unfinished story written in 2014, revised in 2023
Knock, knock.
A short, petite girl stands patiently in front of a door she more than well knows. It felt like only yesterday that she was nine, waiting in the exact spot for someone to open. But not just someone – her best friend. At the same time every day, she’d knock on the door for him to come out and play with her. They’d go to the park or play basketball in his driveway. They even had one little spot in the woods that only they knew about, and every time she would cry, he’d take her there to cheer her up. Those were good times. However, they haven’t gone there in years. You could even say the place was forgotten.
The girl’s attention shot at the door as it opened. A tall, dark-skinned fellow poked his head out, looking down at the energized, red-headed girl. He smiled at her, showing he knew who it was, when he heard the knock, “Hey, Elia!” He greeted, stepping out from the doorway and keeping the door open behind him. He was quite tall for his age and pretty skinny as well. One look and you’d think he’s a skater, having long, deep brown hair.
“Wanna walk to school together, Kai? I brought some chocolate chip cookies from my mom’s stash.” She tried bribing him, waving the bag in front of her. Elia was his nickname for her, her real name being Eliana, but she hated being called that.
“Are they macadamia?” He squinted, not wanting any other answer. Elia examined the see-through Ziplock bag, raising an eyebrow as she glared at him. His question looked a bit serious, but he’s never really serious. She gave him a ‘what do you think’ look.
“Does it look like they’re macadamia?” She couldn’t even say more. She was a little furious at what he’d just asked. I just said they were chocolate chip!” Knowing how short her fuse was, he realized he had gone too far. Stepping back, he edged his way inside.
“Hey! Calm down! I was acting like you!” The brunette confessed, no longer thinking his joke was hilarious. “You do that to me all the time.” This just made her even angrier. She could feel her head knotting and her face heating up from the embarrassment.
“You can’t do that!” Tightly shutting her eyes, she tried not to cry, knowing she had already messed up the morning for both of them. “I’m sorry I keep fighting with you like this. I’ll stop for your sake.” As she slowly raised her eyelids, she noticed he had returned inside, wondering if he had even heard her apology. Elia’s eyes started blurring with tears, but never once did any roll down her face.
Minutes later, Kai exited the house, joined in hand by Elia’s arch nemesis: his girlfriend. That makes a lot of sense, she thought. His girlfriend was one of those perfect types with fantastic curves, sexy clothes, and an excellent, almost unreal, personality. “Good morning, Elia!” The girl cheerfully greeted her.
“Morning, Miya.” Elia groaned back, not wanting to make eye contact. There was an awkward silence for a few minutes before Kai broke it off with a question about the cookies she had brought him. She reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out a Ziplock bag with heart doodles and Pokéballs, quickly pushing it back in its original place. Instead, she pulled out a regular Ziplock bag she had packed for herself and handed it to him. He instantly unzipped it, sticking his hand in the bag and gorging himself with cookies, leaving a few for later. He always loved Elia’s cookies, not knowing that she was the one who made them.
Elia stayed behind the couple the whole way to school. Sometimes, she’d try butting in to cast her input, but she was invisible to them. The only time Kai would notice her was if she was too far behind them, where he’d ask her to come closer. Nonetheless, he still only talked to Miya.
Elia and the couple went their separate ways as they appeared on campus. She knew the only chance to talk to him was in music class, so she wandered off to find her friends. A short, thin girl with multi-colored hair called Luna walked up to her. “You walked with them to school again?” she questioned, crossing her arms. Elia sighed, holding back the tears in her eyes. Luna wiped the ends of her eyes. “All it does is hurt you. Why do you keep trying to be friends with him, Elia?” She never answered.
Nothing was spoken for a minute until another friend hugged Elia from behind. “What’s cookin’, good lookin’?” Moka, another colorful-haired chick, cheerfully greeted her. Her hair was blue, the popular hair-dyed color of the school at the moment. She examined Elia’s face, pulling her face close to her own. “What did he do this time?” Luna scoffed.
