Thursday, March 15, 2007

my friend rory: chapter eight
chapter eight: four o' clock: that fateful meeting

i awoke three hours later in a hospital bed. the room was too bright and smelled horribly of disinfectent. i turned my head slowly glancing to the chair that sat next to my bed. i had expected my mother to be sitting there, hell i expected someone to be sitting there and i was surprised to find that she nor anyone else wasn't. no one was sitting next to me and no one happened to be in the room either. i spotted my mother's purse sitting on the little table next to the chair, so i knew that she was still in the hospital and i was relieved to know that i hadn't been abandonded. my own room was silent but the door was open and i could hear loud talking and yelling, and machine's sounding off in the hall. i wanted to get up and go check it out. i felt restless in my own body as if this perfect silence would force me to think about the day's earlier events. walking turned into nothing but a hopeless dream as i remembered my leg. i threw the itchy light blue blanket off my legs and peered down at them anxious as to what i might see. i guess i had been afraid that my leg wouldn't be there anymore but it was something i didn't have to worry about as both of my legs remained intact.

my right leg, the leg i was shot in was wrapped up again, this time in a cast. i also noticed that i had been changed out of my clothes and into a hospital gown and i prayed that it was my mother who had done this for me. i sighed and wondered how long it would be before i could walk again. i tried not to be too upset about the state of my leg because at least i still had my life and i should be grateful for that. i absentmindedly wondered how many of my fellow classmates ended up here at this hospital. i also wondered how many of them ended up at the morgue. i stopped myself from thinking too much on this subject. when i had first woken up i didn't really remember what had happened and for just one brief moment i was as normal as every other patient in the hospital, but then reality had set in and i knew that i would never be normal again. never again would i be laylah hodges, now i would be that girl who survived the clearview school shooting. i sighed once again and resigned myself to get use to that idea because i was sure that this story wasn't going away anytime soon.

i leaned my head back and stared at the celing because due to my leg couting the celing tiles was about all i could do. i was up to tile number fourty-eight when i heard the clicking of heels coming into my room. i looked up and saw my mother standing in the doorway holding a cup of coffee. she looked at me and a huge smile broke out on her pretty face. "laylah honey your awake!" she said walking towards me. "uh yeah, what happened? the last thing i remember was being in the ambulance" i asked her. "oh laylah the doctor said you passed out from the loss of blood. he said if you had waited any longer you'd be dead!" she exclaimed. "what are you serious mom?" i asked, she nodded "yeah but luckily we got here in time and your surgery went well" she added. "my surgery?!?" my mouth dropped open a bit "i had surgery? for what?" i asked still feeling uneasy about my near death experience. "the bullet dear it was stuck in your leg." my mother patted my head and retook her seat at my side.

"well where's dad and alex?" i asked. "oh well alex was hungry so your father took him to get some food." my mother said as she set her coffee down on the small table. speaking of food it was then that i realized that i was starving. i hadn't eaten since breakfast that morning and i hadn't eaten school lunch considering the events of the day. "are you hungry dear?" my mother asked practicly reading my mind. i nodded "yeah i'm starved" i replied, "well i'll just have the nurse bring you your dinner then" my mom smiled at me, stood up and proceeded to go out in the hall and flag down the dinner nurse. in a few minutes time i had my dinner set out before me. i poked at the suspicious food. i was a little hesitant to eat it considering all the things i'd heard about hospital food, but i figured it could be no worse then what the school would've offered, so i began to eat.

i would say it took me about five minutes to totally devour my small dinner and my stomach seemed sastisfied for the moment. "honey visiting hours are almost over. is there anything else you want me to do before i have to go?" my mother asked as she glanced at the clock. i was a little saddened that my mother would have to leave me but i saw a TV was hooked up in my room, so i knew i wouldn't be totally isolated. i thought about my mother's question for a moment. what could she do? she couldn't turn back time or take me home so what else was there? i thought harder knowing that there had to be something i wanted her to do. it hit me suddenly as if my mind had just remembered what i had been thinking before i fell asleep. "the boy!" i said excitedly, "huh? what boy laylah?" my mom asked me confused by my sudden outburst. "the boy. the one who saved me in the school! i want to go see him!" i told her as i shot upright. "oh i know who your talking about" my mom said and she once again stood but this time she didn't leave the room. instead she just ventured into the corner to fetch something. what she brought back to my bedside was a wheelchair.

