Chapter Three

"He's in the sun, the wind, the rain, and in the air in which you breathe

He sings a song of hope and cheer, there's no more pain, no more fear

You'll see him in the clouds above

hear him whisper words of love

You'll be together before long

Until then listen to his song."

Christy Ann Martine

~•~

Awareness came in gradual stages. It began with a series of tiny explosions that went off behind my hazel-coloured eyes, intense detonations of pain that heralded my return to consciousness.

With my eyes still closed I slowly registered the sounds surrounding me. The grating rasp of a respirator. The high-pitched blip of a heart monitor. My own blood rushing in my ears, obliterating every coherent thoughts, except for one. Pain.

The mere act of parting my swollen lids was agony personified, and yet I tried anyway. Tears leaked from my eyes, bruising the corners with my effort, but yet I still persisted.

I could feel the painful shift in my spine, the awful heaviness in my legs and the tingling in my fingertips.

Somehow I managed to crack them into the barest slits, but the world was blurry, and unfocused.

The action allowed in a thin piece of filtering white light. Scrunching my face, I slowly blinked my eyes a few times. With each blink, my brain exploded with excruciating pain, until eventually I could properly see the world around me.

It was your standard hospital room, with a small window on the right of me and a door to the left.

The lights in the room were so bright and the smell of cleaning alcohol burnt my nose.

Slowly memories of the accident came back, though it took a while to make things clear in my head. I remember Daniel saving me and that weird dream I had when I passed out.

"How are you feeling, Valerie?" The lady in white asked as she scribbled things down on a clipboard by the end of my bed, it was attached by a small string of floss.

I shook my head and tried to talk back to her. I could tell my voice wasn't going to be pleasing by the dryness of my throat.

"Horrible." My voice was raspy and it hurt to talk.

The doctor looked down at me and gave me a sympathetic smile. She sighed and continued to write on the clipboard before clearing her own throat and looking back up at me.

"I'll have one of the day nurses bring you some ice chips to suck on for a while, and then you should start to feel a little better," she put the clipboard down on the foot of my bed and started to walk towards the door.

"Do you want visitors? People have been worried..." she said leaving. When she turned around I nodded my head yes in response, she smiled and then left without saying another word.

A few minutes later someone opened the door. She was wearing blue scrubs and had a high ponytail. Her nails were really clean as she put a clear cup full of ice cubes in front of me on the moving tray that she moved near my bedside.

"When your throat hurts while you talk, just take a few of these and suck on them. They should help with the talking when you get visitors," she smiled at me as she grabbed my chart.

"I have to do a quick check up on you if you don't mind, otherwise you don't get any visitors," I nodded and then took a nice chip to pop into my mouth. The ice melted away fast into the warmth of my mouth.

The cool water trickling down my throat made me feel ten times better. It was like finally getting a drink after a long day in the sweltering sun.

"Do you know what year it is?" She asked, looking up at me.

"2018," my voice sounded a little bit better than the first time I talked. "Do you remember what happened?"

She looked hesitant about this one because she didn't make eye contact with me, and stopped writing things on her board.

"There was a car accident, the car ended up in the water..."

To tell you the truth I didn't really know what happened after Daniel pushed me up.

"Is my boyfriend alright? When will I get to see him?" As soon as I uttered those words her head jerked fast at me and I saw her lip tremble slightly but I wasn't sure why. She took a deep breath before she spoke.

"Let me go ask the doctor," she said as she put her clipboard down that had my chart on it next to the sink by the door and quickly walked out the door.