“She’s just upset ’cause she walked with him and that girl to school again, Moka,” Luna answered. She started calling Miya “that girl” once the drama with Elia and her immersed.
Moka looked at Elia in disappointment. “You know you could always walk with me and Luna in the morning, right?”
Looking up from the ground, she looked at her two friends with melancholy eyes. “I just wanna try and be friends with him like old times, guys. Just because he likes that chick now doesn’t mean we shouldn’t talk like normal.” The two girls shook their heads.
“Whatever you say, girl,” Luna rolled her eyes.
“We’ll still beat his ass if you want us to, though,” Moka winked, taking Luna’s arm and dragging her away.
Moka’s comment created a little smirk on Elia’s face, but it didn’t stay there long. Not wanting to talk to anyone else, Elia started walking to her first period, being stopped by another friend.
“What’s up, Elia!” The guy greeted her with a too-excited tone.
“Hey, Donny,” She grunted, turning her head away.
“What are you doing moping around alone?”
“Well, there’s no sense moping with people,” This made him chuckle as he began talking about nonsense things. Looking for an excuse to leave, she found Kai and Miya in the distance. Wide-eyed, she tried figuring out what they were saying as Donny continued his pointless rant. She watched them as they laughed and touched each other. She thought they were probably saying how much they loved each other, frowning vigorously. She was so angry at Kai that she never noticed Donny stop talking.
“Uh, Elia?” As she watched the two make googly eyes at each other, she heard enough for Donny to snap her out of her trance. She shot her head in his direction.
“S-Sorry, Donny,” Her head sunk between her shoulders.
“I’ll talk to you in class, Elia,” As she watched him walk away, she continued to make it to 1st-period music.
She could easily see Kai and Miya with broad smiles as she approached the double doors. She touched the door handle and hesitated to enter the room. But where else was she to go? When she entered the room, only a few heads turned, none being Kai or Miya’s. Elia ended up sitting by the piano and playing a few tunes.
After the bell rang and Miya said her goodbyes, Kai came to stand by Elia. “Why didn’t you talk with us?” he asked curiously. Not knowing what to say, she continued playing a song she knew he would know. Instead, she changed the question.
“Wanna learn this song?” Elia looked back and smiled at him. She could tell by the delighted expression on his face that the answer was yes. She got up from the chair to let him sit down and started to play the first few chords. The whole class period consisted of passing chords from one to another. He didn’t have the song ideally, but he was almost there. It made Elia happy to talk and play around with Kai like they used to. They acted like they had never broken up, like they were still a couple – until class ended, and Miya ran in and kissed him. And the ignoring continues, Elia’s gloomy thought.
The following few periods weren’t much. Elia would meet with Kai between classes before Miya showed up and ruined their conversation. She had Miya in one of her classes, so she slept the whole time to avoid hearing her voice. At least before lunch, Elia had Moka and Luna to keep her mind occupied.
“You think narwhales are real?” Luna kept from laughing, covering her mouth with her fingertips.
“They are, Luna!” Moka defended, her face turning red with annoyance and uncertainty. She went on and on about how she had proof as Luna leaned close to Elia.
“I love messing with her,” she whispered, talking with the ends of her mouth. Elia was too busy with her doom ‘n gloom to listen till she realized what her friend had said.
Elia looked at Luna with naive eyes, and Moka remained silent momentarily. “They’re real?” Luna raised her eyebrow. Moka was about ready to burst with facts.
“You thought they weren’t real?” Luna questioned, leaning in a bit more.
“You were calling her an idiot for thinking they were real!” Elia explained, defending her comment while her eyes and hands told the story. The conversation got heated quickly.
“I was messing with her! It’s funny ’cause she thinks I’m serious.”
“Hey!” Moka butted in, feeling insulted.
“I thought they were a myth,” Elia admitted, thinking the ink spot on her desk was the most exciting thing in the world. Moka giggled as Luna just stared at her. “Y’know, like unicorns,” The two laughed so hard that the teacher came over to their desks to tell them to quiet down. After they whispered their apologies, Elia returned to her depression and thoughts. Luna knew what she was thinking about by the look on her face.
