NaNoWriMo Day 15: 12,582 of 50,000
Oh, Theo. Your obsession is leading you down a pretty dangerous (and painful!) path.
To read the previous chapters head HERE!
Chapter Ten
There was a metal taste in Theo’s mouth as he opened his eyes to the bright fluorescent lights above him. It took him a minute to get his bearings straight, but he soon realized he was in fact laying in a hospital bed. One look around the room made him smile and just as quickly wince at the pain that produced. He was attempting to smile because two sleeping forms were on either side of him. One his younger sister whose neck was twisted in sleep that would surely lead to some whining later and on his other side was Alice curled into such a small ball that she could’ve easily been mistaken for a cat.
As Theo laid there he tried to take inventory of not only his injuries, but recalling what had led to those injuries.
“I was on my bike,” Theo’s voice rasped aloud.
“Theo!” Chloe’s voice startled him and she was soon sitting on his bed rubbing her neck. “How do you feel?”
Theo took a minute before answering and realized that just about every part of his body was currently in some degree of pain. Right now, however, the part of his body that was vying for the most pain was his head. “In pain to be honest,” he eventually answered.
“Let me get the doctor,” Chloe said getting off his bed, “Alice wake up!” She rushed out of the room as Alice stirred in her chair.
“Theo? You’re awake?” Alice asked rubbing her own eyes.
“Apparently.”
“Ah,” Alice remarked sitting up and stretching, “the humor is still there. That’s good.”
“Alice,” he said swallowing, “what happened?”
“Apparently, you are great at signaling your turns on a bike.” Alice smiled softly standing up and reaching for the water jug on the small table attached to his bed. “I say that sarcastically because according to the car that struck you, you failed to signal your turn and they noticed you too late. Your left leg got clipped by their front wheel sending you right into the street.”
“Oh,” he said his left leg now realizing it was time to make a grand entrance sending a series of shooting pains to his brain. “Ouch!”
Alice handed him a cup of water and pulled the cover off his left leg. She inspected it closely before pulling the cover back over it. “Yeah, I’d say it’s a pretty deep fracture, but I don’t have access to your x-rays to say whether it’s a clean break or not.”
Theo was momentarily distracted from the pain because Alice sounded like she stepped straight out of an episode of Grey’s Anatomy. She saw his surprise as she sipped her own cup of water. “Yeah, I am a nurse. Currently on track to become a general surgeon in the next ten years.”
“Wow, I didn’t know that about you,” Theo said as the doctor announced herself.
“Welcome back Mr. Henderson,” a tall female pulled a clipboard off the wall and began writing on it, “I am Dr. Childers. Let’s start with the pain. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being unbearable how is the pain?”
Theo gave his empty cup to Chloe and readjusted himself on the bed. “A solid 10 doc.”
“Ok, we can give you some more morphine to help. We got your xray’s,” she said turning on a nearby board that lit up and producing the thin black plastic that would show the bones in his leg. “You’re luckier than most because it wasn’t a break, but you’ll notice that there is some significant damage to your calf muscle. Unfortunately there is not much we can do surgically for you as it is just going to have to heal on its own.”
“How long will that take?” Theo asked as the doctor took the xray’s off the board.
“Well, given the severity of your other injuries your body is going to need some time to heal. I would say around 4–6 weeks,” she said coming closer to him and softly grabbing his right arm making Theo wince. “How about your arm? 1 to 10?”
“Well a 10 now. It was fine when I wasn’t moving it.”
“The EMT’s had to reset your shoulder at the scene. I would expect soreness for a few days.”
“Any other injuries I should know about?” Theo asked mildly irritated that his body wasn’t transmitting pain signals as fast as he’d like.
“Slight bruising to your rib cage, but that shouldn’t take too long to heal,” the doctor answered. “What I am most concerned about is your head. It took quite the hit in the fall.” The doctor was suddenly unfurling a white cotton material from Theo’s forehead and it wasn’t just lightly spotted with blood there was a thick soaking of his blood on the material.
“What the-?” No wonder pain signals weren’t being transmitted to Theo’s head. It had endured trauma of its own. “How fast was this car going when it hit me?”
“The police are still investigating,” Chloe chimed in, “but well over the 25 miles per hour that it was supposed to be going.”
“The bleeding has stopped and it is only a surface injury,” Dr. Childers said, “I’ll have a nurse come in to clean it up and give you a new bandage. Mr. Henderson,” she said throwing away the blood-soaked bandages and washing her hands at a nearby sink, “you are truly lucky to be alive. If that curb wasn’t a grass curb it could’ve been much worse.”
Theo was stunned. All he’d been doing was turning the corner following the van. Now he was in a hospital bed with a torn calf muscle, bruised rib, injured arm, and battered head wound. So much had happened in such a short amount of time, but maybe this had been the result of all the obsession that had built up in Theo’s life. Ever since he saw Stanley for the first time he knew he was heading for some collision of sorts, but he wasn’t sure which kind.
Follow along with me this month at Jenna Pratt!
