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I rode in the back seat of my parents’ car. Dad was driving and mom sat beside him, singing along with the radio. I would gradually look out the window and back at my phone. The rain was starting to pour harder and harder. Dad decided to be safe and drop from 70mph to 60mph on the highway. We were heading home from visiting Andrew’s grave. It was the 2nd anniversary of my brother’s death. After I looked down at my phone one last time, shoving it into my bag, both mom and dad screamed for me to get down. Bright headlights are the last thing I remember. The EMT’s pronounced my parents dead at the crash site, and I was the only survivor. When I was rushed to the hospital, one of the paramedics said that I had gotten a concussion, and I had cuts and bruises. Of course, I never knew until I woke up the next day in the hospital bed.
My parents saved me that night, and that would be the last time I would ever see them. At the hospital, I stayed in bed for about three days and among those long three days I was visited by everyone. I was greeted by friends, the insurance company, teachers, and eventually two strangers that I had never met. The two strangers were my parent’s co-workers, and they didn’t stay long. The days in bed felt long, but passed faster than I could process. When I was finally ready to be released, the doctor stopped to talk to me.
“I noticed that none of your family members came to visit you?” asked Doctor Elliott Kalt.
I had known Elliott for years since we grew up together. He and Andrew always ran around during high school, even though he was three years older than us. Andrew and I were 15 and Elliott was 18. Only seven years have passed.
“I’ve got no one left in my family. My parents were only-children and my grandparents passed away before I was born.”
Elliott sighed “What about any other family members? I’m sure they would help you if you contacted them.”
I shook my head. Both his eyes and mine met.
“Since I’m the youngest, all my family moved away or we lost contact with them.” I explained. “I was never close with my family anyway.”
Elliott looked over his shoulder at the ER desk. There were people sitting back behind the desk typing away. He walked over, grabbing his pen, and scribbled something down on a piece of paper. He walked back over to me, and handed me the paper.
“Here. Contact me any time you need to talk. If something happens Alex, please don’t hesitate to contact me. I’ll do my best to help.”
I nodded, taking the piece of paper, and headed for the doors of the ER. I had received news about my parents being cremated just like they asked in their will. I was told that the two jars of my parents would arrive in two days. I was still in some pain from the accident, and I wasn’t ready to get back into a car. The fear of the car accident still riddled through my mind. It was going to be there for a while racing through my thoughts.
I ended up walking home, but the walk home wasn’t too bad. It took me at least two hours. I couldn’t remember the last time I walked home without being in a rush. Through the two hours of walking, I finally reached the door and pulled out my house keys. Surprisingly my bag that I had in my parents car had survived. My wallet, keys, phone, school work and my favorite picture of Andrew had survived. The picture was of us when were ten years old. My twin was gone from my life now. I wanted to break down so bad right here at the door, but I held the wall of tears back. As I looked up I saw my neighbor quickly get off her porch and walk up to me in a panic.
“Alex! For heaven’s sake, where have you been?” said Mrs. Hope.
Mrs. Hope was Elliotts mom and they didn’t look alike. I looked at her, my wall of tears broke. Nothing could hold them back now. She didn’t know about my family, or had she forgotten?
“Hello Mrs. Hope.”
“I tried to get in contact with you and your family, but no one answered.” She said.
“Mrs. Hope, my parents and I were involved in a car crash about three days ago and I was the only one that survived.” I choked on my words as tears flowed down my cheeks.
She instantly through her hands over her mouth and began to cry. Her tears overpowered her voice to the point she could barely talk.
“I’m so, so sorry Alex. I didn’t know. Please come over and talk with me.”
I hesitated, but gave her an honest reply through my crying.
“I want to be alone for a while. I need to get some stuff done around the house. Thank you. I’ll come over when I can.”
She nodded and told me to come over anytime. As I said my good-bye and walked into the house, I felt a pain in my chest; the pain of living alone and I was truly alone. I winced a little and shrugged it off. My house felt strange. Around this time of the day both mom and dad would be home cooking, or asking about my day. I looked out the window and saw Mrs. Hope walking out to her car. She had been our neighbor for as long as I could remember. Elliott was her only son and she also had a daughter, but I knew Elliott better than her daughter. I tuned out the ticking of the clock and looked around the house.