“You can’t keep thinking about him when you know it makes you depressed,” Luna stated, turning around fully in her seat. Moka smiled.
“You want me to sing to you, don’t you?” Moka suggested, raising Luna’s eyebrow and making Elia look at her funny.
“Who would want that?” Luna questioned, knowing how bad of a singer she was. She sang anyway: Don’t Worry, Be Happy. The pitches were all wrong. It’s like a whale gave birth to a roaring t-rex. It may have been just a whisper, but it made the students in range wonder what was dying. Elia looked around at the expressions of her classmates and burst into laughter. Moka stopped singing and looked at Luna, pretty satisfied.
“Told you she needed it,” Moka folded her arms and pleasedly smiled. The teacher stood up again to tell them to shut it when the bell rang for lunch.
Lunch was how it always was. Elia never ate, having no money, so Luna went ahead and at least bought her a cookie. Donny sat with them and tried to get into the conversation till a couple at the same table began to argue again. Elia, Luna, and Moka never really chatted when they fought for fear that the two would bite their heads off. Donny would try to solve the couple’s problem, but he always seemed to worsen it. This attempt made the girls laugh every time because he’d be the one the couple yelled at.
With a few minutes left of lunch, Elia noticed a familiar face at a table before them. “Hey, that girl looks like Kai,” She stated, pointing at a different table. None of her friends ever looked up, thinking Elia would think anyone looked like Kai. She waited a few seconds before her eyes focused in more and realized- “It is Kai!” The only thought racing her was that Kai knew this was her lunch period, and he didn’t even sit with her. The bell soon rang, and before Moka or Luna could stop her, she stood up and headed towards his table, everyone rushing by, going in the opposite direction. Elia continued to push through people to get to Kai before she lost him. She ended up bumping into him herself. “Kai!”
“Elia-” Kai jumped. “You have this lunch period?”
“Yeah, I do.” A little bit of agitation followed her response. They walked with the crowd outside, and it wasn’t long before they got stuck waiting to go through the doorway.
“I need to tell you something, Elia,” She knew what that meant. Seeing that they were already broken up, the conversation had come up time and time before, so she knew all that would be said. He waited till they were safely outside and away from people to finish his thought, “I don’t think we should be friends anymore.” She never looked at him once. She kept her eyes on a gum wad on the ground and held her left arm for comfort.
“It’s because of her, isn’t it?” Elia asked, looking up to meet his gaze. He nodded. She knew why. A time before, Elia gave Kai a note that Miya called a ‘love note.’ They would always stop being friends for almost a week, and then he would talk to her again, repeating the cycle weeks later. Elia had a ton of confrontations with Miya, too. She apologized every time, but it didn’t mean much since it happened a day or two later anyway. She looked down once more. “You’re not even with her,” she muttered, knowing she had said something wrong.
“I don’t want to lose her again, Elia,” Elia was silent, with Kai continuing his declaration, “I care for her too much.” No one said anything for a while till they realized the bell was about to ring.
“But we’re going to talk again. It always happens.”
“I just don’t think we should talk anymore. I’m sorry,” With nothing more to say, he walked past her and headed to class, leaving her standing there as she felt tears form in the inner corners of her eyes.
“Me too,” she turned around and followed Kai to class, Donny, the problem-solver, getting in her way. “Hey, Donny.” Concerned, he stood before her, hoping to catch her before she cried.
“You okay? I saw what happened,” Elia walked around him, Donny following right behind like a wounded puppy.
“I’m fine,” she stated, not wanting to explain further. They continued to say nothing the whole walk to class. Donny didn’t want to say anything to strike her short fuse, and Elia knew that if she said anything, she wouldn’t be able to stop herself from crying. As they approached the fork in their path, the two went their separate ways, Elia not even acknowledging that Donny stayed by her side the whole time.
