CHAPTER TWO: ELICIA

Day of the accident (27 July)

“Hey mom, is El ready?” Jer asked mom as he took a seat near the island in our kitchen. Jer came to take me out to a party of a friend of his.

“I think so, she was looking for her purse a few minutes ago.” my mom replies as she tosses an apple to Jer.

“I swear you are growing taller by the day.” Mom says standing on her tip toes ruffling his hair. I walk into the kitchen in my black skinny jeans and a plain

white tee paired with white Nike snickers.

“You could have at least tried to look nice,” Jer says and I hit his head with my purse.

“Ow, that hurts you. Dweeb!!!” he says scratching his head.

“Serves you right.” I say and mom just laughs it off and kisses both of us goodbye.

“Make sure you guys are home by midnight.”

“Yes, mom.” Jer says saluting mom.

“And make sure you drag El everywhere you go, she tends to be a loner at times.” my mom says whispering a bit at the end.

“MOM!!!!!!” I say rolling my eyes.

“Can you drive, I feel so out of it today.” Jer says as we exited the house. “You promised to drive me everywhere, are you backing out on your word?” I ask him raising my right eye brow.

“Fine, I am not backing out.” he says and we get into our car.

“What’s wrong El?” Jer asks as soon as he sees me rubbing my temples.

“I don’t know I just feel uneasy, why don’t we just skip this one Jer?” I ask him and he shakes his head no.

“Okay, this will be our last party. No more parties I swear.” he says pinky swearing with me. Neither of us knew how true Jer’s statement was at the time.

On our way to the party

“Just admit it you like her; I see the way you look at her.” I tease my best friend as he drove us to the party.

“Of course not, I do not like her. She confessed on graduation day and I told her l was seeing someone.” Jer says.

“Oh, my word!!!! Are you for real?” I ask him and he nods.

As someone who liked speed, Jer was traveling at 200km/hr and I did not mind since the road was very wide, I was actually enjoying myself. I took out my phone to see if Jason had texted back.

“Of course, he didn’t text back, it’s Jason we are talking about.” Jer says looking over me for a split second.

Before I could even think of a comeback a dog just ran into the road from nowhere and I screamed.

“JER LOOK OUT!!!” and when he did, he swerved the car to the right and we went straight into a food truck that was in the right lane.

When they make accident scenes in movies, they make it seem like one has all the time in the world to make split second decisions that results in no casualties but that couldn’t be further from the truth.

One moment the road was there, wide open and safe, the next I was screaming for Jeremy to look out and I saw was black.

Sirens woke me up.

“Miss!!Miss!! Can you hear me.” a voice says.

Who is the person talking to?

“Ma’am I am going to try and rip the door to take you out. Don’t move.” the same voice says. The voice seems to be clearer now andso are the sirens.

Police and Ambulance sirens.

A few seconds of trying to comprehend where I was, something that was shielding me seems to have been removed and a breeze of air comes in contact with my skin.

I feel myself being dragged out of the seat I was seating in, my eyes try adjusting to my surrounding as l look back into whatever it was that I was in.

A car.

I see a hand fall on the seat, on the hand is a black and white

bracelet. The bracelet looks familiar, even the car looks familiar now that I was a bit far from it. A few seconds of cranking my head to recognize my surroundings,

flashes from half an hour ago flood my mind.

I remember that I was in a car with Jeremy going to a party.

JEREMY,

Where is he?

Why am I not hearing his voice or seeing him anywhere?

I snap back to reality and I break out of the grasp of the person who was holding me.

“Jeremy! Jeremy!” I scream running back to the black Cadillac, our car.

“Stop her!!!” someone shouts but I keep on going, the moment I reach the car I open the door and what I see has me tongue tied. On the driver’s seat laid Jeremy, blood all over him; a sharp, deep cut on the hand that had the black and white bracelet (our

friendship bracelet). I looked at my wrist but there was nothing.

I could not believe Jeremy was laying there, a black triangle near him and his left wrist had a black cloth tied on it.

What did it mean?

I shake him multiple times to wake him up. I could feel that his presence was no longer there, but I kept shaking him vigorously calling out his name. I could not come to terms with the fact that he was not waking up, I opened my mouth to scream and let it all out.

