Page 60 of Hello Forever
Ow.My head was killing me. And I couldn’t seem to open my eyes. There was somethingcoveringthem.
Weird.
I was in bed. But it wasn’t my bed. There were low voices nearby. I knew one of the voices, but I usually heard it at work. “Boz?” I tried to say my coworker’s name, but my throat was so dry that it came out as ascrape.
The talking ceased. “Axel? Did you saysomething?”
“Where am I? What’s this?” I tried to raise a hand to touch the thing on my eyes. But only one of my hands moved, and it was as heavy as ananvil.
“Oh,” another male voice said. “Careful.”
“Um, Josh?” I was pretty sure I heard my landlord now. This was one hell of a weird dream I washaving.
My hand was clasped between two big, warm hands. I knew it was Josh from the sound of the sniffle he emitted. “It’s good to hear your voice,”hesaid.
That confusedme. “Why?”
He cleared his throat. “You’ve been out for more than twelve hours. We were starting topanic.”
I tried to understand why that might be. But I couldn’t quitegraspit.
So Islept.
* * *
The next timeI woke up I heard my mother’s voice. Nowthatwasweird. “Mom?”
There was a sharp intake of breath. “Axy? Oh, sweetie. Pleasewakeup.”
“Why?”
Her laughter sounded a little manic. “Because I’m worried sick about you. Keeptalking.”
“Thirsty.”
She made a little throaty gasp, which I recognized as her fighting off tears. “Let me call thenurse.”
They brought me a drink of water, which I sipped through a straw. “My jaw is killing me,” Icomplained.
“You took several kicks to the head,” my mother said, her voice grave. “You don’t know how happy I am to hear you speaking to merightnow.”
“Why can’t I openmyeyes?”
She sniffled again. “You had eye surgery for a detachedretina.”
“Gross.”
There was a muffled sob. “It could have been so much worse,” she said, her voicebreaking.
The longer this conversation went on, the more aware I became of my injuries. “He got my ribs,”Isaid.
“I’msorry,baby.”
One of my arms was pinned to my body, too. “What else?” I asked. “Tell me theworst.”
“Your arm is broken. But it’s not too bad. And they’re watching some internal bleeding. To make sure you don’t need another surgery. So far,sogood.”
“What aboutmyface?”
