Chapter 2
I woke up at home, in the living room, Tom was sitting there looking at me when I opened my eyes. The way I felt when I tried to swallow told me that I had had water in my lungs, I don't know how I knew, I just did.
I looked at Tom, I was only slightly aware of him, I saw that he talked to me and I heard the words, but they didn't mean anything to me, finally I gave up I couldn't understand what he wanted to say. Then in some way I fell asleep again.
Tom was still there when I woke up again. And he was more there this time, and now his words meant something. Another thing I noticed was the air, it felt… strange…
"It's all right Jake, you have been into an accident but it's over now. Do you remember anything?" Fortunately I was alert enough to understand what the Yeerk wanted to know. If I had seen anything in the waterslide. I shook my head to see everything clear.
"No, only that you disappeared and that everything stopped…" I began to cough again. Then I heard dad from the kitchen.
"Tom, don't make him speak!"
"Sorry!" But he still sat there with me.
I did my best to remain calm. I knew exactly what had happened to me. I had been allergic to something I had acquired and if I couldn't stay calm I would morph, in front of Tom.
I wished that Tom would go away, his presence made me nervous and I was scared to be nervous and if I was scared… I forced myself to take a deep breath. Count the breaths. That would help me remain calm. But then I remembered that something was wrong with the air.
"Tom, have I been on oxygen?"
"Yes, for about three and a half hours. You have been in hospital almost the whole day… are you sure you didn't notice anything strange?"
Keep calm… count the breaths… take deeper breaths… keep calm…
I got unexpected help by Tom as he bent over me and placed his hand on my cheek, I think that he thought I was asleep again. Now and then I heard mum or dad come in to see if I got any better, and then leave. Tom didn't leave.
Each time I remembered that he was there I forced myself to count breaths again. It made me less scared, but not less nervous.
Now I knew how Rachel felt when she was alone at Chapman's office and knew she could begin to morph before she would be able to stop herself.
The only difference was that I couldn't come up with any excuse that was good enough. Tom would have known if I had bought any bear paw shoes and then my brain was still too dazed.
I felt sick, and I didn't know if it was Tom or all that water I had had inside.