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Ripples of the Past (Part I) |
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The door opened with only a soft swoosh as Jessica anxiously walked into the hospital room. Of the two hospital beds in the room, one was empty, the linens folded neatly on top. In the other bed lay Jeremy, the person she came to see. Bandages were wrapped tightly around Jeremy’s head and his closed eyes seemed to sink into deep pockets. Beside his bed, a tube continually fed fluid through the needle in his arm. The sight made her heart hurt and she hesitated before putting a hand on his. “Jeremy, can you hear me? It’s Jess.” There was no response from him. She softly squeezed his hand somehow expecting that through her will, he would regain consciousness. When she looked down at their hands, she realized that although she was still wearing her engagement ring, he wasn’t. “They just took it off when they admitted him in for surgery.” She said out loud, quickly blocking off her other inner thoughts.
While she sat by his bed, an attractive female nurse came in to check on him. As Jessica let go of his hand and stepped back, the nurse gave her a cold glance. Eris, Jessica read on the nurse’s name tag, seemed to take an extra bit of time to fawn on Jeremy, holding him longer than needed to move him, rubbing repeatedly to smooth his blanket and leaning in dangerously close to check his vitals. After Eris finished her duties with the unconscious man, she smirked at Jessica and left; she didn’t know why, but Jessica felt like smacking Jeremy.
A nurse who, to Jessica’s relief, wasn’t Eris came in again some time later and Jessica hoped that shifts might have changed. She stood up, inwardly cursing the numbness in her legs. As she leaned in to kiss Jeremy, she stopped as she realized it wouldn’t be appropriate for their relationship any more. She was able to maintain her composure and reach the sanctuary of her car before releasing the emotional and frustrated flood of tears.
-
Jessica drove back to Jeremy’s place and unlocked the door with the key she still had. She looked around and admitted that for a guy, he kept his house pretty clean. She threw a load of laundry into the machine and cleaned the few dishes in the kitchen sink. Deliberately, she avoided the bedroom. Never, she swore she would never go into that room again. Where she and Jeremy had made so many happy memories, now one new memory would forever taint them. The rest of the house would stay innocuous, safely separated by the solid bedroom door. However, she realized that she was staring at that door in a daze when the phone rang, causing Jessica to jump. She let the answering machine grab the call.
“Hey, big brother. I’m going to stop by the store from school. Pick up if you want something specific for dinner. No? Guess you’re not home…”
“Stophany! Hello?” Jessica grabbed the phone.
“Oh, Jessica. I didn’t know you were at my house. How are you?”
“Steph, where are you right now?” Jessica tried not to show the nervousness in her voice.
“School just got out…”
“Hey, stay right there in front of your school, I’m coming to pick you up.”
“It’s alright. Rian is with me, we were going to walk to the store… what’s wrong? Is my brother ok?” Stophany suddenly stopped.
“No sweety, he got a little hurt. It’s alright though. I’ll be right there. Just wait for me.”
“ok. I’ll be in front of the school. my brother… is hurt?” Stophany’s voice shrunk to a whisper. Jessica suddenly heard Stophany’s cell phone clatter to the ground and some voices shouting in the background. “Steph?! Hello, Steph!” Anxiously, Jessica hung up and ran out of the house.
-
Jessica’s growling BMW M5 dashed through the parking lot of Stophany’s school, barely missing a young man and causing papers to take flight from the hands of another. Jessica didn’t see Stophany in the crowd of students in front of the school. Frantically, she dialed Stophany’s cell phone and Rian, Stophany’s best friend picked up. She told Jessica that they were in the nurse’s office and that Stophany had fainted in front of the school. Getting directions from one of the students, Jessica ran down the hallways of Stophany’s high school. “Damn, why is this freaking building so huge?” She mumbled as she spotted the sign for the nurse’s office.
Rushing through the door, she spotted Rian standing by a cot. Calling out to her, she started walking to where Stophany was reclined. She was stopped by a young pretty female dressed in all-white. “Can I help you mam?”
