Carmelita woke me.

“Brian, sorry to wake you, but Doctor Mac wants you to try to urinate. You can do it here, sitting on the side of the bed, or you can walk into the bathroom. Which do you want to do?”

Why are nurses always women? No way would I do it with her watching me.

“I’ll do it in the bathroom. That way I can see what I look like. That’s pretty bad, right?”

“It’s not that bad. You’re bruised, you have a bandage on the side of your head, but you’re still a good-looking boy. You’ll be fine once the bruises fade. Let me help you stand up. I want you to take it easy. Okay?”

“Okay.”

She raised the head of the bed like Randall had done, but so it was even more upright, and lowered the side rail so it was out of the way. Then she pulled the covers off me. I realized that I was, uh... exposed, and she could see my dangly bits. I covered myself with my hands.

“Brian, honey, don’t worry about me seeing anything. I’ve been a nurse for fifteen years, and I’ve seen everything. It don’t mean anything to me. So stop being embarrassed and swing your legs around, and do it slowly. Then I’ll help you stand up.”

I guess she’s right, if she’s seen everything she’s not going to be impressed looking at me. I slowly swung my legs around so they were hanging off the side of the bed. I was holding on to the edge of the mattress with my right hand.

“You okay, Brian?”

“Yeah. Maybe a little dizzy.”

“You sit there for a minute and let that dizziness pass. You’ve been in a coma for almost a week, and on your back since you woke up earlier today. Just take it easy and get used to sitting up before we have you walking.”

“Okay.”

I sat there and my dizziness started going away. I took a couple of deep breaths, and I felt a lot better.

“I think I’m ready. What do you want me to do?”

Carmelita sat next to me on my right side. She put her arm around my back with her hand under my left armpit. I laughed.

“Uh, sorry, I’m really ticklish.”

She pinched my side.

“Ow!”

“Bet you’re not going to be ticklish now.” She started laughing. “Okay, Brian, you put your right hand on the top of my right shoulder. Then I’m going to stand up, I’ll do it slowly, you use your right arm and your legs to follow me up. Let me do the work, okay?”

I did as she asked, and when she said “Go” and started to stand I held on to her and let her and my legs get me into a standing position.

“You okay?”

“A little dizzy. Can we just stand here for a minute?”

“As long as you need. When you’re ready you let me know, and we’ll walk together to the bathroom. I’m not going to leave you alone in there if you’re going to be standing to do your business, so start getting used to that idea. I’m going to be behind you to make sure you don’t fall.”

“What if I sit?”

“I don’t think you should sit. It will be hard to help you get down and even harder to help you get up. Do you think you have to have a bowel movement?”

“No. I’ll stand. Just don’t peek.” I started to laugh.

“Good grief. Why are boys always so silly? No, don’t even think about answering that!

“Now, let me tell you what you’re going to do. I’m going to give you a collection bottle, and you’re going to urinate into it. We need it all, we’ll send it to the lab for tests. Your urine might be dark colored, or you might see some blood. That’s from your injuries and then having a catheter in so long, and is something Doc Mac expects. It’ll be easier to use the collection bottle if you’re standing. Any questions?”

“No. Let’s do it. I feel okay now.”

With Carmelita supporting me and pulling the stand with my IV bags hanging from it, we slowly walked together into the bathroom. She moved so I was positioned in front of the toilet.

“I’m going to continue holding you. Drop your right arm, and I’m going to step in back of you. I’ll be right here if you feel faint.”

We went through the move she talked about, and she handed me the container. I pulled up the hospital gown and held it under my cast. It took a minute or so for anything to happen, but finally it started working. When I was done I let go of the gown and handed the container to Carmelita.

I turned to my right toward the door and saw the mirror on my left.

“Oh, my God!” I couldn’t believe what I looked like. They said I was bruised. I was more than bruised. I looked like I was a zombie. The bandage on my head was big and thick, and there was tape running from my forehead around to the back of my head. My hair had been shaved off from about three inches above my ear half the way around the back of my head. I had a major black eye on the left side, and the bruises on my face were black, blue, purple, yellow, green, orange, and lots of dark red scabs, almost every color of the rainbow. Some rainbow. Everything on my face was swollen, especially on the left side. My nose was swollen about twice as big as normal. I looked like crap.

“Surprised about how you look?”

