A Claim to Magic

Out of the Hospital

        CHAPTER THIRTEEN

She felt pain, searing pain in her head, she felt the side of her face, only to pull her hand away almost immediately, gasping. She had set off a new wave of pain. She fell back onto her pillow, barely suppressing a scream, this was pain.

A nurse scurried into the room, saw her awake, and grinned. She did not look much older than Clara.

"Well, how do you feel?" she asked.

"How long was it?" Corrie winced as the pain shot through her head.

"Oh, about eight days." The nurse stated, "you were out cold." She giggled at the look on Corrie's face.

Corrie scowled at her, how could she think this was funny? She had been unconscious for over a week! She sat up, "Have I missed the first day of Muta?"

"That's tomorrow, how do you feel?"

Corrie did not want to miss the first day, "how can I get there?" she asked the nurse.

"How do you feel," she glanced at the clipboard in her hand, "Corrie?"

"I will go by myself if you don't take me." She looked into the nurse's eyes, defiant.

"How bad does it hurt?" The nurse asked, ignoring Corrie's threat. She obviously didn't think an injured thirteen year old could walk twenty-five miles in one night. She didn't know Corrie.

"Are you taking me or am I walking?" she glared at the nurse.

"tell me how bad it hurts or I'll go and-"

"It's excruciating, will you take me?"

"No." The nurse left the room, Corrie heard the door click locked. She scowled and headed towards the window, which slid open easily and revealed only a four-foot drop. She climbed through.

Outside the air felt fresh, Corrie took a deep breath before she began walking.

Five miles later, Corrie realized she wasn't going to make it in time, so she decided she would ask someone to drive her. She stopped at the nearest gas station and headed towards the front counter where there was a long line of people waiting to check out.

When she reached it she heard a scream, she looked around, there was a little girl holding her mother's hand and pointing towards Corrie. Confused, Corrie reached in her pocket for her wallet, only to realize that she had pajamas on.

She asked everyone at the counter, and all the people in the line, no one would help her. All anyone would do was point to the left side of her face and shutter. She decided that she ought to know what they were pointing at, so she went into the bathroom. The first thing she saw was herself, or what she thought was herself, it was hideous. Her hair was matted and she wore pajamas, and then there was her face. There was a gash that ran the entire way down the left side of her face.

Corrie saw why they had been pointing. She tried to wash her face, and partially succeeded, she wouldn't clean the wound for fear of the new spasm of pain, but she rinsed the rest of her face thoroughly. She stepped back and began to try to cover her wound with her hair, this worked decently, though it would have worked better with a brush. Now the only thing to worry about was her clothes. She couldn't come up with anything so she decided that it didn't matter.

"Hello, um, I was just wondering if you had a phone I could use." Corrie told the cashier, "I need to get home."

"I do," a woman made her way to Corrie, she looked as if she didn't want Corrie to be in the building any longer, "you can borrow mine." She handed Corrie a phone, Corrie opened the phone app, typed Clara's phone number, and pressed call.

"Hello?" Clara sounded groggy, Corrie realized that it was only seven A.M. "Hi, Clara, this is Corrie, I'm at the gas station about twenty miles away from school, I have no transportation and I just woke up can you please pick me up and bring me to school?"

"Yes! And I'm so sorry! I didn't mean for you to get hurt like-"

"It wasn't your fault thank you for the ride. I better go, bye." She turned the phone off and handed it back to its owner, who grabbed it and scurried away, looking repulsed.

Half an hour later, Corrie saw Clara's truck pull into station five, she quickly smoothed more hair over the deep cut that stretched across her face. She ran to the truck.

"Corrie! I'm so sorry that that happened to you! I'll never let it happen again, I promise!" she held Corrie so tightly that she had to ask her to loosen her hug.

The entire drive was filled with Clara telling Corrie how brave she was and how everyone would be so happy to see her, so that it was a relief when Corrie could exit the car, having had her fill of the conversation.

Corrie went to go wake Betsy.