The sixth period was a depressing hour. Elia sat against the wall, holding her legs close, watching Kai smile and laugh like nothing had happened between them. However, why should he act any differently? He’s always the happy one in the situation. Everyone had known everything that happened with Kai and Elia ever since they joined music class. It was nothing new. They would get in a fight – they wouldn’t talk for a week – they’d start talking for a few days – they would get in a fight- It’s the same vicious cycle. But this time, Kai had decided to never speak to her again. Though, Elia knew that was a lie. They would always talk again, no matter what Kai said. “Right?” She wondered.
Elia continued to cry the whole period; no one was doing anything about this reoccurrence. A bit after class started, her friend came and sat beside her, letting Elia cry on her shoulder, not even saying a thing. This friend was always there for her. Even if she didn’t understand, she knew Kai meant a lot to her and continued to watch how hard she worked to keep Kai in her life.
Kai and Elia’s past has been a spiral of smiles to frowns – as is any relationship. There have been many things Elia has done that she wasn’t proud of- Things that would tear her friendship with Kai – things that would rip his relationship with Miya. But she never meant to do any of it. She never meant to hurt anyone. And as all these thoughts and worries circled in her brain, she tried hard to make the memories subside from her clutch. She knew all she could do was leave him alone. Leave him alone till he misses her again. Then she knew he’d run to her, and she would greet him with open arms.
As the day finished, so did Elia’s emotions. She was so drained; she got home and plopped on her bed as if she were cement, quickly drifting asleep to stop hearing any questions from her family. And when she awoke, everyone was gone, just as she wanted. She didn’t bother giving herself any time to get ready. Being the last day, she would even be at school till graduation. She gathered a quick pants-and-tee shirt combination and headed to her bus stop.
At school, Elia avoided Kai as much as possible. She knew he needed his space away from her meltdown-prone self, but she couldn’t help but want to be near him. Her schedule was the same as usual- skipping 4th period to cry, sleeping in 5th, crying during 6th, and crying till she was too worn out to fall asleep. But she had other plans that night. Her music teacher had asked people to volunteer to play at a Cancer Awareness walk a week before. Elia, of course, had been eager to join since it’d be her last night to play her instrument again. Kai had said he’d try to make it. Though, he seemed to have many plans that night.
Making it to the park, where the walk was held, Elia was full of joy yet sadness. She was trying to motivate herself to not think of Kai and enjoy the night. It worked for the most part. She threw her phone in the car, hesitating as the device hit the floorboard. Unable to wait for her father to exit the vehicle, she went ahead and made her way to their school’s music stand. The event was only in part of the park, on a hill. It was a track-like circle, with a stage in the middle and stands on the outside.
Thirty minutes passed, and the event finally started. The band warmed up, gathered in a line, and headed to what was the beginning of the track. With a flick of the drum major’s hand, the band started to march around the stage, with The Star Spangled Banner resounding from their horns. After a lap, cancer patients, cancer survivors, and everyone else joined in the walk. It wasn’t till lap three that the band could stop. And that was it- Elia’s last time to play.
Some band members had left, and some stayed to join the festivities. Elia, though, stayed to hang out with her trumpet section. I guess Kai wasn’t going after all, she sighed. She watched as her friends chased ducks and caught turtles. She laughed and joined in their jokes; for once, she forgot about Kai’s smug face. For once, she was calm. She even scraped her knee and didn’t even get depressed.
“I’ll name him Fernando!” Elia declared, holding up the turtle as if it were a trophy.
“Fernando the Turtle?” The trumpet player chuckled.
“Yeah, why not?”
“El!” A familiar voice called to her. Turning her head, she saw it was Moka.
“What’re you-” And before Elia could respond, Moka’s sniffle caught her attention. Elia made her way up the hill to her distressed friend. “Moka, what’s wrong?” She shook her head, tears streaming from her eyes. “If it’s hurting you this much-”
“It’s… Kai,” This had brought tears to Elia’s eyes. What’s Kai…?
