Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
Keir
The sweet smell of my mom’s shampoo washes over me. She leans into my side for a quick hug. “Do that thing with your face again…”
Her laughter always manages to rouse a smile from me. She doesn’t do that much anymore. I’ve been trying all morning to get her to cheer up. It took doing impersonations and making faces to lighten her mood.
“No way. That was just embarrassing.” I rub my hand down my arm where bruises have just started to show from a couple of nights ago. We don’t talk about that. Or hers.
“Sam…” My mom uses his name for me, and my reaction is visceral. She always calls me by my real name. Never the made up one.
“Mom?”
“Sam…” Her face starts to morph… grotesque, twisted. Evil eyes. “Let go… just let gooooo.” The voice isn’t my mom’s. “It’s easier that way. Let go.”
My breath feels suppressed as I try to force it out of my lungs. Then pain. So much pain.
What’s happening to me?
Panic spreads through my mind.
Am I dying?
I always thought death would be fast. But like so much in life, I’m probably wrong about death, too.
Light floods my vision. I blink. Where am I? Coughing, I look around. A hospital bed. I feel around for a call button to press.
My head feels trampled. I don’t know why I’m here. I move my arms and legs. Touching my head, I can tell that it has bandages on it.
I was… I was…
A chill goes down my spine.
It’s like someone excavated my brain.
The compound. Mom and I were working in the garden… I try to sit up but the pain makes me drop back.
Did something happen in the garden?
I look at my arm and the bruises are gone. How long have I been here?
A nurse rushes into the room with a man in a white coat. A doctor? They check my heart rate and start asking too many questions. Blinking rapidly at them, I try to keep my thoughts sorted.
“Keir, I’m Dr. Hardin, we’re sure happy to see you awake. How are you feeling?” He types into a computer before using a tiny flashlight to look in one of my eyes.
“Ahh... I…” The nurse checks the bandages on my head.
“Do you want some water to drink? Take it slow.” She hands me a Styrofoam cup of lukewarm water that I sip.
“How long have I been here?” My voice sounds foreign to my ears. Scratchy.
“Five days,” the doctor says while pocketing a pen. “You’ve sustained head trauma and a brain bleed.”
How? Is my mom, okay?
“Is my mom here?”
The doctor’s brow furrows, and he looks at the nurse. The shared look makes me want to take the question back.
Something’s wrong.
“Keir it’s normal when someone has sustained head trauma to lose memories. Do you know what date it is and who the current president is?”
“I… I don’t know who the president is. In the compound we… I don’t know.” I guess at the date, and he puts a hand over his mouth.
“Keir, I’ll be right back. We’re just going to step out for a moment.”
I want to get up and look at my injury in the mirror, but when I sit up again the shooting pain in my head makes me give the idea up. I’m going to convince mom not to return to the compound. I almost don’t care how I was injured if it’s the chance we need to break free.
I don’t want to fall back to sleep.
Afraid that I’ll lose more time.
Where did they go?
Minutes turn into an hour, and then another, while I stare blankly at the television. Where is my mom?
If she was able to, once I woke up, she’d have fought her way into this room. My throat clogs with tears I won’t cry. I stopped crying years ago.
There’s a knock at the door finally and a dark-haired man wearing a suit opens the door slightly. “Keir, can I come in?” I notice a badge on his belt and relief floods through my body.
Help is here. It’s going to be okay.
“Yes, sir.” He gives me a small fake looking smile. He may be bearing some bad news. As long as it’s not about mom.
She’s all I have.
“Do you know who I am?” he asks lightly as he takes a seat.
I start to shake my head ‘no,’ but the move hurts too much. “No, sir?”
He places a hand on the back of his neck sighing. “Okay. Keir… there is a doctor named Dr. Vargas outside waiting to talk to you. Do you remember her? Or that name?”
What’s happening here?
If I didn’t know better, I’d swear this was a strange nightmare. “I just want to talk to my mom.”
He slides forward in his chair. “Your mom?” There is a waver to his words. He chews the inside of his cheek before continuing, “Keir how old are you?”
What is with these questions? Do I have brain damage? “I’m fifteen.”
His eyebrows shoot up as he closes his eyes. When he reopens them, they look watery. “I’m going to find Dr. Vargas for you, okay? You’re going to be… you’re going to be, okay, alright?”
The way he spouted that makes me feel the opposite. No one is telling me what’s happening, but they keep acting like the things I’m saying are bad. Wait until I tell them about the compound and what’s been going on there.
The next person into the room is a woman with dark skin and a pink dress with a short-sleeved blue and pink polka-dotted jacket. Maybe it’s her outfit inspiring it, but she puts me at ease slightly. “Hi, Keir. I’m Dr. Vargas.” She holds her hand out for me to shake.
As I shake her hand, she remains standing next to my bed. “A lot of people have been waiting for you to come back to us. It’s been almost a week. Do you know what happened?”
I pick the cup back up to drain the water left. Stalling.
Trying desperately to remember anything before this.
“No, ma’am. I was with my mom. We were weeding… maybe, something happened with… I don’t know.” I don’t. Knowing Louis’s temper, he could have hit me with a shovel.
“I see.” She gives me a big smile. “Are you hungry?”
Now that she mentions it, I do feel like I need to eat. I nod only a little, afraid to set my head pounding even more.
“What’s your pain level with your head?” She points to my head.
“Pain level?”
“On a scale of one to ten. Ten being the most. How badly is your head hurting?” I like her voice. It’s soft and kind.
Even though I routinely get hurt, this is bad. “Nine?” Maybe ten. I don’t tell her that though.
“I’m going to let Dr. Hardin know that and we’ll get you something to eat. Thank you for letting me come in to talk with you. Would it be okay for me to stop back again later?”
“Okay.” I want to tell her that the only person I really need to see is my mom.
I go back over weeding in the garden with her. I went to the shed to grab the buckets and spades. Mom wore that stupid looking tennis visor that I drew on as a kid. I teased her about the way she was singing to herself.
Then what?
Dr. Hardin and the police officer enter the room minutes after the other doctor leaves. Dr. Hardin tells me that he’ll give me something for the pain, but it will make me tired.
I try to argue that I don’t want to fall asleep. He reassures me that my body needs rest. The police officer, he says his name is Matt, tells me that I should listen to the doctor because he knows what he’s talking about.
I start to drift before they even leave the room. I try to hold onto being awake. My eyes feel heavy. My thoughts jumbled.
Mom. When I wake up, I need to see her.
Then I’ll tell the police everything about XIX and Louis.
We’ll finally be free.