“Yeah. I look like crap, don’t I.”

“Honey, you don’t look one percent as bad as lots of the accident victims who come through here. You’ll be fine. Takes a couple of weeks for all of those bruises to fade away, then you’ll look like new.”

“What about my head? Will they have to keep my hair shaved where the bandage is?”

“You’ll have to ask Doc Mac about that. Let’s walk you back to your bed now.”

Once I was back in bed I fell asleep immediately. It seemed like I’d only been asleep for about five minutes when a nurse came in and woke me. Time to take my pain pill. Wow! That meant I’d actually been asleep for almost three hours, the time since I’d taken the first pain pill. I took the pain pill with some water and fell back asleep. Then another nurse woke me to take the Tylenol. That was going to become a regular feature of my life in the hospital: just as I’d fall asleep a nurse would wake me up to take pills, or to take my temperature, or to take blood, or to ask me to urinate, or something else they didn’t seem to be able to do while I was awake.

*****^^^*****

I woke up and my brain felt like it was filled with cotton balls. The pain pills always made me feel this way, really disoriented and fuzzy. I started to go back to sleep, but I heard voices out in the corridor. It sounded like Doctor McFadden talking to someone. I heard a woman’s voice, but couldn’t tell what she said. Then I heard Doctor McFadden say something about “he’s asleep” and “go get some coffee” and “see him later” and I knew it was my folks. That woke me up all the way!

I hollered, “Mom! Dad! Is that you?”

I opened my eyes. Things were a little blurry, but I saw my mom and dad come into the room. Oh, my God, it was so good to see them!

“Oh, Brian! We’re here, honey! Everything is going to be fine. We’re here now.” I could see that Mom was crying.

“We love you son.” My dad reached across and took my right hand and held it. It felt so good, so comforting, I started crying too.

Mom was stroking my right cheek. She leaned down and kissed my forehead. “Oh, Brian, we’re so glad you were found! We’re here now, for you.” She was wiping the tears off my cheek, but as she did there were more tears. I couldn’t stop crying. It was a release, I guess.

Finally, Dad pulled up the two guest chairs and he and Mom sat down. Mom sat close to my head, and Dad continued to hold my hand and stroke it. That felt very familiar, and suddenly I remembered feeling Connie stroking my hand when... what, my spirit... was outside of my body. I’d forgotten about that. Now it all came back in a rush. I remembered all of it, calling for help, humming that R.E.M. song, talking to Doctor McFadden and Connie. All of it. And what happened before, what Quin did to me.

Mom interrupted what I was remembering and thinking about. “Honey, Doctor McFadden told us what happened to you. He didn’t give us all the details, just about how you were found by a farmer and your injuries. What happened? Who did this to you?”

“Quin Santoni and two of his ass… yes, asshole friends did it. That is what those bullies are. On the way home the bus broke down and since I was close I decided to walk instead of waiting for another bus. Quin pulled up and he and Tom Calloway and another guy named Grant, I don’t know his last name, started calling me fag and stuff like that and I just ignored them. Then they dragged me into Quinn’s car and took me to a chicken hatchery shed out back of Quin’s house and I was fighting them and Quin began smashing the side of my head with something, maybe a hammer, and that’s all I remember until I woke up here in this hospital.” I decided to leave the spirit thing out for now. Probably forever.

“I can’t believe it. Mrs. Santoni called me and said she’d read that you were missing and she’d had her son and his friends go out looking for you. Would that have been this Quin boy?”

“Yeah, I don’t think he has any brothers, at least none who go to Deer Valley.”

I heard dad clear his throat. “Uh, Brian, the doctor told us you’d been… you’d been raped.”

“That’s what he told me too. I don’t remember that happening. It must of happened when I was unconscious.”

I could tell from Dad’s voice that he was real upset. “We met a policeman when we got here. He told us that they have a sample DNA that shows only one person did this to you. They’ll be able to find out who it was.”

“Which policeman? Two came and interviewed me this morning.”

“Hmm… I don’t remember his name. Captain something. Phyllis, do you remember his name?”

“It was Captain McVerrity. He seems very nice.”

“Anyway,” Dad continued, “we’re going to make sure these kids are arrested and tried. Captain McVerrity told us that someone from the Edmond Police Department was on their way here to interview you, and someone from the FBI. I’m not sure when they’re going to be here, but we want to be with you when you’re interviewed. I’m thinking maybe we should contact a lawyer, too.”

