Gods and Men, Ch. 3
March 31, 2008
By J.D. Cook
3. Recovery
Jeremiah awoke to the rhythmic beat of a heart monitor. His eyes popped open and he looked around. It was utterly dark except for the monitor giving off a few small red lights and a blue glowing heart screen. For a moment he was confused before realizing he was in a hospital. What happened came flooding back to him in a flash. He stood up and felt a rush of dizziness as well as tingling in his legs. It took a moment before they became fully mobile again. He attempted to walk and almost fell over, luckily catching himself before he hit the ground. After what seemed like an eternity, Jeremiah began to walk again. He had never been in a hospital as a patient before; he didn’t know what to do. He walked into the hallway and down to a nearby night nurse’s station.
The nurse looked up; “I’m sorry, Mr. Dylan. ICU patients are not supposed to leave their room.”
“I just woke up and was wondering what happened to me?”
“Well, looks like you had a close call with a meteor and are currently supposed to be in a coma.” She smiled after saying he was supposed to be in a coma.
“Oh, how long was I out?”
The nurse looked at her computer, pulling up his record. “Three days.”
“Wow! That’s just my luck! I go into a coma and only miss a few days of school.”
“I’ll phone your parents and tell them that you woke up. They’ve been very worried about you. But please return to your room until they get here.”
Jeremiah walked back to his room entering more than one wrong room in the process. Once in bed he scanned through the television channels, but they where all a bit fuzzy.
After spending the next day in the hospital being visited by every relative he ever remembered, Jeremiah returned home. He immediately went on the computer and checked his e-mail and mySpace page. When he looked at his friends list on mySpace, he suddenly was hit with a horrible guilt. In his day of talking to relatives he had forgotten to ask what happened to Don. At this moment his mother was walking past his door.
“Mom, what happened to Don?” Jeremiah called to her.
Her face immediately changed into a look of sadness. “Well honey, they didn’t find him yet.” She began to tear up and Jeremiah was shocked letting his face sink into his hands.
Three weeks later life began to return to its monotonous speed. It was hard to move past Don, but his family had a funeral for him after the people who were searching for his body found a small amount of his DNA. They said that was likely to be all they would find because of how fast and strong the meteor would have hit. Jeremiah spent his time back at school catching up on the work he missed. Worst was trying to understand what they were doing in geometry. His friends helped him catch up and were there when he needed to talk. After having his life thrown off balance for so long, he began to appreciate the prospect of having a normal life again. But he would soon find out that nothing would ever be normal again.