Jessica nodded towards Stophany. “She’s my fiancée’s sister. The one on the bed.”
“Miss nurse, it’s alright. Will you let her through?” Rian said.
Jessica brushed past the nurse, internally wondering if all nurses had to go through some beauty pageant or something.
“Stophany?” She asked.
Rian shook her head. “She’s just resting a little. I was so surprised when she suddenly fell down.”
Although they were keeping their voices low, Stophany stirred.
Rian grabbed Stophany’s hand. “Hey brat, are you alright now?”
Stophany groaned softly as she opened her eyes.
“Rian, what happened? Jessica? Jessica! Where’s my brother!?” Stophany suddenly sat up.
“Steph baby, I need you to calm down.”
“My brother! Please, Jessica, take me to him!” Stophany’s flailing caused Rian to step back, scared.
“Steph. Steph! Just calm…” Jessica suddenly grabbed Stophany and hugged her to pin her arms down. She stroked the back of Stophany’s head as Stophany sobbed.
“Please… Jessica… my brother…”
“OK, it’s ok. I’ll take you to him, so just relax. That’s a good girl.” Jessica let Stophany go.
“I’m going to go talk with the nurse. Rian, will you help Steph get her things ready to go?” Jessica asked.
-
Jessica drove to the hospital for the second time that day; she glanced at her rearview mirror and confirmed that the two girls were sitting in the backseat. She decided earlier not to tell Stophany too much about her brother’s condition until after she got to the hospital, however, she wondered if that was the right decision as Stophany started to weep again and Rian tried to continually console her. When she stopped the car, Jessica turned around and saw that Stophany was completely terrified.
“Steph, it’ll be alright. You’re brother… he’ll be alright.” Jessica said as she prayed that she wasn’t lying to the poor girl. Stophany had suffered through so much loss in her life and Jessica didn’t think that she would be able to recover if Jeremy died.
“Let’s go brat.” Rian poked the frozen Stophany. Jessica smiled a little; she had no idea why Rian called Stophany that, she was almost a whole year younger than Stophany. Perhaps it was because Rian was animated and energetic, while Stophany seemed meek and quiet. Or perhaps it was due to the environment Rian grew up in, she was the oldest of ten children while the only family Stophany had was Jeremy now. Rian had gotten out of the vehicle and was starting to pull a stunned Stophany from her side. “Don’t you want to see your brother? Work with me here!” Rian groaned as she first pulled then pushed Stophany towards the hospital entrance. Stophany seemed to recover a little at Rian’s words and began to shuffle forward on her own volition.
They both accepted visitor’s badges from Jessica and followed her to the door of Jeremy’s room. As Jessica opened the door, Rian anticipated Stophany’s apprehensiveness, grabbing Stophany’s hand and towing her into the room. However, as soon as Stophany saw Jeremy lying in the bed, she shook off Rian’s hand and ran to his bedside.
“Big brother! Big brother, what’s wrong? Big brother!” Stophany called out but Jeremy showed no response. “Jessica, please tell me what happened. Why is his head like that and all these wires, what is going on? Who did this to him? Please tell me!” Stophany turned to face Jessica.
“I don’t really know for sure. When I came by your house this morning, I found him on the ground bleeding and I called 911. He was sent to this hospital but the doctor said that he would be like this for a little while but he was probably going to be alright.”
There was a soft knock on the door and another pretty female nurse announced that visiting hours were over but that they could come back tomorrow. Stophany squeezed her eyes shut as the tears continually ran out and turned back to her brother.
“I’m sorry Jessica, Rian, but can I have some time with my brother, alone?” Stophany asked in choked words.
“Sure honey.” Jessica said. Rian sympathetically put a hand on Stophany’s shoulder and then followed Jessica out of the room. Even with the closed door, they could hear Stophany’s crying.
*Part II and III are in my portfolio also*
HolyKnightHamster · Thu Mar 08, 2007 @ 04:39am · 0 Comments |
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