All Grown Up

Chapter 26

“Oh this is so exciting,” Dana said as she snuggled next to Zacky.

“She’s going to win,” Johnny said very sure of himself.

“Of course,” Jimmy agreed. They both had beers in hand to keep themselves warm against the December cold.

“Stop worrying,” Brian whispered into Sam’s ear. She only nodded her eyes not moving from Jo’s form.

Jo got on the bike, thoughts clouding her mind, but she shook her head clearing them out. She looked over at her opponent; he looked about 20, very eager to race. The announcer came over the loud speaker. “We have Number 7 over here and old veteran going against number 11 a new comer, please respect the rules, and have fun.”

Jo revved her bike and nodded, then the race began, she was in the lead. At a turn the new one took cut in front of her, she was working out a strategy when she noticed that he was loosing control. His bike crashed in front of her, debris all over the track. Her only choice was to steer away from him.

Sam couldn’t move, she watched the Strat going towards the wall in slow motion. A scream froze in her throat, when it came out everyone stopped and looked at her; they weren’t paying attention to the track. “What?” Jimmy asked then followed her gaze to the track where emergency vehicles we’re driving towards.

Zacky looked too and jumped over the fence leaving a confused Dana, then Johnny jumped and Jimmy, they were all running towards the crash, smoke was coming from that direction. Brian placed Sam’s head on his chest, she was in shock.

Zacky got there as they tried to take of Jo’s helmet, or half of it. She was bleeding profusely. “What happened?” Jimmy asked.

“It seemed she steered away from the other crash so she wouldn’t hit the other driver,” one of the technicians answered.

“Oww,” Jo yelled as she gained consciousness.

“Don’t move her leg, it’s broken,” One of the EMT’s said.

Jo’s eyes met Zacky’s eyes, she smiled a crooked smile. “You have nice eyes,” she said. Then her eyes rolled to the back of her head.

“She has a weak pulse, we need to get her in the ambulance now, we’re loosing her.” Everyone was pushed aside as they picked her up and placed her on a stretcher, then wheeled her into the ambulance.

They drove away, Jimmy and Johnny looking around. The other Driver stood up from where he was lying on the ground, nothing seemed wrong with him. Zacky looked at him, “What the hell were you thinking?” Zacky yelled.

Jimmy jumped and grabbed Zacky’s arms pinning them behind his back, “Zacky cool it,” Johnny said placing himself between the two.

“Fuck, Zacky, it was an accident,” Jimmy said finally wrestling Zacky away, they met half way through the field with a crying Sam.

Zacky took Sam out of Brian’s arms and hugged her, she just sobbed. “She’s going to be ok, you’ll see, she’ll be as good as new,” Zacky said as he rubbed her back, wasn’t sure if he was saying those words for Sam’s benefit or his own.

At the hospital

Zacky was pacing up and down the waiting room; Sam was drinking something that was called coffee. Jimmy and Johnny had gone to tell Jo’s dad about the accident and Brian was watching a baseball game on TV, but not paying attention. Dana sat filling her nails.

The doctor came into the room, “I’m looking for Ms.Soiman’s family.”

Sam stood up, “That would be us,” Brian said from next to her.

“She has just come out of the surgery, we were able to set her leg back in place it should heal nicely, there was a lot of internal damage, yet we have hopefully stopped the bleeding,” the doctor said.

“Can we see her?” Sam asked.

“I’m afraid she is not conscious, she received a severe blow to the head and we are unsure when she will awaken.”

“So, you’re saying she’s in a coma?” Zacky asked.

“Zacky...” Brian’s voice warned him.

“Unfortunately, yes. We would need to do more tests, yet as of right now she is in a coma. For how long we are unsure, as soon as I receive more information I will let you know, she is now being moved to a room,” the doctor turned to leave yet Brian followed him.

“She’s going to be ok,” Sam said calmly. “She has to.”

Sam sat back down, Zacky just continued pacing, Dana tried to read his face but couldn’t. She didn’t know what to say.

“I talked to the doctor they’re going to be putting her in a private room, at our request,” he said sitting next to Sam.

“Thank you,” Sam said.

“We should go get some stuff for her, clothes and so on,” Brian said making Sam stand up.

“I’m not even moved in yet,” Sam said as they walked down the hall.

“It’s ok, we’ll help,” Brian said rubbing her arms.

They reached the apartment building in total silence. Brian explained to the security guard what had happened, and then led Sam to the elevator and to the apartment, Zacky and Dana followed. They entered the apartment yet no one seemed to want to go in.

It felt strange, but they did it anyway. That whole day they had spent it settling Sam in. Jimmy, Johnny and Vlad had come to help, no one talked much. The phone rang and they all jumped. “Hello,” Sam said.

“May I speak to Joana please?” The male voice responded.

“She’s unavailable right now, may I take a message?” Sam asked.

“Could you tell her that if she wants to avoid me, she should tell me so herself,” then the phone clicked shut.

“Who was that?” Jimmy asked.

“I’m guessing it was the penguin,” Zacky said looking out the window.

“He’s a nice boy,” Vlad said, “A stiff but nice.”

They all laughed at the way Vlad had said it, no one seemed to want to talk about anything. But that night they decided that Jimmy and Johnny would stay at Vlad’s house. Dana had to go back so she left sometime that night.

Brian and Sam would stay in the apartment and Zacky said he’s going to the hospital no one seemed to have the heart to stop him. When they all left Sam sat on the couch watching the clock on the wall move.

“Babe, you need to eat something,” Brian sat next to her with a piece of Banana bread.

“I know it was going to happen,” Sam said not moving.

“There was no way you could have stopped it,” Brian said putting the plate down.

“I could of,” Sam started to say.

“No you couldn’t of done anything,” Brian rubbed her back and she leaned into him.