Stones in the Road by Nick Wilgus

Author:Nick Wilgus
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

34) A facial fracture

I WOKE in a hospital bed.

I looked around, frowned.

“Oh, thank God!” Mama exclaimed. Her face suddenly appeared not inches from mine. “Oh, my baby! Wiley, honey? Can you hear me?”

“Mama?” I muttered.

“Wiley, honey, I’m here,” she said, grasping my hand.

“What happened?” I asked. I couldn’t get enough breath, so my question was a whisper.

“Oh, Wiley, honey!” she exclaimed unhappily.

Then she burst into tears.

“What, Mama?”

Lost in a crying jag, she couldn’t answer.

My right arm felt itchy and too heavy. I lifted it, surprised to see it was in a cast. My chest was also bandaged rather tightly, making it hard to breathe.

“Mama?”

She used a Kleenex to wipe her nose, tried to get hold of herself.

“Thank God you’re okay,” she said at last. “We’ve all been praying for you. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, thank you! I think I’ve said about a hundred rosaries just sitting here.”

“Why are you crying, Mama?”

“I was just scared. But thank God you’re all right.”

It hurt too much to talk, so I was still.

Jackson Ledbetter, dressed in scrubs, walked suddenly into the room. He came to the side of my bed, looked down and smiled.

“Hey,” I said feebly.

“Hey,” he replied.

“Where’s Noah?”

“He’s with Bill and Shelly.”

“What happened?”

Jackson didn’t answer. He moved closer, put a hand gently to the side of my face, looking at me with a strange sort of compassion.

“How do you feel?”

“I’m fine,” I muttered. “Why won’t anyone tell me what happened?”

“There was a tornado,” he said frankly.

“And?”

“You remember the tornado?”

“Well, duh!”

“Just checking. You fractured your left cheekbone, broke your right arm and three ribs. Got a nice cut on your forehead—you lost a lot of blood. We’re worried about possible brain injuries. How is your vision?”

“Things are a little blurry,” I admitted.

“Maybe it will pass.”

“And if it doesn’t?”

“Then you could be in trouble. You got banged up pretty badly. Rattled your brains. Might be good for you, though, now that I think about it.” There was a trace of a smile on his lips.

“But I’m not going to die?”

“Not anytime soon.”

“How is Noah?”

“He’s fine.”

“He wasn’t hurt?”

“He was in the shelter with the rest of us. Where you should have been.”

“But he’s not hurt?”

“He’s fine, Wiley.”

The thought that something might have happened to him—that he might have been killed—gripped me in a strange, painful way.

“Are you sure he’s all right?”

“Don’t worry. He was a little scared, but we all were.”

“I want to see him.”

“That might not be—”

Jackson was interrupted as Shelly and the kids came into the room.

“Uncle Wiley, you look like shit!” Mary exclaimed straight off, standing at the foot of my bed.

“Mary, I swear to God!” Shelly snapped.

“What?” she asked innocently.

“One more time and I’m going to wash your mouth out with soap!”

“Well, he does! Look at him!”

“What?” I asked.

“I’ve seen the future, and it ain’t pretty,” Mary said. “Uncle Wiley, you done broke your face.”

“It’s cool,” Eli agreed. “Two black eyes at once!”

“Is he going to be all right?” Josh asked, his small face full of worry and a bit of fear.

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