This is my first piece of fiction…ever. I write for some science publications, so any criticisms and suggestions are welcome. I may be sporadic with chapter submissions, so please be patient. I hope to put up at least one per week. Hope you enjoy!
Clear blue eyes gazed out the side window of the sky car, taking in the snowy landscape over the rural part of Michigan, one of the few agricultural areas left in North America. Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major plays softly over the car's sound system. A few tracks left by roaming animals could be seen crossing each other in the distance. The girl was hoping to see a rabbit or even a deer. She had glimpsed them before on the trip home from Detroit, but not today. The commute to schools became necessary in the mid-21st century when many of them had to close due to lack of funding. She shifted her eyes to the sunrise, pink wispy clouds tracked to where the orange ball was just starting to peak over the horizon. A yawn was threatening to surface when a flash caught her attention high in the sky. "Mom?" she queried before her head hit the side of the car. She cried out, her mom's arm pushing her back in her seat as the ground quickly approached.
Hands were holding her down, trying to put something heavy on her. She opened her eyes, screaming as pain overwhelmed her whole body. Four people were gathered around her trying to hold her still, bright lights behind them. She screamed for her mother, kicking her feet and arching her back to get the hands off her. "Stop it hurts!" she tried to yell but it came out a primal garble. Realizing the people around her could not understand she fought harder, one of the hands holding her arm lost grip and she tried to push off the table. She wanted her mom, she would understand. Why did it hurt so much? She felt a stab in her hip, and the room faded to darkness.
When she wakes she was on her left side, a plastic lamb with plastic flowers coming out of its back came into focus on a night stand near her bed. She frowns at the lamb, probably her dad's idea of a joke. He knows she hates things like that, hates being treated like a little kid. She was almost 10, and she will have to help take care of her little sister soon. She looks around, signs on the walls, beeping from something behind her, this is not her room. She can smell disinfectant…a hospital. She remembers what happened, tries to sit up, her head spins and she lies back down. She looks around again, a tube is sticking out of her arm, she tries to say something but her teeth are wired shut. A hiss comes out of her mouth. She brings her free right arm up to her face, and feels bandages over her right jaw and left eye. She wonders if she will have any scars, it will impress her soccer team.
The door opens and a nurse walks in. "Good you're awake…Thirsty?" She hits the controls on the bed to put the bed in The Fowler's position, knowing the answer before the reply.
Shepard nods her head, she still can't figure out how to talk through her wired teeth. The nurse brings a cup of water with a straw. She has to fit the straw in the small gap between Shepard's front teeth. She closes her lips around the straw and sucks the water in with a little too much eagerness, it sprays back out between her teeth, and some dribbles down her chin. She stops immediately, embarrassed.
"You'll have to seal the straw to the top of your mouth with your tongue because with your teeth like this you can't use them to grip," instructs the nurse as she wipes the girl's chin.
Thanks captain obvious, thinks the young Shepard, rolling her eyes. She motions for the straw again, this time managing to keep the water in her mouth. She wishes she could wet her lips, she can feel they are cracked. "Chpshck?" she manages through her teeth. The nurse doesn't understand and shrugs her shoulders, "What?" Shepard points at her lips, thinking the gesture might help and repeats slower, "chipshick?"
"Oh, yeah let me see if I can find some," the nurse says and starts searching the stainless steel drawers in the room. As she is searching Shepard's dad walks into the room holding a foam cup with a straw coming out of it. His green eyes light up as he smiles, with his freckles and red hair it makes his face look much younger than he is, much like the old puppet Howdy Doody. It is almost comical. "Hey, kid! Glad you're awake I was hoping you were, brought you this," he points to the cup in his hand.
The nurse frowns, "she really should stick to the diet the hospital has for her. It will help her recover faster."
"What could POSSIBLY make her recover faster than a Boston Cooler from Halo Burger?" he grins.
Shepard tries to grin, but the action hurts, and it makes her flinch. The nurse takes that as in indication that the girl does not want the drink and says so while she goes about trying to find some lip balm in the room. Shepard looks at her dad, he knows the expression. She is already frustrated with the nurse. "Don't worry, kid, I know you love these things, especially when you're sick. What's she looking for?" he crooks a thumb toward the nurse. "Chpshick," Shepard replies, she is already starting to learn the mechanics of speaking through her teeth.
"Oh, here I have some in my pocket, always do in the winter," he pulls out a tube and hands it to his daughter. She grabs it with and gratefully rubs some on her parched lips. "Drink," she replies pointing at the cup as her dad takes back the tube. She really does love the concoction of Vernor's ginger ale and ice cream.
"She really shouldn't have that," the nurse says over her shoulder as she starts toward the door. "I'll get Doctor Shaw, she wanted to know when you woke up." The nurse leaves the room.
"I thought she'd NEVER leave!" Robert Shepard says dramatically, rolling his eyes as he hands the drink to his daughter. Lisa Shepard giggles, which hurts and makes her flinch again, almost dropping the cup. Her dad can always make her laugh. He grabs for the cup, but Lisa already has it and is trying to fit the straw between her teeth. It is a difficult task with her left hand taped to a board to keep the tubes in her left arm stationary. Her dad gently reaches in and inserts the straw in the gap. She inhales greedily, too much so and almost chokes as the bubbles from the ginger ale go up her nasal passages. Her dad laughs, it is somewhat of a ritual to do that with the drink.
As the young Shepard stops coughing the doctor enters the room "Good evening young lady, how are you feeling?" She walks to the foot of the bed and grabs the chart eyeing the girl with the drink over the clipboard. "Bedder already, when kin I go home?" the girl replies around the straw, not willing to try to insert it again. She hates hospitals, and spends entirely too much time in them. She's always trying new things and pushing it just a bit too far.
The doctor stares sternly into the little girl's blue eyes how could someone that young have such intense eyes? She thinks. "I assure you we will get you out of here as quickly as possible. You, however, have to follow doctor's orders or I cannot guarantee a quick discharge." Lisa grins at the doctor, she has always liked Doctor Shaw. She doesn't treat or talk to her like a baby. "Deal." She agrees.
The doctor pulls over a chair next to the bed to talk to two Shepards, now that she has their attention. She addresses Lisa directly, she knows the girl likes it when she is treated like someone who is older and her father already knows his daughter's condition and estimated recovery times. "You have a slight concussion, a compound fracture of your right mandible, a fracture to your left fourth finger proximal and middle phalanx, several lesions on your head and neck, and severe contusions on your chest, and head. What this means, young lady, is that while you will be up and walking soon, you are not to be running, having wheelchair races while in the hospital, or playing any sports for at least 4 weeks until that jaw heals. We cannot use any bone regenerating devices on your jaw, you are growing quickly right now and because of that it has to heal on its own."
Lisa can't help the look of disappointment on her face. "Bid the hockey playiffs sdard nixd week!" she complains. The doctor smiles, "four weeks," she emphasizes. She knows the girl will talk her and her parents into three weeks, she should be healed enough by then with the medigel treatments she will be getting, but she doesn't want Lisa starting any earlier, so she gave the estimate of four. Lisa complains under her breathe for a bit, but then her eyes go wide and she looks at her dad and the doctor with shock and concern. "Whid aboud mom?!"