“A lawyer? What for?”

Mom turned and gave Dad a look. “Let’s leave all of this for later. What’s more important is helping Brian get well, and deciding when he can be moved to Edmond. Brian, honey, how are you feeling? Are you in pain? How are they treating you here? Are you eating?”

I grinned. So like a mom. “Yeah, they’re treating me great. I like Doctor McFadden a lot, and the nurses too.” I gave Mom and Dad a rundown on how I felt, just like I’d given Doctor McFadden earlier. I probably forgot some stuff, but they got what was important.

“I ate lunch. I’m on a liquid diet, but that included some Jell-O and crackers. I was unconscious until today.”

“Brian, you’ve been in a coma. That’s very serious.”

I know, Dad. Doctor McFadden told me that I could have died.” The impact of what I just said seemed to be a shock to my folks. “Didn’t he tell you that?”

They both said, “No!” at the same time.

“Oh, my God! We didn’t know it was that serious.” Mom started to cry.

“Hey, I’m alive now, and Doctor McFadden said I’m getting better. Did he tell you about the operation?”

“Of course. Your father and I signed some papers that we understand that they had court approval for their decision to operate. We would have approved ourselves if we’d been here.”

“We also had to give them our insurance information. That’s all hospitals think about, getting paid.”

“Greg, that’s unfair. It sounds like they saved Brian’s life. I can’t even imagine what it would have happened if that farmer hadn’t been watching when he was dumped in that ditch.”

“I’m lucky to be alive, Mom. If it hadn’t been for the farmer I might never have been found.”

There was a knock on the door, and Doctor McFadden came in with Carmelita.

“Hate to interrupt, but it’s time for a blood draw. We need to check Brian to make sure he is free from bacterial infection. Why don’t you folks come with me and I’ll treat you to a cup of coffee in the cafeteria, and we’ll leave Brian in Carmelita’s clutches for the next half hour.”

My folks agreed and left with Doctor McFadden.

Carmelita wrapped a stretchy thing like a big rubber band around my right arm between my bicep and my elbow, and pulled it tight. Then she began rubbing the inside of my elbow with a piece of cotton that had some sort of cold liquid on it. I assumed that it was alcohol. I watched all of this because this was the first time I was fully awake when they took blood. Then she took a needle that had a tube connected to a sort of plastic vial with a cap on the other end. As she was about to stick the needle into my vein she started talking to me. I guess she wanted to distract me from the thinking about the needle being stuck into me, and it worked.

“How are you feeling, Brian?”

“About the same. My head’s starting to hurt more.”

“If it gets bad, press the call button and I’ll give you another Hydrocodone tablet. Now, let’s see about getting some of your blood for the lab.”

“How come I don’t remember you taking my blood before?”

“We did do blood draws, Brian. You had what’s called a peripheral IV catheter and we drew blood through it. You were unconscious and that was the most convenient way to draw blood. Your IV has been removed, so we’re going back to the old-fashioned way, the way I’m doing it now. It’s called venipuncture because we puncture a vein with a needle then we attach each of the collection tubes in turn. That’s probably more than you ever wanted to know, right?”

“No, actually I’m interested in this sort of stuff. What was that peripheral thing you said was used when I was unconscious?”

“When you have an IV another line, the peripheral IV catheter, is attached to it and we can draw your blood through that. It’s easier, but your blood can cool quickly in the line and red blood cells can be hemolyzed, or destroyed, and if that happens the sample can’t be used for testing.”

“Oh. I think I understand, a bit. That is interesting. I never thought about this sort of thing before. Medicine is really complicated, isn’t it.”

“What’s really complicated is our bodies and what makes them tick. Okay, all done.” She put a piece of cotton where she’d put the needle into my vein and held it there with a piece of adhesive tape. “You rest now, okay?”

“Okay. Thanks Carmelita.”

I wondered when my folks would be back. There was a lot I wanted to know about what happened at home and at school while I was in the hospital. I wanted to know more about Mrs. Santoni and Quin and his asshole buddies supposedly going out to search for me. Didn’t Mom say Mrs. Santoni read about me being missing? Was there a story in the newspaper? Was it on TV? What about my friends, did they call my folks? Did they search for me? Lots of questions.