“Visiting hours are over now,” Ellie’s voice broke firmly into the showdown. “You can come back tomorrow if you wish.”
“Make no doub’ abou’ i’, I shall,” Sayn Johnson drawled. An fading irregular clacking told Elara she was stumbling away.
“Nurse,” Kevin’s voice was hard, “I don’t want her in here again, and I especially don’t want her in with Elara.” Then he too stomped off.
There was an audiable sigh from the hallway, then, “But what if Elara does?”
*****
When Ellie came back to the room, she askedd, “So are feeling up to eating? I can go down to the hospital cafeteria and get you something, if you’re hungry.”
Panic welled up in her; her heartbeat quickened, thudding in her chest. “But then I’d be here alone! Please don’t leave me here all alone!”
“But, Larie, dear,” the nurse reasoned, “You were just in here by yourself a minute ago, and that wasn’t so bad, now was it?”
“That wasn’t same. The door was open, and you and Kevin were right there!” She begged, “
Please don’t leave me here all alone. Could I come with you?”
“I’m sorry, dear. You still aren’t able to be moved.” She
did look sorry, though no trace of pity came acroos in the look she gave. “Here, how about I leave the door open now, and one of the other nurses can stay with you. I’ll be right back, I promise.”
Elara gave a reluctant nod, glad when a man in a white coat like Ellie’s walked in. She was less glad when he started talking.
“How are you feeling today, Miss Sipi? I’m Doctor Columbo, and I’m the one who’s been keeping an eye on you. Now, I need to ask you a few questions. On a scale of one to ten, ten being the worst and one being the best, I’d like you to rate the pain that you’re feeling.”
More questions! Sighing she answered, “If I don’t move: three. If I move around: seven.”
“Good, better than we could’ve hoped considering. Do you remember what happened?”
“I was hit by a car,” Elara stated shortly, wishing she could be the one to ask the questions like she had with her brother. “That’s what everyone’s told me, anyway.”
“You’ll remember more youself later,” he informed her in what he might have though was a reassuring tone, but didn’t come off as very comforting.
“I’m sure I will,” she replied politely. “Sir, do know when I’ll be getting out of here?”
Doctor Columbo bristled, “Don’t call me ‘sir,’ I work for a living! Now, as for when you’ll be ‘getting out of here,’ you should be out of the ICU in another two weeks if all goes well with your recovery. You’ll be put in with the other children, then you should be dischanged from the hospital about a month from then. But this all depends on you. You have to want to get better. There’s been many a patient here who simply gave up. They’re the ones who are here forever or die. Doesn’t sound like fun, now does it. And do know how much money that costs both you and the hospital? A lot, so try to avoid it for both our sakes.” He laughed a big belly laugh.
Elara supposed that must have been a joke, but she didn’t get it, and it didn’t seem funny to her, so she remained silent.
The doctor stopped laughing just as Ellie came back into the room laden with a food tray. “Well,” he said, still chuckling lightly, “I’ll be in again to check on you tomorrow.”
“I look forward to it,” she lied. She didn’t like the doctor with his questions and odd humor.
Ellie nodded stiffly to Doctor Columbo as he lef. “Miss me?” She asked. Not waiting for a response, she continued, “I’m sure you did. How could not, what with me being so personable? Now, I can’t stay here and eat with you, because I have to go see my other patients, but I asked around for some company for you so you wouldn’t be alone while I’m gone. They should be here soon, they just had to get their own food. After all, we wouldn’t want them to starve while keeping you company, now would we?”
Ellie set the tray down on a wheeled table and pushed the table over until it hung over her thighs. Then she picked up a rectangular remote-like contraption and warned, “Now, this is going to hurt a little, but we’ll do it slowly, and if it hurts too much we’ll stop, okay?”
The nurse pressed a button, and Elara felt the bed spring jarringly –if as slow as the kind promised– into motion. She could feel her back popping as the head of the bed folded upward. There was a slight ache in her chest, which she guessed was from her cracked ribs, but she soon forgot all about it as Ellie removed the cover on the tray.
Elara hadn’t realized how hungry she really was until just now, as the fumes wafted into her nose, hightening all her senses. Her mouth began to water, and her stomach growled severely. After all, how long had it been since she had last ate? Two weeks? Yes, her last meal had been the medium cheese pizza she’d shared with Alexela, and that had only been two slices, as she’d been too nervous about their plan to sneak into the graduation to eat very much. When Ellie gently repositioned her head so that she could could smell and see, her longing to eat redoubled, making her quite glad that even if her wrist was broken, her arm was still mobile, if a bit stiff, and she could still use it to feed herself. That would have been a bit embarrasing.