i smiled at my mother's eagerness to please me as she unlatched the right side of the hospital bed's guardrail. she pushed the wheelchair into position and lifted me out of my bed before setting me down into the chair. she carefully set my injured leg onto the foot pedal and began pushing me out of the room. my mother pushed me down the hall as if she knew where she was going. i didn't question her as often times it turned out she was right. the two of us passed doctors and nurses bustling down the hall. we also passed many open rooms and with each room i'd glance inside curious to see if anyone from the shooting had wound up here. i saw many faces i didn't reconize and i wasn't sure if i should be relieved or not. finally my mother stopped me just outside of one of the open doors. she left me for a moment and knocked on the door. "yes?" i heard a male voice say "i have a visitor to see you" my mother smiled at the person inside the room. "alright" i heard the voice say again and i swallowed suddenly nervous for some reason but why should i be? i had went to school with this boy and he had offered to help me today. "but?" i found myself thinking "but what if he blames me for what happened to him? or what if it isn't even the right boy?" i swallowed my nerves as my mother once again took her position behind me and wheeled me into his room.

the boy's room was as equally bright and smelly as my own room. i realized that i was glancing akwardly around his room and had not yet looked at him. finally i forced myself to look at the boy no matter what he would say or do. to my utter delight it was infact the same boy who had fought rory at the school. he sat in his hospital bed a remote control in his one hand and his left arm rested in a sling. his face held a blank stare and for a moment i wondered if perhaps he didn't reconize me, but quickly his stare broke into a look of surprise. "oh its you" he said in a light surprised tone. i nodded unsure of exactly what to say to him, everything i had thought before suddenly sounded so much better in my head and i was beginning to regret this whole idea. my mother continued pushing me until i was on the right side of his bed, right next to his good arm. i looked back at my mother "thanks mom" i said. my mom nodded "right well i leave you two alone" she said. i looked back at my mother unsure of why she would say such a thing, but "maybe" i thought "maybe she thought that whatever i had to say to the boy would be left better in private.". i nodded and my mom left the room taking whatever noise there was with her and an akward silence enveloped us. i was staring at my hands still unsure of what to say. the boy either felt the same or was weirded out by me and i wasn't sure as to which one it was.

the silence continued until i could stand it no longer and i cleared my throat. i lifted my head and looked at the boy who had been staring at me the entire time. i reddened a bit but continued anyway. " how are you feeling?" i asked him, not out of lack of a real question but because i had genuinely wanted to know. "i'm doing all right" he began "they gave me some pain medicine so i'm doing fine" he told me and i couldn't help but be comforted by his stong smooth voice. "what about you? how are you feeling?" he asked me. "well, physiclly i'm alright but emotionally i'm pretty banged up" i said while staring at my leg. "yeah same goes for me but i didn't see everything you saw, so i can't say i'm too bad."

after our first words to one another we were once again left with silence "i-i'm sorry for bothering you like this but i wanted to come by and say thank you for all that you did today and i wanted to ask you something as well" i blurted out after a silent minute. "what is it?" the boy asked softly. he was looking at me intently and seemed to be focused on what i had to say. "well i wanted to ask you. what's your name?". the words hadn't seemed so ridiculous in my head, but they had turned that way once they left my mouth. the boy looked at me blankly again for a moment before he chuckled a bit. i wasn't angry at his laughter, i was just a little surprised but i enjoyed listening to him laugh. "i'm sorry i didn't mean to laugh. it's just that your question was so random." he said wipping his eyes. he took on a serious face and put out his hand "my name's david williams." he said. i looked at his hand and smiled now knowing the name of my hero. "and yours?" he asked "laylah" i told him "laylah hodges". it was the boy's turn to smile as he took my hand "nice to meet you layah. its really nice to meet you."
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