Next thing you know, Moka grabbed Elia’s hand and just started walking. All that was going through Elia’s mind the whole time was the possibility of Kai’s death. She couldn’t bear to lose him. She couldn’t even take the thought. She quickly snapped out of it and entered back into reality.
She stood in front of her music teacher and father, anxious and confused. “Do you have Kai’s mom’s number?” Her father came out.
“Wh-Why?” Elia responded, not wanting to face the reality of it all.
“Eliana, ” her music teacher,” Stern yet soft, explained, “Kai was involved in a serious car accident.”
Elia chuckled, “That’s crazy.” A frown slowly followed her statement. Her father handed her his phone, where she searched for Kai’s mom, sister, and stepdad’s numbers. But they remained out of her reach. The whole time she scrolled through his phone, her tears stayed locked in the very edge of her eyes. Even though she wanted to, she couldn’t break down there. Anywhere but there.
As she returned the device to her father, Elia slowly turned away, feeling tears escape her eyes. Moka ran behind her, followed by the band members left at the event. All she heard were apologies. All she felt was her own body shaking out of control. Her heart raced. Her breathing was inconsistent. She couldn’t stand anymore, landing on the ground as she cried. Everyone was concerned, but they didn’t know what to do to help. Amid her meltdown, she heard the band kids talking on the phone with another familiar voice. They were asking the girl questions I couldn’t bear to hear.
“Miya was driving,” Elia heard the voice say. As angry as she was, she ignored that statement, got up, and asked another relevant question, “He’s at Grady.”
“Where is that?” Elia’s brain was too tired to imagine what had happened.
“Atlanta. He was life-flighted there,” This made all the girls burst into tears.
After a while, it started to rain. Elia’s father had told her to sit under the tent and wait for her mother to take her to the hospital. She was crushed but happy that she could see the love of her life, even if it wasn’t at the best of moments.
How could this have happened? I just saw him yesterday. I didn’t talk to him today; these thoughts lingered like an endless loop. Her meltdown had gone on too long for her even to manage. Every second, she imagined how the crash happened. All she knew was that Miya was the one who was driving, and it must’ve been severe enough for him to be life-flighted to Atlanta. But that was enough to make a gory scenario in Elia’s mind. She flashed back to when they watched car crash commercials at school. It was junior year when Elia and Kai were still together. The commercials were supposed to help tell teenagers to wear seatbelts while driving. However, some got very unnecessarily gory. Elia would cry with every commercial, and as they left the auditorium, her panic and worry were kicked into overdrive. Elia had foreseen Kai’s future: “What if something like that happens to you?” she had asked.
“All that was staged; that will never happen,” he told her.
“You liar…” Elia grunted, tears pouring down, her whole face flushed and swollen.
After one antagonizing hour of never-ending agony, Elia’s mom finally arrived. As soon as she stood up, her tears had stopped. She made her way to her friends, thanking them and saying goodbyes. “Keep us posted on his condition,” And with a nod, she was on her way to Atlanta.
During the ride there, she looked straight at the road – like when she had a meltdown and wanted to forget who Kai was. All the beautiful lights, all the beautiful art, all the beautiful scenery – nothing would bring a smile to her worn-out face. She wasn’t even thinking of anything. Elia wanted to forget so much that her mind had created a black lens on her sight. She wasn’t stuck worrying; she wasn’t stuck crying. She didn’t even know if she wanted to go to the hospital anymore. Her nervousness had made it hard for her to feel anything properly.
They sat in the main waiting area for almost an hour. Elia’s music teacher and the color guard instructor, who wore a believable Einstein get-up, were there. She showed Elia pictures, but she could only give a half-smirk and say, “That’s funny.” It wasn’t until Kai’s sister Leora appeared from past double doors to show them where her family was waiting. She looked like she had been crying but remained very strong and smiley for them. Elia followed the gang blindly, taking in the hospital’s signs, colors, and feelings. The place had sucked all her emotion.