Just then, a young girl wheeled into her room. She looked to be about ten years old, and her bright red hair and brilliant green eyes gave her an everwhelming Christmas-y affect. Green and yellow flowered leg braces poked out from underneath her overly-large hospital gown. A small smile played over her lips, and her own food tray was on her lap.
“Larie, dear, this is Raileigh. Rai, sweets, this is Elara. Now, you two can eat and talk and whatever else you want to do, and I’ll be back later,” Ellie annnounced and swept out of the room.
Raileigh wheeled her chair up to the side of the hospital bed.
Abruptly she asked, “Mind if I sit on the bed with you? It’s weird to have you so far up, not to mention it’s hard to eat with my plate on my lap. Oh, and you can call me Rai. It’s shorter.”
Elara nodded her head, “Sure. I’m Larie. Or Elara. Or whatever else you want to call me. Just so long as I know you mean me.”
There was an awkward pause as Rai maneuvered herself even closer to the side of the bed and Elara wondered how Rai thought to get up here. Elara was definitely in no condition to help her. From the smallness of her legs compared to the rest of her body, Elara wasn’t sure she could stand on her own, even if her legs could move.
Now so close she was pressed up against the mattress, Rai lifted her tray onto the table and set it next to Elara’s food. Then she placed both palms as far into the middle of the bed as she could reach. As her gown sleeves fell back, Elara could see lean muscles rippling through her arms. Then she levered herself up. Using only her arms she pused downto pull her body onto the bed. Once she was up, she rolled over onto her back and sat up, grinning to herself with pride and breathing only slightly heavily.
“Do that often?” Elara asked half sarcastically, her eyes round and wide as dinner plates, awed with the ease in which Rai had completed this seemingly arduous task.
“All the time,” she replied absent-mindedly, rearranging her hospital gown. “It’s how I get into and out of bed. Of course, my bed at home is lower, and there isn’t usually someone already in it. But when I get in my mom and dad’s bed with them it’s pretty similar to this, except that their bed is bigger. But enough about me. Let’s eat!”
There couldn’t have been any better meal for her first one since waking up. Steaming spaghetti smothered in tomato sauce covered most of the plate. Wheat rolls of goodly portions and a cup of Mackintosh apple wedges took up the rest of the space. Next to it all was a cup of white grape juice. All were favorites to her taste buds.
Negotiating the food to her mouth was another matter all together, however. Ellie had informed her that there was a special brace on her back to help keep it immoble while her fractures healed. Unfortunately, this meant she couldn’t bend over her plate. With her broken arm, she couldn’t pick up the plate and scrap it from the plate straight to her mouth. Her best bet was to twirl her spaghetti onto her fork, though she detested that way of eating and preferred scooping it up into her mouth.
“So,” Rai asked between bites, “What happened to you?”
“My best friend and I were hit by a car three weeks ago. I broke a whole bunch of bones, and I just woke up last night. What about you? What are you in for?”
“I have a cyst on my ovaries. I have to get it removed. Surgery’s tomorrow.” Elara must have looked surprised, because she added, “What, you thought it was my legs? Nah, that was a long time ago, when I was six. There was this really bad blizzard and my mom’s car went off the road and hit a light pole. She was okay, because she was wearing her seatbelt, but I wasn’t. I damaged a bunch of crap with my nerves and all that, so now I’ve got these. Can’t move ‘em, and they wouldn’t hold me if I could. But oh well,” she said, and took a bite from one of her rolls.
“Oh well”? Elara though.
I wouldn’t just say “oh well.” I would be quite upset, myself. Especially if I were only six.Rai’s next words were a reflection of Elara’s thoughts. “Oh, I was upset at first; what six year old wouldn’t be? I was sure I would be considered a freak, like people in my story books. I was afraid to go back to school, ‘cause I didn’t want people to laugh at me. Over time, though, I came to accept it as a part of me, and as I forgot about it, so did everyone else. Sure, sometimes someone will come along and make fun of me, or treat me like a disease, but I get over it and embrace the friends and good times I have.”
“You’re a strong person.”
“I have to be. It’s the only way to get by in this world. You can be strong, too.”
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