Chapter 6: The Awakening

Clarence began to stir. He woke up slowly. He heard voices close to him. He was still hearing the voices of Sumo, Apache and Belson. There were also the sounds in his brain, buzzing sounds, humming sounds, the sounds of a numbness and dizziness, like a radio in between stations. He kept his eyes closed while he tried to separate the real from the imaginary. Apart from the confusion in his head, he could feel no pain elsewhere on his body -in fact he couldn't even feel his body- He tried to stay calm and attempted to take things step by step. First my right leg, he told himself. He consciously instructed his brain to sent a message to his right leg but there was no movement. Now, the left leg. The result was the same. He tried his left arm, then his right arm but there was nothing. For a moment he gave in and tried to listen the conversation taking place around him.

-I told you ages ago, Chad, I don't like this area. I told you...we should have moved long ago. You can't bring kids up around our end without having to watch them every minute of the day. The drugs, the violence, the lack of respect-

It was his mother speaking at his Stepfather.

-You, you and your mates. You don't want to leave because you would miss your mates. Well, where are your mates now? Half of your mates haven't got kids and if they have got them, they don't know where they are most of the time. There's our kid, lying there-

Clarence began to work it all out his mind and cleared. He began to recall the car chase and its last moments when the car overturned. He could remember the first spin of the car like a slow motion replay. He remembered beign trapped upside down after the spin and the noise of being hit by another vehicle, but that was all. Now it began to fall into place. The next question in his mind was, what was happened to me? His mother was still talking at his Stepfather in the room.

She was speaking continuously without a break. Clarence began to feel. He actually had a sensation in his fingertips, he began to feel the movement of blood in his veins. He concentrated hard as he tried to move his fingers. Movement was possible but very limited. He was unable to make a fist. As he became aware of his body, he could at least now feel warmth in his limbs.

Very slowly, he began to open his eyes. The hospital lights cut it and forced him to close them again. He controlled his eyelids, opening them just enough to let his eyes get used to the idea of light. His eyelids flickered. For a moment he stared at his own eyelashes and as he continued his slow opening, he heard a scream.

-Aaarrrgh, Chad, he's waking up, I saw his eyelids move, Chad, he's waking up-

-OK, Mary. It's all alright-Clarence's Stepfather said in a whisper.

Clarence opened his eyes fully. At first he look straight ahead. He could see clearly but he couldno see much, only the hospital ceiling. He closed his eyes once more; now he started a body check. He moved his toes, he tensed his calf muscles and his thight muscles. He moved his whole left leg no more than quarter of an inch and then his right leg. It was the smallest of movements but all he wanted to know was that he was in control. By now there was more movment in his fingers, and again, a very small movements of his arms satisfied him. He breathed in deeply and his chest rose. Now Clarence openned his eyes again trying as he did so to raise his eyebrows but there was absolutely no feeling there. He tried to smile but he could feel only a hard skin watch he seemed unable to control. He tried to movd his jaw from side to side but the skin seemed inflexible and his jaw wouldn't move.

At this point Clarence knew that something terrible had happened to his face. His heart pounded hard in his chest. He shifted his eyes to the left and saw his Stepfather standing over at him.

-Are you OK?-

Clarence felt that he was using up all his strenght just sending blood around his body and opening his eyes -He certainly didn't have the strength to speak-. But his mind was beginning to work and he did think that Are you OK? Was strange question. He had very little idea of how he really was. His mother came into sight of his right side.

-Clarence, Clarence my baby. We're here, Clarence. We're gonna look after you, it's your mom and Stepfather. We're here-

His mother on one side began to cry uncontrollably, his stepfather on the other side just stared into Clarence's eyes. Clarence blinked, the blink much slower than the thought it was. By the time he had re-focused, his stepfather was on the same side as his mother with his arms around her. He could see the anguish in her crying but he was helpless, unable to move, unable to speak and unable to reach out to her. He gave in. He closed his eyes and fell asleep to the sound of his mother crying above him.