Drowning

Mere moments had passed between the medics arriving on the beach and them deciding that they would fly the mysterious boy out to the nearest, large, children’s hospital – Manchester. A helicopter, bright yellow in colour with black patterns and text, had landed upon the beach near Widnes. Its charcoal blades created a noise that would pierce the eardrums of anyone near yet the little boy didn’t stir through the ruckus. Lost within the deepest recesses of his magnificent mind, who knows when he was to return from himself. Wind swept the raven locks around the boy’s head as if they were a horrific halo represent his pain and his innocence in one greasy, salty mess. Everyone who took one small glance at the boy knew, knew there was something important about him. This one had to live.

If little Lawliet had been awake, he would have probably loved the helicopter ride. The views from so high up were nearly always spectacular, but when above some of the most beautiful lakes and mountain ranges in the country it’s something else entirely. The emerald mountains and crystal blue waters held no interest for the pilot though. The storm the previous week had left horrible flying conditions and it was taking all his skill to keep the helicopter upright yet he couldn’t keep it anywhere as near as stable as the team of medics would have liked. Speed was his priority though: they couldn’t help the boy much in air. The blades churned up the swiftly blackening air making the pilot’s job harder but he persisted until he recognised the city landscape beneath him. The flight had taken longer than he’d assumed, nearly three hours in total, but he trusted his crew to look after this captivating child.

Carefully guiding his machinery, he lowered the helicopter down onto the waiting pad at the top of the huge brown brick hospital. Waiting on the roof of the hospital was a huge team of paediatricians with a gurney for the little boy. As soon as the feet of the helicopter hit the metal pad the door had been flung open and the child carefully passed between cautious hands. His black hair fell softly against his face and his ashen skin stood out against the bright blue plastic sheet upon the gurney. Doctors carefully strapped him down as a dozen or so members of staff moved the boy back inside the hospital. Some of the staff from the helicopter felt sad to watch this boy go, but had taken note of his name to keep track of his progress.

Bright red alarms were being sounded throughout the hospital warning them that a kid needed immediate care. On the top floor, the strange child that had been scooped from the sea was laid into a bed and doctors hurried around him setting about the task of stabilising the boy. Wires and tubes seemed to embed themselves over every inch of his body yet they doubted the boy would ever even notice them. Nurses fussed around the boy yet after ten minutes, all fell still.

All conscious life had evacuated the room to let the tiny boy rest, yet the room was not silent. Saying that, sometimes silence is loudest. No, the room was haunted by the beeps of a heart monitor and the wheezing that was L’s breathing. It was close to quiet, that much is assured as what was there to make much noise, yet the machinery rang through silence as if it were a knife through butter. Inside the little boy’s head, his ears were ringing as if replicating the torturous thundering of the tremendous waves that battered him round the prior week. Even in his dreams the memory of what had happened found him. It would never leave him, even when he forgot the voices and faces of his family, he would remember the sound of their screams even if they were masked by the crashing of currents; things like that never go away.

Days passed by when the only change in life was the white bulb of the overhead lamp. Yet, on the third day a young nurse came back from sick leave. She’d been recovering from flu in fear that if she’d came in it’d spread around her ward like wild fire. Yet, when she came back she noticed this new boy. The woman felt a caring inside of her towards the kid so often sat telling him fairy stories when her shift was over or when she was not needed. Due to the boy’s unstable state, whenever she wished to enter his room she had to wear a mask over her nose and mask as well as wearing gloves. No one could tell how the boy’s immune system had survived so they were taking all precautions to keep him healthy.

Upon one day, when the sky was cotton candy pink and streaked with violet, the nurse sat, soaked in the golden light of the freshly risen sun. Her brown hair seemed more like auburn in this light and her green eyes were lit up. Carefully, she ran a gloved had across the toddler’s arm, still feeling scared he’d crumble at her timid touch. He seemed to be getting a little colour back to his ashen skin, although she presumed he must have been snow skinned to begin with by how little difference there had been. She’d carefully bathed him a night before so his hair had lost its greasy nature and picked up a soft texture and fell to his shoulders in gentle waves. He looked more human than he had with his hair spiked all over and full of salt.

As the woman sat next to the boy, fixing up his fluids drip, she noticed his eyes twitching slightly – that kind of twitch you get when someone shines a torch in your eye after you’ve just woken up. The nurse figured the light overhead must have been bothering but she left it on as it was dragging the toddler out of his dream world and into reality.

The toddler, L, blinked a few times as the distorted world became clearer. He figured out he was in a hospital before he had even opened his eyes as the smell and noises were oh too familiar. He could feel pressure against his right hand, as if someone was clutching it for their own comfort rather than his own. It’d never be anyone from his own family he figured, seeing as he had no really knowledge of extended family and his sisters had tiny hands. No, this was probably a nurse who had attached herself to his unconscious self. As glanced down, his deductions were proven correct and he noticed the young woman start to speak…