stomach feel nauseated. But for once I wasn't the one laying down in the bed.

I looked down at my mom, who had had been sick with brain damage for probably about five years. My stepdad had once been so intoxicated and angry that he had grabbed the closest thing to him ad hit my mom in the head with it. That object just happened to be a pot.

For nearly a month afterwards, I had to stay home from school to take care of my mom, who received splitting headaches as she described,"Much worse than any migraine ever imagined." It was terrible, but luckily that was only a week and a half before the car crash that killed my stepfather, so he didn't come home anymore to make the situation worse.

She had gotten a concussion, but I hadn't known it. I was fifteen then, and I was so overwhelmed with school and sports and finding a job that I hadn't realized her behavior in those few months. Of course I helped her with the pounding headaches and migraines that came too often, which led to vomiting. But she didn't tell me about how the world would spin around her when she stood, or how even glasses couldn't fix her blurry vision?

One day I came home from school and I began to tell her about my day, as usual. I set my bag down, then turned to her as she was preparing our dinner. She had stopped moving, just clutching her head on both sides with her hands. Her breathing began to speed up, and she was sweating. I recall seeing her pupil dilate and contract repeatedly.

"Mom,"I quietly asked."Are you okay?"

She moved her lips to speak, but nothing came out. Then her eyes roller back in her head and she collapsed on her back, unconscious. I stood for a minute, digesting what had just happened and what I should do. I decided the right choice, and leaped for the phone and called an ambulance. They arrived in minutes and drove us to the emergency room.

After doing a series of scans, they realized her brain was severely bruised. The doctor did his best to explain it to me, but my young fifteen year old brain couldn't comprehend most of what he was saying, especially when my mother's life was on the line. I concluded from what he had said, that when my stepdad had hit her with the pot, he had dented her skull. This led to not only her brain being bruised, but it also cause swelling and internal bleeding. If she didn't get the surgery, she would die.

And all this time I had thought she had just been getting bad headaches.

"The surgery will cost somewhere around this amount,"The doctor showed me a number that he had scribbled on the corner of a page.

My mouth dropped open."We don't have that much money!"I told him."There's got to be something else you can do!"

He shook his head."If you can't pay the surgery, we can't do it. Until then, we will keep her in as stable condition as we can. I'm sorry."

Angry tears forming in my eyes, I turned away from my unconscious mom on the cot towards him."No, you're not. If you were, you'd help me and find another way."

He sighed, shook his head, and leaned against the wall, not responding. I ran my hand through my hair. I felt the need to cry, to sob over the difficult situation I was in. But I couldn't. I had to stay strong. For Mom.

My dream flashed white, the usual sign that the date and time was changing to another memory.

Two weeks later was when I robbed the bank. Only King knows I did it to steal money to perform the surgery. By that time, my mom had woken up. I remember sitting by her feet.

"I have the money, Mom. I got the money for the surgery." My eyes must've sparkled too brightly, or my smile was too mischievous, because her eyes widened immediately. She knew I had stolen it.