But to my surprise nothing came out, all I did was open and close my mouth without producing any sound. Tears uncontrollably coming out.

The previous man who had taken me out of the car came to take out once again.

There is a time in one’s life that everything finally registers and they see things as they are, that time came for me sooner than I could decipher.

And I just let the man drag me, all my willpower gone, lost, vanished.

The trembling from the tragedy stopped, the tears ceased and I came undone seeing black once more but not before I see the car blowing up in flames.

Icing on the cake.

AUTHOR’S POV

A week later

“Jeremy!!! Jeremy!!! you can’t leave me. No, no, no!!” El screamed in her sleep.

“El, El.” her mom called going to her side.

Elicia wakes up to mom, dad and Ryan in Cedars Sinai Medical Centre.

“You are okay honey, it’s okay. Please don’t cry.” Her mom says wiping her tears but all she could do was nod unable to say anything.

After a couple of minutes of whispering soothing words to her daughter, the doctor came in.

“Dr. Rae and Mr. Rae can I talk to you for a moment?” Doctor Hale asked and they both agreed. “Dr. Martin is a friend of the family; he can also join.” Carol, Elicia’s mom said to the doctor who in turn nodded.

They made their way to Dr. Hale’s office.

“I know you have all been seeing how Elicia has been doing for the past week. She hasn’t been responding to any stimulants to retrieve her memory nor is she talking. She isn’t even past the shock of the accident; I am not sure I can be of any help.” The doctor conveyed being very careful with his words.

“I am a doctor too so; l am very much aware of what is needed to be done.” Carol mentioned. “I will inform Doctor Jane to take her in.” Dr. Hale said and

everyone nodded.

Doctor Jane was a psychiatrist at Cedars Sinai Medical Centre. A few days passed and Elicia was still not talking nor was she staying awake for more than two hours.

Ryan, Carol and Elicia’s dad ended up proceeding with the Jeremy’s funeral plans without Elicia and after the funeral they all tried to get back on track with their lives.

“Elie, how have you been doing?” Ryan asked as he approached Elicia’s bed at the psych ward. Elicia just stared at him without offering a response.

“I know you think it’s your fault what happened with Jeremy but I assure you it’s not. There is a time for everything. Of course, it is hard for us all to have lost him all of a sudden but please get better.

If he was here; he wouldn't want you to be like this.” Ryan said and placed a soft kiss in Elicia’s hair. Three more weeks passed completing the month of July and Elicia seemed to be getting better, she started eating, taking walks around the hospital and the nightmares lessened.

“Upon normal responses to surroundings, people and medication I usually recommend discharge and visiting a therapist but I think she should spend two more weeks here to make sure the nightmares are gone because I do not want change of environment to damage the progress. I hope you understand.” Dr Jane said to both of Elicia’s parents.

After agreeing Dr. Jane recommended Lydia Patrovka as she was the best therapist in California.

“I think Lydia will take better care of Elicia; they do not call her the best in California for nothing. I will send Elicia’s file to her and she will be expecting you.”

“Thank you very much, Dr. Jane, this means a lot.” El’s mother said.

“No need to be so formal, you do a lot of work here Dr Rae.” Dr Jane acknowledged Elicia’s mom.

Mid-August, after two weeks El was discharged and went home, both parents were happy with the progress even if it was minimal. Carol, Elicia’s mom went to see Lydia Patrovka before her daughter started her session to get her perception of her daughter’s state.

“Good afternoon, Dr. Rae you can take a seat.” Lydia acknowledged Carol’s presence as soon as she got in.

“I don’t even know what to say, what do you think will happen to my day? Do you think she will overcome this?” Carol bombarded Lydia with questions.

“To be honest with you, this journey is solely hers and no one else. I do admit it’s rather difficult to tell how she will deal with it because I have no idea of how she perceives life.” Lydia says and she goes on to add, “But I believe she will overcome

either way, nothing lasts forever.”

“I read she applied at UCLA for the fall quarter I hope you don’t intend on sending her to school in the current state she is?”

“Of course not, she is likely to take a gap year.” Carol makes it known to Lydia.

“Good then, I would want to see her every day if possible. Leaving Sunday assuming it’s a family day.”

“Of course,” Carol mentions.

After the talk with Lydia, Carol went home with a glimmer of hope.