Chapter
18
“Aaron, would you go upstairs and see if your brother’s hungry?”
Jane asked, late the next afternoon. “I
made some soup for him.”
“Sure, Mom,” Aaron said, hurrying upstairs to Nick’s room.
When he entered the room, the lights were off, and he found Nick
sound asleep in bed, the covers pulled tightly around him. Aaron studied him carefully, a wave a fear
passing through him as he couldn’t see any sign that Nick was breathing. His body was motionless.
Panic rising in him, Aaron leaned close to his brother,
desperately listening for his breathing.
His knees went weak with relief as he heard it, slow and shallow. Nick was breathing. But Aaron was still worried. It didn’t sound like normal breathing. Something was wrong.
“Nick?” Aaron asked, his voice small and scared sounding. He lightly gripped Nick’s bony shoulder and
shook it gently, trying to wake his brother up.
Nick didn’t move. “Hey, Nick,
wake up,” Aaron said, shaking Nick a bit harder. But nothing happened.
Stricken with fear, Aaron turned and ran from the room. “Mom!” he shouted, running into the kitchen,
where Jane stood. She looked up at him
in alarm.
“What’s wrong?!” she cried, her eyes wide with fear, knowing that
something bad had happened.
“Something’s wrong,” Aaron cried.
“Nick won’t wake up!”
Jane’s face went pale, and she ran upstairs as fast as she
could. She burst into Nick’s room and to
his bedside. “Nick?” she asked. “Nick!?”
She leaned close to him and heard the same shallow breathing that Aaron
had heard.
She spun around to see Aaron standing in the doorway, his brown
eyes wide with fright. “Aaron, I need
you to go call 911 for me,” she said.
“We need to get Nick to a hospital.”
***
Dr. Fergeson sat in the staff lounge, her cell phone pressed to
her ear.
“Nate, I told you, I’m sorry, but I can’t make it to the game
tonight,” she said.
“But mom, this is one of the biggest games of the season,” her
son, Nate, protested on the other line.
“Sweetie, I know that. If I
could get off work, you know I would.
But I really can’t. I’m so sorry,
honey. But don’t you worry, I’ve already
got next Friday night off, so I can come see you play next week,” Dr. Fergeson
said.
“Fine,” Nate replied. “See
you later then.”
“Okay, honey. Good luck
tonight,” Dr. Fergeson said.
“Bye,” Nate said.
“Wait, Nate!” Dr. Fergeson interjected before her son hung up the
phone.
“What?” Nate asked.
“I love you,” she said simply.
“Love you too, Mom,” Nate replied, and hung up.
Dr. Fergeson hung up with a sigh.
Her son was a junior in high school and a talented starting offensive
player on the football team. She was
very proud of him, and she loved to see him play, but tonight was one of those
busy nights when she couldn’t get off work.
It was busy mostly because they were short on doctors and surgeons. A few were taking vacation time, two were on
maternity leave, and several were just unable to come in that night, leaving
doctors like Dr. Fergeson to end up staying all night working.
“Dr. Fergeson?” a nurse asked, stepping into the lounge.
“Yeah?”
“One of your regular patients was just brought into the ER,
unconscious,” the nurse said.
“Okay, I’ll be right there,” Dr. Fergeson said, putting her cell
phone into her purse and hurrying out of the lounge.
***
