Act 2
Chapter 1
The word love
Love so true and pure
Overwhelming in its beauty
Virtuous, strong and, unbreakable
Everlasting through the ages.
I woke up in a hospital room hooked up to all kinds of machines. My vision was blurred, and my eyes burned as I looked around. My eyes slowly adjusted to the light in the room and the burning sensation in my eyes was replaced by a throbbing, stabbing pain behind my left eye. I tried to sit up, but the pain shot through my whole body in an instant and froze my body. “Don’t move Will, the doctors said when you wake up it will take some time before you are strong enough to do anything. Just relax and try to rest.” Said a woman’s voice I didn’t recognize, then before my eyes fully cleared up I heard another voice. “He shouldn’t be awake just yet, I’ll give him something for the pain, and to make him go back to sleep, call me the next time he is awake.” It must be the nurse I thought, but whatever she gave me kicked in and I was out before I could even finish my thought.
“Hey Will come on, wake up now.” I heard the voice again, I still didn’t know who it was but why did it sound like they knew me. I opened my eyes the pain was less than before but it wasn’t gone, my eyes quickly cleared up, and I could see clearly again. Everything was very bright, then I unknowingly turned my head towards the window. The bright light from outside made me closes my eyes quickly before I could see who was in the room with me. “Relax Will I’ll close the blinds, I still don’t get how you can dislike sunlight so much when it makes everything better.” The person said as I heard them close the blinds, what they said only proved to me that they knew me personally but who was it. I opened back my eyes, as it cleared up, I saw her sitting there. “Kellie is that you?” I said slowly struggling to get the words out. “Yes, Will it’s me, who else would it be…” Her face suddenly changed to one of fear. “Don’t tell me you can’t see me, they said this might happen, but the doctors said it would most likely be temporary.” She said trying her best to hide the panic in her voice.
“Relax I can see you just fine but you sound so different how long have I been in here, it couldn’t be that long right?” She looked at me still with a panicked face then looked down. “Actually it has been a long time.” She said as she put her face down into her hands then all she said was. “Ten” My eyes dropped, I was shocked I had been here for ten years. “Ten, ten years what happened to me why I was here that long. And what happened to our business and Crystal.” I was panicking on the brink of tears, she jumped up from the chair. “Relax Will it’s only been ten days not years everything is still ok. You had a stroke. They said that it was on the nerves that affect your vision. Try and relax the doctor said you’re going to be ok they ran a lot of tests to see if they can find out what was the cause.” She said with a hint of sadness.
I looked at her with some relief, then around the room. “Kellie where’s Crystal?” I asked her as I looked around the room. “She’s at home, she doesn’t really know how to handle being in hospitals. I’ve been here trying to run things from your computer while I waited for you to wake up.” She said as I couldseethe disappointment on my face, as the thoughts flowed through my mind. Why wasn’t she here for me, was it because of the fight, or was it something else. “Stop thinking already your brain is still recovering from a stroke you know. She said she doesn’t do well in hospitals, so just leave it at that. Be happy I was here with you the whole time, you know I actually overheard one of the nurses say that I was your mistress, can you believe that…” Her voice faded out as I lost consciousness.
“Wake up Will, come on I don’t like being here watching you sleep like this.” I opened my eyes, and she was right there over me. “Well do you recognize my voice this time, now that you’re off of all the painkillers?” Said Kellie, I looked up at her then sat up as she sat in the chair next to the bed. “Well yes and no, I recognize it, but for some reason it sounds different, well for that matter everything kind of sounds a bit off.” I replied to her. “Well, it must be because you were asleep for so long. Don’t worry about it now anyway.” She said back to me with a smile.
“The doctors gave me the ok for you to go home and back to work, as long as you took things easy from now on and didn’t stress things as much as you did before.” But that wasn’t all Kellie told me. “Well I wanted to tell you this myself before any of the nurses had a chance to, so I stayed with you until you woke up. The doctors said that your stroke was caused by something you already had.” She paused and got up and closed the door, then walking back she sat on the side of my bed. “Will you have MS, They said that you’re going to have to go through treatment for a few weeks to get it under control before you will be able to walk again.” My eyes were wide when I heard the last words. “What do you mean walk again?” I said as I looked down to my feet. “They said that after the stroke you had what’s called a flare-up, it’s where the nerves in your brain get damaged by your immune system. This time it was the nerves that control the lower half of your body that were affecting.” She said calmly and slowly.
She must be kidding I thought, I could feel my feet just fine, I could even feel her leaning on them gently. Then I tried to move them but nothing, she looked at me and nodded she could tell that I was figuring it out, but the look on her face said this wasn’t the first tie she saw me do this. “The first time you woke up you tried to get out of bed and started screaming your legs are missing. They had to put you back to sleep.” She said to me as she leaned back in her chair.
“So how I am going to go home if I can’t walk, this doesn’t make sense.” I said panicking. She looked at me and spoke as there was a knock on the door. “Well you’re going to be in a wheelchair for a while, that must be the nurse now to get you ready to leave.” She said heading towards the door to open it. “Hello my name is the Nafisa, I’m your nurse, and I’ll help you get ready to leave okay.” The nurse said as she wrote on my chart, and started to remove all the things connected to my body.
A few hours later and I was finally leaving the hospital, Kellie spent most of the time I was getting ready on the phone, so I’m guessing she called Crystal already. She handed me the phone and pushed the wheelchair out of the room. “I am so ready to get out of here, I’ve had enough of being in hospitals for a long time.” Kellie said as she walked down the halls to the exit. “What do you mean you have had enough, I am the one that was sick you know.” I said looking back at her pushing me. “Hey hey don’t you start with me, I’m the one that has been sitting in that room the whole time you were out cold.” She said to me sounding a little bit annoyed, I looked back at her again this time with a small smile. “Thank you for being there I’m sorry, so is Crystal coming to pick us up so you can go home.” I said waiting for a yes. I knew she would come to get me after all she had been home the whole time she won’t be too tired to get us.
“No she isn’t coming to get us, but its ok your brother should be outside, he took the day off from work to make sure you got home. I think his wife is coming too, but we will see soon.” It made me sad that she didn’t come after not staying with me in the hospital, but someone came. My brother and his wife had come to get me, Kellie helped me into the car then sat next to me. “Relax Will don’t worry about anything right now everything will be ok.” She said with a smile as the car drove off.
The drive from the hospital to my house was about half an hour, but it felt like hours as I sat and thought about what had just happened to me. I wondered what I would do next, I wondered if I would ever walk again, and I wondered if things between Crystal and me were going to be okay. I knew my life was going to be different from this point on, but I didn’t realize how different it was going to be.
Finally, the car pulled into my driveway I was home, all my thoughts faded away, there was only one thought left. I was scared of what was to come. That thought was if Crystal would be there when I opened the door.
To be continued in Act 2: Chapter 2 or go to the previous Act 1: Chapter 7
Share to help us keep growing and keep the stories coming.