-v-v-v-
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
-v-
Lights... and white walls zooming by...
Panic.
Somewhere… His mother's voice... His father's voice… Then... like stumbling through the darkness... slipping away...
.
.
.
When Ian opened his eyes, it took a moment for him to realize what exactly he was seeing. Finally he took in that he was in a hospital room and it was probably nighttime. He noticed two very familiar figures sitting on the chairs on his right. His parents were somehow leaning to each other, obviously sleeping and for a moment Ian just stared at them.
And in the following moment he panicked. He tried moving his limbs, his head, his fingers - and there was a huge relief - he could still move them.
"Mom... Dad,", he tried to say but his voice wasn't much.
But it was enough since his Mom seemed to be waking up.
"Mom," Ian repeated and within a second, her eyes were open. And within the next second she was up, next to him.
"Richard, wake up! Get the doctor!"
His father startled awake, glanced at Ian and rushed out of the room.
Before he knew it his Mom was holding him and soon someone kindly asked her to move. It was the doctor, a middle-aged man.
"Everything seems promising."
Then the doctor looked Ian straight in the eye.
"I hope you learned your lesson."
But what had actually happened? He remembered walking away from Jo's driveway... But he couldn't recollect how exactly he had ended up in the hospital but it wasn't hard to guess. He could only hope no one else had been hurt. He had to know.
"Did I... hurt anyone?" Ian got out, fixing his eyes on the ceiling, scared of the answer.
"You didn't," his mother said calmly and touched his forehead.
"Except yourself."
Ian couldn't describe the relief. Or what he felt when he heard his father serious voice.
"I'm just happy we didn't lose you, son."
...