One more step and Elia would be in the room where she would face her worst nightmare – Kai’s mother, Iola. She was such a sweet lady, but seeing her in distress was not something she looked forward to. She was terrified because that would mean she would have to see Elia in pain, and she never wanted to show her weakness to the person she cared about dearly.
Her heart sank the moment she walked into the room. All she could see was Iola; Elia saw her saddened heart and swollen eyes. Iola stood up, and they just faced each other for a few seconds, not knowing how to react. Iola was happy to see her, holding Elia as her child. All they could do was cry, sniffling to hide their weaknesses. It had made Elia smile, finally seeing her after months of separation.
Sitting down was the easiest part of the whole operation. It was what came that scared Elia. There were groups of people in the room. Iola, Leora, Al – Kai’s stepdad; Elia’s sister Natalia and their mom; Ms. Toni and Ms. Cate – music teacher and color guard instructor; Elia’s friend Jade and her brother-in-law; and Kai’s friend Joey and his mom. Al was busy talking to Joey’s mom like nothing had happened, which made Elia furious. She was already angry with him for neglecting Kai’s feelings and treating him like trash. It’s not like the situation made it any better. But Elia knew better. She shouldn’t waste her emotional energy on this, so she sunk back in her gloom.
Hours would go by without hearing a single word from the doctors. Elia’s mom and Natalia would talk, and Al continued to talk to Joey’s mom, but other than that, no one said a word. All that could be heard was the sound of the TV hanging from the corner of the room. They were stuck wondering and imagining the worst while the doctors knew everything Elia’s group didn’t. Though they were stuck, it was either- be stuck or wait- or go home and not know till the next day. So Elia decided to stay. She needed to see him that night and wouldn’t rest until she did.
It was around 6:30 p.m. that Elia heard about the crash. After several hours of waiting, it was 11:10 p.m., and they heard talking outside the waiting room. Everyone shoots up to look at the door as it opens. Two men walk through with long, flowing lap coats. About time! Elia exhaled her former stress as she gained another gasp of fear.
“Kai’s in surgery now,” One doctor stated, questions following behind. “He has fluid surrounding his brain, so we will insert a shunt to drain it. We had to cut out part of his skull to prevent any inflicting damage to his brain. The bone can be kept in a freezer or the stomach, but since he has blood around his kidneys and a fractured pelvis, we decided against it.”
Elia seemed to ignore everything but his brain damage, “Will he be okay?” She knew it was the wrong time to say anything, especially since the mom should be asking the questions, but she couldn’t help.
“We won’t know until the end of the week,” the other doctor answered. Right now, he has a 50/50 chance of living.”
No… The doctors exited the room, not before hearing tears and moans from behind them. He only has… half to life? Elia could barely move. Without Jade there, she didn’t know what she’d do. She could fall over right there or cry and never be able to see again. Elia knew she had to stay strong, but not this time. There was no way to even smile in a situation like this.
But they all had found a way to smile. It wasn’t till an hour later that Ms. Toni and Ms. Cate decided to get some coffee at McDonald’s. A half an hour later, of boredom and dry tears, they finally returned.
Ms. Toni placed her coffee on the table and prepared to talk. “So, when we went to McDonald’s, we stood in line, right? We bought our coffee, and as we were about to leave, we saw this guy-”
“Homeless,” Ms. Cate added.
“Yeah, homeless guy – dancing to the music playing in McDonald’s. I thought he was awesome, so I danced with him.” She continued. “But when the song ended, he held out his hand-”
“She almost gave him money till I pulled her away.”
“He was cool!”
“He wanted your money!”
Elia couldn’t help but laugh. The whole thing was just so stupid that the room’s atmosphere had turned into a goofy story. Everyone around her even laughed, too. It lightened the lousy mood around them, even if it wasn’t that funny.