I grabbed the picture from my pocket of my brother, placing it above the one of my parents and sighed. I felt safe knowing that none of them suffered when they died, but I felt guilty, like it was my fault. If I hadn’t begged mom and dad to go visit Andrews’s grave, they would still be alive. I also asked Andrew to pick me up from school where as I could take the bus, then maybe he’d still be here with me as well. I shook my head. I had to get the crashes off my mind. That night I went to bed after finishing my homework.
I stayed in the house for about two more days. No in or out of the house; I didn’t even get the mail. I felt drained and didn’t have an appetite for food, not even my favorite jar of pickles. My parents’ remains did show up like I was told. I placed the two jars in the cabinet in the dinning room. Knowing how caring Mrs. Hope was, I knew she was bound to call her son Elliott. Not seeing me for two days was a big warning sign, for her at least. She did like to gossip and I knew if she called Elliott, she would say ‘I haven’t seen him for four days’. She did have a key in case of emergencies, but she rarely needed to use it.
I leaned back in my desk chair and looked around my room. Movie posters hanging all over the walls, my closet doors wide open, the whole room was painted a solid dark blue, the curtains were also black with a little white at the top, and I rarely opened them. I’ve always had my room this way as long as I could remember and I loved a dark room. I felt more at peace when I was in a dark surrounding, while Andrew was the complete opposite. He had bright colors in his room, small amounts of posters on the wall, the floor was cleaned and he always had his curtain opened no matter what. We were like yin and yang, but we always worked together no matter what.
I swiveled around and around in my chair until I decided to go downstairs. It felt like a Sunday but it was a Tuesday morning. I needed to eat something, so I exited my room and started to head towards the stairs. The last time I ate was in the hospital which had decent food, and that was Saturday. As I started to take a step one after another, I got towards the middle of the stairs; I suddenly remembered that my laptop was still on. That’s when I missed a step, and fell down the stairs. I laid there processing what happened, but that’s when excruciating pain overwhelmed me. My chest felt as if a 200 pound person sat on me. My shoulder felt on fire and my lower back ached. I had no idea what to do. All I knew was that I couldn’t move, and every time I tried, I would collapse.
Fifteen minutes passed and I thought no one would find me, which scared me to death, but then I heard the door-bell ring, there was hope yet.
“Alex! Hey are you home?” said a familiar voice. “Alex?”
I heard the door handle click and soon the person entered the house slowly.
“Hey Alex. You there?”
I finally recognized the voice and it was Elliott. With every bit of my consciousness I decided that I would risk being in pain to get his attention.
“E….Elliott over here!” I said out of breath.
That’s when I heard Elliott walk quickly over to where he heard me call out to him. I could feel the pressure building up inside me and my vision began to get blurry.
“Oh God!” yelled Elliott. “How long have you been laying here?”
“About 15 minutes.” I replied. “I fell down the stairs,”
Elliott’s medical instincts kicked in, he immediately grabbed his cell out of his pocket and began to dial ‘911’. Elliott did his best trying to keep me awake just in case of a concussion, but I was in so much pain that I could not go to sleep even if I wanted to. Elliott kept checking my pulse every five minutes, and he was trying his best without medical equipment. Elliott felt around on my chest checking for broken bones and luckily none were found.
“Okay, you don’t have any broken ribs. It might be a dislocation,” explained Elliott.
There was a knock at the door and he ran to get it. When he opened the door he pointed to my direction. Through the front door came two EMT’s rushing to my side.
“Please be careful, he might have a dislocation.” said Elliott to the EMT’s.
“Thanks! Do you know him?” asked one of the medics.
“Yeah. But we need to get him to the hospital as soon as we can,” he said in a hurry.
The two medics and Elliott helped each other to get me easily into the ambulance. Elliott told the two medics that he would stay in the back to monitor me as they drove through the rough morning traffic. Nine am traffic was the worst in the city. I was rushed right back to the hospital, where nurses and doctors did tests on me. Checking, poking, pricking, and giving medication for the pain. Not once did Elliott leave my side, except when I had to get a MRI and CAT scan. I felt like I could trust someone but I was still cautious. While waiting for the tests to come back Elliott sat in the room with me reading a book.
