Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 76006 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 380(@200wpm)___ 304(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76006 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 380(@200wpm)___ 304(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
Fuck, how long had he been asleep?
A tall woman in blue scrubs pushed through the door and punched a couple of buttons on a machine. He attempted to sit up, but the action made a stabbing pain shoot through his rib cage. He lost his breath, a groan tumbling out of his mouth.
“Easy now,” the nurse said, helping adjust his pillow. She offered him a small sip of water through a straw from a cup beside the bed. “It’s good to see you awake.”
“How long have I been out?” Rhys’s mouth felt like they had stuffed cotton inside his throat.
“A few days. You’ve had a traumatic brain injury.”
“Brain?” He tried to lift his hand to his head, but it was like being underwater, the pressure between his ears practically unbearable as he mashed his teeth together.
“You were hit in the head by falling debris while rock climbing,” his mother supplied, squeezing his knee, and he winced at the contact. His entire body felt battered and bruised. “You suffered a concussion along with a fractured rib and some other cuts and bruises.”
He tried to recollect the traumatic event she’d told him had taken place, but came up short. The only indication something had happened came from the uncomfortable body aches. “I…I don’t remember.”
“It happens,” the nurse replied, patting his arm. “The most important thing right now is plenty of rest so your body can heal. There’ll be time for talking later.”
He adjusted himself on the mattress and winced again, the pounding in his head matching the battering of his ribs.
The nurse clicked a button on the side of the bed, and he felt almost instantaneous relief from the searing pain. He sighed as his eyes shut and he floated back into dreamland.
He was in and out of consciousness for hours or maybe days, and each time he awoke to his mom keeping watch at his bedside. And each time he noticed something new about her. Like her longer and blonder hairstyle, or how thin and sallow her skin looked. He felt like either he was in the twilight zone or had been in a time capsule. Carl looked about the same outside of his beer belly having grown rounder, something he liked to pat and joke about. But there was no joking now, only the swirling tension in the air around them, most likely due to his condition.
“Where did I go rock climbing?” he asked one of the times he was awake.
“Hawkeye Hill, with Martin and a lovely girl named Jill,” his mom replied as another nurse swung through the door to monitor his blood pressure. “They were here earlier, but you were asleep.”
“Jill?” he asked, racking his brain. “Do I know her?”
His mother glanced uneasily at the nurse.
“Some patients can forget the details surrounding an accident,” she explained. “It’s best to let Rhys weed through the murky stuff on his own at first, so it’s not quite as jarring.” She glanced waveringly at him. “Easy does it, is what we always say.”
He didn’t appreciate the tone she had taken, as if she was speaking to a roomful of kindergartners, but he couldn’t quite focus on that as a wave of fatigue hit him and he fell back to sleep.
The next time he became conscious, he was assaulted by vivid memories of his happy childhood on Birch Road, and the Rose family who lived across the street from him his entire life.
His best friend…Emerson…could help him make sense of things.
“Where’s Emerson? He’ll be upset if he thinks I’m hurt.” Though he didn’t know exactly how he knew that. Just that Emerson was a worrier and he’d be sad.
His mom and Carl gave each other that look again. Like he’d asked something that caught them off guard.
“Emerson has been here with you since the first night, but you’ve been unconscious for most of it, honey.” He tried to remember if he could feel his presence there and came up blank. “He had to work, but don’t worry, he’ll be back to visit soon. You still need your rest.”
A heavy, buzzing warmth filled his senses as he drifted back to a quiet slumber.
Rousing from a mishmash dream of childhood memories that always included the Rose family, he shifted on the bed, remembering he was in a hospital room, and according to his mom, that he’d sustained a head injury in a rock climbing accident.
So when he heard a familiar voice, he blinked open his eyes and spotted his boss standing at the foot of the bed beside a woman he didn’t recognize.
“You buzzed all your hair off,” Rhys slurred to Martin, his hand pulling on the IV line as he tried to motion to him.
Martin’s forehead creased with a mix of relief and concern as his fingers lifted to stroke his scalp.
“You didn’t think I’d notice?” he mumbled as Martin seemed to be trying to work something out in his head. He might not have seen Martin since he’d been in the hospital for…how many days?…but he’d definitely notice if he changed the way he wore his hair. And a buzz cut of all things, along with a clean-shaven jaw.