They moved to a different waiting room on another floor with more space. An hour later, they moved into another one. They were put in a tiny room without visible comfort. To get there, they passed by sleeping people on couches, probably waiting to see their loved ones. Jade and her company had left for the night, along with Leora, to get some food for her family. The whole room remained silent when a dark woman popped in and told them they would be able to see Kai in an hour, being 3 a.m. They were all anxious to see him. They were all tired, with no real ambition to do anything. Leora returned a little later with food in hand. She tried encouraging her mother to eat, but all she could do was stare blankly at the food provided to her. Elia felt so bad for her but knew there was nothing she could do to help ease her pain.
Time immersed, they were sent to another waiting area on the floor where Kai was held. They were told they could see him in groups of two, so Elia asked Leora if she could go with her since she was the only family member left besides his parents. The waiting room was like a typical waiting room. They had seats in a specific design, with a giant desk in the middle and the same thing on the other side. As you walked into the area, there were automated double doors on the far left, which were only opened by a key card or the central desk personnel. Kai was in the ICU section of the hospital, so to get in to see him, they had to sign their names and write the time they entered so there was no confusion about who went in. They would also give them a sticker that you had to place visibly on their shirt, with numbers and letters scribbled on.
“You go through those double doors, down the hall, and take a left. As soon as you turn the corner, there will be another set of double doors to your right. Push the button to get in; his room will be the first door on the right. Make sure to sanitize,” The lady explained to everyone. Kai’s parents signed in and placed the sticker on their shirts, and as the personnel opened the double doors, they faded out of sight.
What’s taking so long? Elia questioned, with it being thirty minutes with no sign of Kai’s parents walking through the doors. “The next two people can head in,” They heard the woman say. Elia and Leora stood up, signed in, and headed through the double doors.
Elia looked back at her mother one last time before the doors completely shut. She was terrified. With every step she took, her legs became weaker and weaker. Her heart felt as if it was popping out of her chest. She couldn’t even stop herself from shaking. “I’m scared,” She thought aloud, Leora not saying a word. She knew she was probably just as scared as Elia was.
They ended up at another set of double doors with a ” PUSH ” button on the left-hand side. Walking in, they were hit with a sudden scent of a strange chemical. There were sanitizing pumps anywhere you looked, using one and moving down the hall to Kai’s room. Leora entered the room first. All Elia heard was restless movement from the inside. She was very hesitant to even step through the border. Her mind was moving a mile a minute. She wanted to see Kai but was scared even to know how bad his condition was. She placed one foot in front of the other, continuing the motion, till she ended up in the entrance of his room.
She felt as if she was in a never-ending nightmare. Kai was shaking terribly out of control, like he was having a seizure. Straps pinned down his arms and legs, preventing him from being able to hurt himself. And his face – his eyes were fluttering like crazy, oxygen attached to his mouth so he wouldn’t die. Half his head was shaved, the shaved half being exposed. His whole head was swollen. The sight had made Elia sick to her stomach. She felt her legs give out. But before they could, she went over to Leora and her mother. That was the first time Elia had ever seen her cry. She rubbed Leora’s back to comfort her but looked down the whole time. She knew Kai was behind her, that he needed her more than ever, but she couldn’t turn around. She even tried forcing herself to cry, but nothing came out. She wasn’t even there, in a dream or just watching a movie. But she was there. She wouldn’t believe it. She didn’t want to consider it.
Elia and Leora left after ten minutes of watching their poor Kai struggle to hold on, Iola and Al staying there with him. They never said a thing as they returned to the waiting room. The next group got up and stepped through the double doors, then the next, then the next. As the last group returned to the waiting area, they all went their separate ways. Kai’s parents decided to stay the night there, so Elia and her mother walked Ms. Toni safely to her car. However, she kept her mace by her side the whole time. Atlanta’s a scary place at night. Elia wasn’t frightened, though. The way she was feeling, she wasn’t scared of anything.
Making it home was a blur. All she remembered was asking her mother to take her to the hospital and Talia walking into her room, telling Elia her friends would pray for Kai. After that – nothing. The whole night had drained her out of any nerve she had left. She held on tightly to the bear Kai had once bought for her and drifted to sleep.
To be continued…
The Writing Artist 
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