Somewhere, sirens blare in the night, red and white neon flashing………pain, “Hold on, son, hold on, the medics are on their way……..”
Flashes of memory, lyrics waver along the air, “The love we share seems to go nowhere…” then darkness again.
The darkness recedes momentarily, but the pain is…..everywhere. “Mommy…..help…..it hurts….”
“Hush, Lukas, hush….it’s going to be ok. Go back to sleep. Rest, baby.”
The light is bright above, and he recognizes the nurse leaning over him, but before he can say anything he feels the prick in the shoulder.
Distantly, he hears his Dad speaking, maybe in the hall, “This is your fault. If you hadn’t taken him there, he wouldn’t be in this bed…
He strains to hear the response but he can’t, at least not before he disappears into the web of dreams again.
He wakes, the room is darkened, but not dark, it’s never dark in a hospital, even this small county hospital that he recognizes from his past. Fifty miles from home then.
“Dad, you there?”
The form in the chair stirs awake, standing, but it is not his dad.
“Lukas, I’m here, how are you feeling.”
“Lindsay…….what are you doing here? What’s wrong, am I dying?” he says and starts to panic, thrashing.
“Lukas, Lukas, calm down, calm down, you’re not dying, hush….relax,” and she reaches out, taking my hand and leaning over me.
“You look like shit Lindsay…..and smell like it too.”
“Thanks bro, you look like crap too you know.”
“What happened? Where’s Dad.”
“Dad’s……..working. What do you remember?”
“Um, Jeremiah White Hawk and I were….talking, we’d taken our bikes after Homecoming. I dropped Alaine off by her curfew of one. Then Jeremiah and I drove our bikes out to Lake Ilo…..we were just walking around that area near the front parking area.”
“Somebody hit me from behind, I didn’t really see who. I heard Jeremiah yelling, I thought I heard Thomas Walker. I remember seeing lots of blood, I don’t know, sis, its all fuzzy.”
“Wait….is Jeremiah ok? I think they broke his jaw. Or maybe I dreamed that.”
“Lukas, Lukas, Jeremiah is fine…he’s the one that used your phone to call Dad.”
She sits down on the bed.
“Lukas, Jeremiah said…..”
“What…..what did he say?” and the teenager pales.
“He said you healed him.”
He starts to speak, pausing, but by the time he does, his color has returned, “Well, obviously he got hit harder than I did then. That’s crazy.”
She just looks at him, “Lukas, how do you feel now?”
He takes a few moments to think, moving his neck, his arms, his legs. “I feel pretty good actually, although my jaw aches some and I have a headache.”
“Wait, how long have I been here?”
“Three days.”
“So what’s wrong with me then?”
Lindsay starts to talk, pauses, then, reciting off the medical chart in her cop voice, “Broken Jaw, Skull Fracture, Ruptured Spleen, nine fractured ribs, fractured right femur, shattered right patella, broken tibia. Various broken toes and fingers, contusions, blood loss.”
“And I have only been here three days?”
She just nods, tears in her eyes.
“Oh, so that’s why he’s not here.”
“I’m sorry, Lukas.”
He just sits there, sadness etched across his blue eyes. After a few minutes, “Why are you here Lindsay?”
“To help you pack.”
Last Dreams 