Chapter
2
When Brian
awoke, he found himself in bed, surrounded by beeping machines and several
tubes attached to his body. He realized he was in a hospital.
He glanced
around the room for a few minutes, unable to move his body. He didn't feel any
pain, but felt kind of numb all over.
Then, a nurse
walked into the room.
"Well,
hello, Mr. Littrell," she said cheerfully. Brian tried to greet her back,
but found he couldn't speak. There was something down his throat.
"You have
a breathing tube down your throat," the nurse explained, as if she had
read his mind. "It's just to help you breathe a little easier. Hopefully,
it will be gone in a few days, and you will be able to talk again. By the way,
my name is Carole."
Brian just
stared at her, unable to communicate, for he was too weak and groggy. He tried
to remember what had happened, why he was there. Suddenly, it all came back to
him: the dark road, the truck coming from nowhere and running straight into his
car.
He listened to
the steady beeping of the heart monitor and wondered how badly hurt he was. He
wondered if anyone had called his parents. He realized he was alone in a
strange hospital somewhere in Georgia.
He wondered
about these things for awhile and finally drifted to sleep.
***
When he awoke
the second time, he found his mother sitting beside his bed and holding his
hand. She had dark circles under her eyes.
"Hi,
Babyduck," she said softly when she saw his eyes open.
Brian was
still unable to talk. He managed to give her hand a slight squeeze.
A few minutes
later, a doctor came into the room. "Hello, Brian," she said.
"My name is Dr. Martin. Do you want me to take that tube out of your
throat now?" she asked. Brian nodded.
"All
right. I want you to take a deep breath for me, and on the count of three,
exhale," Dr. Martin explained. Brian nodded. He took a deep breath and
waited while she counted to three. Then he exhaled while she pulled out the
tube. Brian began to cough loudly. Dr. Martin helped him sit up a little until
the coughing subsided. As Brian leaned back against the pillows, he felt dizzy.
"What
happened to me?" he asked the doctor, his voice weak and hoarse.
"Well, it
looks as if a pick-up truck hit your car head on," Dr. Martin told him.
"Yeah, I
know. That truck was in the wrong lane," Brian said.
Dr. Martin
nodded. "The driver was drunk," she said quietly.
"Is he
okay?" Brian asked.
"Yes,"
Dr. Martin said. "He just got shaken up. Other than that, he's perfectly
all right. You, on the other hand, sustained some serious injuries. You're
lucky you had your seat belt on, otherwise it would have been a lot worse,
probably fatal." Brian's eyes widened.
"Your
head hit the steering wheel pretty hard, giving you a concussion. You broke
your collar bone and cracked a few ribs from the impact of the seat belt. You
also got some bad whiplash. Your leg got jammed up under the dashboard and is
broken pretty badly. We put it in a cast for now, but you might need surgery on
it later, depending on how well it is healing. You also have some smoke
inhalation because the car caught on fire shortly after the paramedics arrived.
It took awhile to get you out of the car."
"Am I
going to be alright?" Brian asked, his voice small and scared sounding.
"Oh sure,
you'll eventually be fine. This will take awhile to recover from, but you'll be
okay," Dr. Martin assured him.
***
