Legacy

Chapter One

It's been almost 2 years since I woke up in the hospital in Lubbock. Ezra and I had been airlifted from the wreck, and Lubbock, though about 2 hours away, was the closest hospital that could handle this kind of trauma.

I remember two sets of steady beeps pulling me awake. They were our heartbeats on the monitors, one mine, the other Ezra's. I was in a lot of pain, I knew that. But where from I wasn't sure. It felt like everywhere but far away at the same time. When my vision cleared up enough, I looked around the room. Everything seemed a little off, but I couldn't quite place why. I was flooded with the smell of disinfectant and coffee. I blinked a few more times, trying to shake the tunnel vision I had woken up with.

Ezra was in a bed to my right, he was unconscious and Adam was sitting in a chair between us. His hand was wrapped around mine and he was staring off into space. The look on his face was indescribable. A moment later we locked eyes, and I knew. The air caught in my lungs and I couldn't breathe, I couldn't think, I could only feel.

Adam held me as I screamed and let out my grief. He was feeling the same pain I was, and he sobbed into my shoulder. We both cried and held each other for hours, until we were both exhausted and out of tears to shed. I had four broken ribs, along with whiplash and some cuts and scrapes. There was a large bruise on the back of my head which made it painful to lay back. With each sob, breath, and cough my chest erupted in pain. I'm not sure if Adam felt it too, but I was overcome with this feeling of loneliness. The entire world was different, wrong, and it was just us left. It was Ezra, Adam, and I and that was all. My entire family was in this room. I was physically stitched together, Adam emotionally, and Ezra was barely holding on.

Ezra had a severe head injury, the doctors told us the technical name and some other big words but all Adam and I got from it was that it wasn't good. When he finally gets to the end of his never-ending bad news, Adam and I were left alone with our big brother and the machine that was making sure he would be okay.

Days passed and finally, Ezra began to stir. Slowly he made progress. He would wake up for a few minutes and then he would go back to sleep. The insane amount of pain killers he was on were keeping him groggy and the nurses said that sleep is very important for him to heal. They kept telling me that he was getting better day by day. But that was just what they were saying. I couldn't see it. I was impatient. All I saw was him sleeping most of the day and bandages being taken off then new ones being put right back on. I wanted Ezra to wake up and stay awake for the entire day. I wanted him to talk and tell Adam and me that things were going to be okay. I wanted my big brother back.

Our dad's second cousin or something came to stay with Adam and me at the ranch. She was our temporary guardian until Ezra was better and "could assume the responsibility." She was better than the foster system, but not by much. The only plus to her being around was that she could sign things for us. Like my withdrawal papers from school. I had to be with Ezra as much as possible. We didn't want him to get better and be coherent without one of us there to explain to him the worst part. Adam wasn't old enough to drive himself to and from the hospital, so I took him whenever I could. The doctors told us that it would be better for his recovery that we don't tell him about our parents until he was out of the woods and across town.

I started homeschooling online so I could stay with him at the hospital. Adam wanted to stay in school, but he was at the hospital with Ezra whenever there was the opportunity.

It was a few weeks before Ezra was strong enough to stay awake for several hours at a time. Then we had to go through it again, telling Ezra that a truck driver had fallen asleep at the wheel and hit us. We had to tell him that our parents didn't survive the crash. He didn't react as strongly as Adam and I. He just sat there and nodded. I could tell that he was deeply upset but he was holding it back. But that was Ezra. He was the strong one, he was the one that could handle anything.