“Doctor Kalt! Can I talk to you for a minute?” said Doctor Max.
“Yeah. Hey Alex, I’ll be right back,” said Elliott
I nodded and watch him leave with the other doctor. I could hear them loud and clear but I acted like I didn’t.
“Elliott, he has a dislocated shoulder, he’s fine on every other test except one.”
Elliott looked confused
“What test came back as a problem?”
“He’s malnourished. It looks like he hasn’t eaten for at least three days.” explained
Doctor Max. “You might want to take time off so you can help him. He won’t be able to lift anything heavy and he needs to be looked over so this won’t happen again.”
“Let me go ask for the time off” Elliott sighed heavily,
“I already put that in for you, knowing you would. Take a couple of weeks off and enjoy the time. Don’t worry, you’re a salary man.” replied Doctor Max.
“Thanks”
As I watched Elliott sigh in relief, I felt like I was always the problem. Elliott walked into my room and was going to tell me all what I already heard.
“So you’re going to be staying with me for a while?” I said looking at him as he stood at the end of the bed.
“You heard that huh,” Elliott laughed and rubbed his hands together nervously. “Well I was given the okay to take you home so I’m going to sign you out. I’ll be back soon.”
As he left the room, I decided to get up and change into my clothes. My pants were the easiest to put on; however, my shirt was a bit of a problem. Slowly I had to slip my dislocated arm into the sleeve and then moved my other arm into the other. The pain in my shoulder was the worst, but I sucked it up. I got dressed without any help. Elliott brought me some clothes from home; he also brought my wallet, keys and my phone. I took a sip of water, it was really refreshing. I felt like a burden. I didn’t want to upset anyone, but I snuck out of the hospital anyway. I knew this would set them off, whatever. I headed for the ER door to the outside garden. Going outside had to be the most relaxing for me. Whenever I had gotten into a fight with my parents or Andrew, I would always go outside to calm down. I knew I would never hear the end of it for leaving the hospital bed, but I could not just sit there and listen to the annoying beep of the monitor. As soon as I took a step outside, I scanned the garden for a nice tree with shade and a little of sun. I looked around for about five minutes until I found the perfect spot. The spot I had found was a nice old maple tree, and its leaves were a beautiful green. The grass underneath was dark evergreen but it was also very soft. It had to be the best spot I have ever found in a long time. There I felt like I was at peace and no one could interrupt me from my dreaming.
*******
Elliott walked back into the room where I had been, but he noticed that I was missing.
“SHIT!” said Elliott running to the ER desk informing the nurses and doctors. “Max!
Alex isn’t in the room! He’s gone!”
Doctor Max didn’t hesitate; he took action and sent many nurses around the hospital looking for me. Many came back saying that they didn’t find me.
“Max, I’m going to look outside for a little bit. I don’t think he left the grounds yet.” said Elliott in a panic.
Doctor Max nodded and told the nurses to keep an eye out for me, and Elliott headed outside. As soon as he walked outside, he walked around the small gardens until he spotted me relaxing underneath an old maple tree. He shot a text over to Max saying he found me. From there Elliott proceeded to walk over to me, and stood hovering over me until I opened my eyes to a very anxious Elliott.
*******
Now I was in trouble. Elliott sat down next to me and sighed.
“You know, one of these days you’re going to get in big trouble if you walk out of the hospital without letting anyone know.”
I sat up right next to him and smiled the biggest grin I could make. I dropped my hands to my sides and that’s when Elliot placed his hand gently upon mine. When I looked at him, I could feel my face go completely red. Elliott’s hands were really warm. All my life I had always had a secret crush on him. I forced it out of my mine a long time ago till now.
“What’s wrong?” asked Elliott
I shook my head and looked in the opposite direction, but my hand was still being held.
“Andrew told me three and a half years ago that you had a crush on me. I promised him I wouldn’t tell you I knew but…”
I turned my head slowly to look at Elliott, and that’s when his free hand cupped my chin. I closed my eyes and my crush became by boyfriend.