Page 140 of Crystal Iris
The doctor explains that her right ear was injured.
“The bullet must have passed very close,” he tells us. “We haven’t found any other wounds.”
“Will she be okay?” Hoyt asks.
“We did everything we could. Unfortunately, her right ear is permanently damaged. I’m really sorry. We’ll know more when she wakes up.”
I take a seat across from Hoyt, each of us holding one of Johanna’s hands.
“She’s alive,” Hoyt says, looking at me, tears falling down his face.
“You both are,” I reply, my own tears starting to fall.
He nods. We take turns holding her hand.
She wakes up a few hours later, but only for a moment before falling back into a deeper sleep. She seems to be in too much pain.
“Hey there,” Hoyt says softly when she opens her eyes that evening.
Her hand goes straight to her head.
“Easy,” says a nurse, stepping in.
I walk out of the room to give them space.
I’m looking for coffee when I find myself wandering down a different hallway.
I find Awena in a hospital bed. Though she seems almost frozen, unable to move, I know she isn’t sleeping—her eyes are open.
I’m about to call for a nurse when she looks at me.At my neck.
She opens her mouth and speaks in her raspy, weak voice.
“You spilled blood.”
I barely have time to process her words when she starts to move.
“You spilled blood,” she repeats. And again. And again. Her eyes never leave my prism. She’s almost out of the bed when a nurse enters.
“What’s wrong with her?” I ask, startled.
“Nothing,” the nurse replies.
“Nothing?” I ask, shocked.
“She’s healthy… besides… her mind,” the nurse explains.
Awena is getting more and more agitated. The nurse administers something to her IV. She finally stops repeating the words.
“Are you family?” the nurse asks.
“She… was gone for a long time,” I reply.
“We need to move her, we need signatures,” the nurse says.
I nod. “I’ll get her son,” I tell her, leaving the room.
I find Hoyt talking to a doctor; Johanna is resting again. I tell him about Awena, but I don’t mention the words she repeated.
