Thank you very much for all the reviews I got. For this chapter I've given Theresa's mum the name Ramona. I don't think they've told us her actual name. I think she's Spanish and Ramona sounded Spanish to me so that's what I decided on. Anyway I hope you like this new chapter.
Everything will be alright
Chapter 2
"Daddy, who's that? Is he dead? Where did those bruises come from? Eww they're gross. I've never seen anyone with that many bruises before. Who are they?.."
Sandy could hear his son's incessant questions immediately from the minute he opened the door of the car.
"Shh Seth, This is Theresa, her mom and Ryan. Guys this is Seth he's my son"
Sandy could see Seth testing out the names of everyone as he climbed into the car. Theresa sat in the back next to Seth and Theresa's mom had Ryan on her lap in the front next to Sandy.
Theresa's mom could obviously see Seth doing this as well "You can call me Ramona. Theresa's mom is a bit of a mouthful" She smiled as Seth nodded testing that as well.
After Seth had got all the names sorted he focussed on Ryan again. "How did he get those bruises? Where's his mommy?"
Sandy was also focussed on Ryan he couldn't stop looking at him. If it wasn't for the rasping breaths he took Sandy would have thought he was dead. Bruises marred his whole face and his cheekbone was getting more and more swollen every time Sandy looked. How could anyone do that to a child? He thought. What was going on in his house?
The car was mostly silent except for Seth's babbled questions and Ramona's quiet instructions to the nearest hospital.
After a little while a small groan made them all jump. Seth froze mid sentence, the strange boy everyone seemed so worried about was waking up. Well that meant he wasn't dead which was good that was one of his questions answered.
"Hey Ryan, how are you feeling?" Ramona asked cradling him closely in case he wanted to make any more sudden moves and hurt himself more. It was clear though that Ryan had no energy whatsoever.
A dazed blue eye blinked open but he didn't move. His other eye was too swollen and Sandy grimaced at the colour it was.
"Uhh is he okay?" Sandy asked. Ramona looked thoughtful, contemplating an answer. Like Sandy she was finding it hard to keep her eyes off him.
"I don't know" She finally answered quietly. In the year that Ryan and his family had lived next door she'd never seen Ryan this bad before.
Her answer set Seth off again and he came up with more unanswerable questions. "Daddy? What does she mean? Is he going to die? Where's he from? Where are we going? What happened in the house? Where's Arturo? He was cool. Where's Ryan's mommy?"
Sandy caught a glimpse of Theresa sitting by Seth. She was looking at him like he was crazy and eyeing him up and down. Despite the situation Sandy had to bite back a laugh as Seth was completely unaware of Theresa's eye antics. He merely kept on talking.
Finally they reached the nearest hospital. Sandy turned to look at Ryan and was both relieved and worried to see Ryan's eye open. He was relieved because Ryan was awake but he was worried because his eye made him look like he was miles away and he wasn't really looking at anything. He hadn't said a word since he'd woken and Sandy noticed that he was shaking. His facial features were lined with pain.
"I'll get someone to come out, ok?" Ramona nodded and whispered something to Ryan that Sandy couldn't quite catch. He opened his door and climbed out slowly. He also let Seth and Theresa out. The last thing Ryan needed was Seth's babbling. He loved his son dearly including his never ending talking but right now wasn't the time.
He motioned to Ramona that he'd be back soon. This was weird, he's only just done that same motion to Seth hours before and all this had happened since then. Ramona didn't seem to notice though she was too busy looking after Ryan.
A small tugging on his jeans brought his attention to Seth who put his arms up wanting to be carried. Sandy lifted him and unconsciously hugged Seth much tighter than usual reminding himself that the boy in the car wasn't Seth and Seth would never be in that sort of state.
Forcing himself back to reality, Sandy rushed Theresa through the rotating glass door and ran up to the front desk plopping Seth on the desk.
"Excuse me sir, there's a queue…" The receptionist said grumpily sighing and glaring at Seth who was ruffling up the files on her desk.
Sandy looked to the side and saw the queue it was crazily long and Sandy knew Ryan and Ramona couldn't wait that long. All the people weren't half as injured as Ryan.
"Look I have a little boy in my car around 6. He's injured pretty badly… I'm afraid to move him." Sandy was desperate.
The receptionist sighed and softened a little bit. She called over a doctor who was walking passed. She went over to talk to him and Sandy tried to listen to what they were saying but the room was too loud with babies crying and drunk men shouting at each other. The waiting line was also talking loudly among each other annoyed that Sandy had pushed in.
Chino hospitals were very different from Newport hospitals. He'd had to take Seth once when Seth broke his arm on his new skateboard a few months before. The receptionists were friendly and the waiting room had some crying babies yes but no drunk men especially at this time of day. There were also no beaten children as Sandy could see many children in the waiting area with black eyes.
Finally the doctor turned to Sandy "Can you lead me to him? Do you know what happened?" Sandy did his best to tell him what he knew and led the doctor out of the hospital. He picked Seth up and they clung to each other again. Sandy also checked to see if Theresa was following. Her eyes were wide and she was walking very close to Sandy hiding from the drunken men.
Before Sandy knew it they were back at his car. The doctor was opening the door and asking Ramona questions and looking over Ryan. Sandy felt pressure on his leg and looked down to see Theresa clinging onto his leg. He stroked her hair carefully trying to sooth her and she looked up at him with wonderment in her eyes.
The doctor backed out of the car and motioned to someone behind Sandy who he hadn't seen before. The other doctor had a stretcher and medical supplies and he pushed them towards the car.
The first doctor placed an oxygen mask over Ryan's face, careful of his eye and cheekbone.
Sandy was in a daze all he could see was the little boy clenching his eye closed and his face palling as the doctor gently pulled him out of the car and placed him on the stretcher. The bruises on Ryan's face stood out blatantly on Ryan's pale complexion.
"Where the hell is he?" AJ paced the house like an angry cat ready to pounce.
Dawn cowered in the corner. Tears running down her cheeks.
"When I get my hands on him… I swear I'm gonna…" AJ broke off and plonked himself down on a chair, cracking his knuckles.
Ten minutes ago, AJ had gone out to get Ryan and the little twerp had gone. He'd lost interest in Dawn. She kept crying and it was too embarrassing for his ego to hit someone for more than hour who was that weak. He wanted to play with Ryan. Ryan was fun he hid the pain he felt and barred it out.
He got up quickly making Dawn jump and grabbed a bottle of beer before marching out of the house.
"Don't hurt him! Please…" Dawn wailed but he was out of the house and didn't even seem to hear her plea. Even if he did he didn't take notice.
AJ stopped momentarily in the drive to look at a matted mouse with scars lining its fur. It was lying in the grass next to a bush on the drive.
What interested AJ was a cat nearby eyeing up the mouse and ready to pounce. The Cat jumped but miraculously the cat was too slow and the mouse darted into the bush. AJ snorted. How could a mouse get away from a cat? What a stupid cat…
TBC
