Hearing the doctor say those words, for a second it seemed like everything around him had gone quiet. Gary was looking at the adult in front of him, yet at the same time, his eyes weren’t focused. The words ‘bad news’ just constantly rang in his head again and again, drowning out the noise around him.
It felt as if someone had submerged him underwater, making him unable to breathe. This was because the thoughts he just had moments ago, could very well become a reality.
“Gary!” His sister called out. “Gary, what's going on? What is he talking about? What happened to Mum?” Amy shouted, panicked as she had no idea that their mother had been brought here as well.
The doctor had yet to explain things, because he could tell that Gary was still out of it. He had seen many people react like this before, and the young girl by the boy’s side seemed to be some relative as well, most likely the daughter, who wasn’t dealing with the sudden news any better than her brother.
‘Wait a second, the Mark!’ Gary suddenly thought. 'She can’t be dead, if she died, then the system would have informed me, right? She’s not dead, she’s still alive.’ With this thought in his head, he checked the air and saw a faint, but yet still visible green Mark, coming from the emergency room.
“Please, tell me how my mother is?” Gary asked.
The doctor took a second look at the high schooler, there was a clear change in his eyes. Usually information like this wouldn't be passed onto a kid, but there was no one else here. He felt sorry that these children had to grow up in a world like this.
“You seem to be a brave boy, Gary, no matter what happens you should keep that determined look with you.” The doctor said. “First, let me alleviate your worst worries, your mother is still with us. Her vitals are fine, and the bruises on the outside of her body will heal given time. The bones also seem to be only bruised, none broken.
“However, the issue is that your mother isn’t showing any signs of waking up. There seems to have been some sort of head trauma that has caused her to go into a permanent sleep-like state.”
“You mean a coma?” Amy shouted, holding onto the doctor's arm. “Our mother is in a coma! How did this happen? How long until she will wake up again? She will wake up, right? Right?!?!”
Once again the doctor paused. His profession meant that he had to deliver news like this on multiple occasions, but there was hardly any case where he would have to deliver such news to those that were so young.
“We… don’t know.” The doctor answered with a sigh. “If we’re lucky, she might wake up as if nothing had happened in a few hours or a few days. However, it might as well take weeks for her to regain consciousness and in very rare cases it might even take years. I’m sorry, but it's too early to tell at this point and time.
“The next step would be to talk to your guardian, so that we can talk about accommodations and such. Now we can carry on bills for over a week, but after that if nothing has been paid…'' The doctor didn’t continue there, as the cries of the girl next to Gary started to get louder and louder.
It was obviously too much for her, yet her brother had stayed strong.
“If you need any more information, or when your guardian arrives, feel free to come see me. I will try my best to make some time for you.” The doctor offered, taking his leave heading back to the emergency department.
“Gary, what are we going to do? How are we going to pay for her? What if she never wakes up again?!” His sister continued to cry, while he left with his thoughts.
There were more problems then just that, due to Gary's age, he wasn’t classified as an adult, and if the hospital learned that their mother was their only guardian, then they would likely inform the authorities about it. That could possibly mean that Gary and Amy would be split up, to be taken care of by foster families or put in orphanages.
In a Tier-3 town like Slough, that would be a worse way of life than they currently had.
“Amy, don’t worry, I will get us out of this situation. We won’t be leaving home, and Mum's going to be okay. You have to trust me, okay!” Gary said to her, heading to the waiting area and placing her down in the meantime. He also handed his sister her phone, as well as Stacy’s .
Hopefully it would be something to distract her from this mess. In the meantime, Gary now had another worry on his mind, what would happen to the two of them.
‘Mum was away most of the time anyway, and if this thing works out with Kai, then I should have some money to cover the expenses as well. The most important thing is to make sure that they don’t find out we don’t have another guardian.
‘Me and Amy can live together until you get better, Mum. I promise you that I will protect her.’
In this situation, there was only one person he thought might be able to help him, and decided to send out a message. All he could do now though was wait, but even then he was nervous, because he wasn’t sure this person could help them this time.
While waiting, Gary had decided to head back to where his sister was. She was currently on her phone. Well, ‘on’ wasn't the right word, Amy had placed it on her lap, and she didn’t seem to have the energy to lift it.
‘I have to stay strong in this situation, for Amy.’ Gary thought as he headed over to her.
“Amy, I promise I’ll make sure things are okay, but I want you to make a promise with me. When I think about what happened to Mum today, and what happened to you. If I hadn’t arrived in time…
“There is a chance that it could have been you in there with Mum… You know how dangerous Slough is and can be, so I want you to promise me that if you ever feel like you're in trouble again, just like you did today, that you will contact me immediately, okay?”
If it was before, Gary wouldn’t have made this type of promise, worried that his sister might try to hide something from her. However, since Amy had contacted him today out of her own free volition, especially after what she had experienced and learning what state their mother was in, he was convinced that she would never break that promise.
Holding out his little pinky finger, Amy soon wrapped hers around it, and nodded. Then using their thumbs they touched it at the same time. This was something that they had done ever since they were little, a pinky promise matched with a stamp of approval. Their mother had taught them how to do it and they had found it cute how their thumbs acted as a little stamp like they were entering some type of contract.
[A spoken deal has been made, would you like to Mark “Amy Dem”?]
[Yes]
[4/5 Marks have been assigned]
Now, Gary was able to keep an eye on Amy whenever he needed to as well. As they waited, Gary was continually looking at the entrance. After a while Stacy came out, wondering where Amy had disappeared to. Initially she had been happy to see Gary, but the teenage girl had trouble looking him in the eye, not that he was in any condition to care about it.
Her best friend tried to talk with Amy, but it became obvious that Amy was in no mood for idle talk. Eventually she left after thanking Gary for helping out and retrieving her phone. She briefly told him that he doesn’t have to worry about the hospital bill. Stacy said it was the least she could do, since she knew it was all her fault. Fortunately, her parent had agreed to that.
Finally, Gary’s eyes became more lively when he saw the person he had been waiting for come through the door, Kai. For once the upperclassman seemed disheveled and bruised. Behind him, there was an older but beautiful woman, Gary had never seen before.
“Who’s that?” Amy asked, when her brother had suddenly stood up and was looking over in the direction of the two newcomers.
“He’s….” Gary wasn’t sure what to say, because originally he had only come to Kai out of his own selfish need, but recently he had been forced to ask him for help time and time again. Surprisingly he came through every time, no matter how crazy Gary’s request had been.
If he could fix their problem once again, the high schooler was ready to earnestly do his best to help this person out, a person like this wasn’t a stranger in Gary’s mind.
“He’s... a friend.” Gary answered with a smile.
*****
Top 25 golden ticket = 3 Chapters a day
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