The Immortal

Five hours and about six medical tests later, I was told I could finally go back to my room. After every test, a new doctor of a different specialty came to talk and meet with me. Now when I say meet, I actually mean prod and poke and ask me a bunch of questions that I couldn’t answer. No wait, let me rephrase that. I could give them the answers to their questions, but only if I wanted to be tossed in a padded room with a straight jacket on.

“Hey you’re back.” Frank said as I walked back into the hospital room.

He was sitting up in bed just as he was a couple hours ago and it looked as if he had just finished eating dinner. His tray was pushed away from him on the rolling cart and what remained of a sandwich was left on the plate. My stomach grumbled just looking at it. The only thing I had eaten since breakfast was that awful barium stuff.

“So how did it go?” He asked as I heaved myself back up on my high bed.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“They find anything wrong with you?” He questioned. “Do you have some sort of weird illness? Are you going to die?”

“Um…no, no, and definitely no.” I said, managing to answer all of his questions with only one answer. “There’s nothing wrong with me except for a few broken bones.”

“That’s not entirely true.”

I looked up quickly to see Rachel leaning in the doorway with a few charts in her hands.

“W-what do you mean?” I stammered uneasily.

“I knew it!” Frank exclaimed. “I knew something had to be wrong with him! There’s no way any normal person could have survived what he did. Wait…what’s wrong with him exactly?”

“Whoa Frank calm down.” Rachel said as she walked into the room further to stand between out two beds. “I was only kidding.”

I let out a sigh of relief at this and sat back against my pillows. I didn’t think that they would find anything in my body that would give away what I really was, but you never know for sure anymore. People are developing all kinds of new technology these days.

“So there’s nothing wrong with him?” Frank asked, not even bothering to hide the disappointment in his voice.

“Nothin’ but a couple broken bones.” Rachel said.

“Dang it.” He muttered.

“Well don’t sound so happy for me Frank.” I drawled sarcastically.

“Why should I be happy?” He pouted childishly. “You’re probably going to get out of here sooner than I am.”

“Not exactly.” Rachel interrupted. “You both have to stay in here a few more days to let your bones heal a little before rehab.”

“They said I had to go to rehab I said no, no, no.” Frank sang, surprisingly well I might add, in response.

“You do if you want to be able to use those legs again any time soon.” Rachel laughed. “Oh, and Gerard your work called.”

“They did?” I asked. I had completely forgotten to call my boss. He was probably furious that I didn’t show up for work.

“They said to take as much time off as you need.” She finished.

Well that was a surprise. “Oh…” I said slowly. “Alright thanks.”

“Knock, knock.” Someone said from the doorway of the room.

I looked up to see two men, a blonde one with piercing bright blue eyes, and a lip ring, and a taller man with thick curly brown hair.

“Hey guys!” Frank said happily. “What took you so long?”

“Traffic.” The blonde man grumbled. “We got stuck in rush hour.”

“Aw bummer.” Frank sighed. “I hate it when that happens.”

The two men walked further into the room past Rachel and pulled up two chairs that were sitting against the wall closest to Frank’s bed.

“Visiting hours are until eight guys.” Rachel said before walking back towards the door, leaving me, Frank, and the other two men in the room.

The curly haired man watched as Rachel left and let out a low whistle. “Man no wonder you get hurt so much.” He said, turning back to Frank.

“What do you mean by that?” Frank asked curiously.

“Well I’d hurt myself too if it meant having her as my doctor.” The man said as a wide grin spread across his face.

“Hey this was all your fault.” Frank said, gesturing down at his legs. “And I do not purposely hurt myself.”

“Could’ve fooled us.” The blonde man muttered.

“Who’s your friend?” The curly haired man asked, taking notice of me for the first time.

“Oh, sorry.” Frank said. “Guys this is my roommate here in his hell hole, Gerard. He got hit by a truck.”

Frank’s bluntness made the jaws of the two men drop open as they turned to stare at me.

“Gee this is Ray Toro.” He continued, gesturing to the taller man with the curly hair. “He plays guitar in our band same as me, and that’s Bob Bryar. He’s on drums.”

“Nice to meet you.” I said, holding out a hand to Bob who was sitting closest to my bed.

“You too.” Bob said as he shook my hand. “Did you really get hit by a truck?”

“Yeah and it was one o those big eighteen-wheelers too!” Frank exclaimed excitedly. “He got off with only a concussion and a few broken bones! Can you believe that?”

“That’s pretty incredible.” Ray said turning to me. “But you didn’t step in front of the truck on purpose, did you?”

“No he was saving a little girl.” Frank said, answering for me. “Cute kid, she was in here this morning with her smoking hot mom.”

Judging by the matching eye rolls Bob and Ray were giving him, I guessed that the excessive talking and bluntness was just typical Frank behavior. But I didn’t mind. I wasn’t much of a talker anyway. At least they weren’t questioning me repeatedly like the doctors were. I had to admit it though, it was extremely funny to see the doctors’ reactions when all of the test results came back. They were getting more and more frustrated with every test because not a single one could explain how I could have possibly survived. It was all rather amusing really.