A.W.O.L.

“Matt.”
I heard my name with my eyes closed. Was it some dream woman calling to me?
“Matt. C’mon, wake up.”
That voice. It was vaguely recognizable.
“You’re scaring us, man. Get up.”
Get up? Wake up? Where was I? Then, it came to me. My hip and ribs were throbbing with pain. I flinched in pain and my eyes opened slightly. I saw five faces around me. I was in a crystal white room with wires and tubes running down to me.
I was in a hospital. But why?
I tried to move my arm. No luck. Just my fingers. Someone was holding them. The word “Ugh.” was all I could push out of my mouth. All the chatter that came from that word made it seem like I had just started a debate.
My eyes slowly began to clear up. The faces then became discernable. Mom, Dad, my buddies, Taren and Dejaun, and my doctor, Mark Warren.
I moaned again and just managed to say, “What happened?”
The answer wasn’t I wanted. Mom threw herself over me, crying. It embarrassed me, so I was lucky Dad pulled her away and calmed her down. I could feel that my head was wrapped up with cotton as she took her face away.
“Good to have you back with us, Matt.” Dr. Warren told me.
I looked around some more. I counted at least 3 tubes running down to me and the liquid inside all of them was clear. I figured that I was on some type of nutrients.
“Did you use morphine on me?” I asked. Taren laughed a little, even though I didn’t mean for the question to be funny.
“No. We almost did considering your injuries.”
As it turned out, I had broken my left leg and two ribs, fractured my pelvis in two places, cracked my 4th and 7th ribs, received multiple gashes on the chest and face and to top it all off, received a concussion.
“I can’t believe I’m still alive.”
“You should be glad you are.” Taren said. “Took three hours in surgery to fix you up.”
I didn’t feel like talking much more then. I closed my eyes and listened to the pulse monitor slowly beep. My pulse was 78 BPM. Not bad for a messed up body.
“He’d better get some good sleep.” I heard Dr. Warren say. “It’s been a rough night for him.”
“Is there a hotel or some place nearby where we can stay?” Dad asked.
“The Skylight Hotel is just down the road. They don’t charge a lot for rooms.”
“What about us? Mind if we stay with Matt?” Dejaun asked, referring to Taren and himself. I didn’t like being alone, especially in a hospital. I’d had a nasty fear of hospitals since I was 8. My heart started beating a bit faster, and everyone could hear it.
“Dude, you ok?” Dejaun asked. I didn’t speak. Instead, I nodded my head as best I could.
“Scared me for a second there.” Taren said.
“Well, if you want to stay here, you might want to lets your parents know.” Dad said.
“What for? We both live in a dorm.”
“Oh, right. Never mind.”
“Doc, you alright with us staying here?” Dejaun asked.
“It’s not against hospital policy as long as you’re both friends of his.”
“Good.”
“I’ll be back in an hour to check up on him. Until then, try not to disturb him. He needs a lot of rest to recover from surgery.”
“We’ll try not to. Unless he gets up and begins asking more questions.”