Chapter 8

I tried to sit up but I couldn’t. Pain like a bayonet shot through my back and I screamed. I couldn’t stand the pain and I couldn’t breathe and I almost panicked and I wondered if this was what dying was like. Then the pain in my back lessened a little and I could breathe again. I sucked in through my mouth to try to get some air again and then I tried to get up but that brought the pain back even worse. I gasped for breath and tried to calm down a little. I was frowning from the pain and panting for breath and I couldn’t keep my eyes from squinting. I tried to change my face back to normal so it didn’t show the pain I was in but I couldn’t. I managed to turn my head and saw Margaret kneeling over Alex.

“Margaret! Is she OK? Don’t let her die! I love her, Margaret! Please don’t let her die.”

She scrambled over to me, put her fingers over my lips, brushed my hair back off my face, and smiled down at me.

“Hush, Mike. I think she’s OK. She bumped her head but she’s breathing normally. She’s going to wake up in a minute and then she’s going to want to know what happened. I’m going to tell her you’re hurt but you’re OK. Do you understand?”

I looked up at her and nodded. “I love her, Margaret. I’m sorry I fell on her. I said I’d never hurt her and now I have. I...”

She put her fingers over my mouth again.

“Michael, I saw what happened. You stepped in front of her and took the blow for her. You didn’t hurt her. You tried to protect her. It was just an accident.”

I heard the kid crying. “Is the boy OK? He was just trying to get away from that dog! He was scared and he didn’t see us until too late!”

She looked to the other side and I did too and I saw a woman holding the boy. He looked like maybe eight years old. He was looking at Alex and me and crying and his face was full of tears.

“Tell him I’m not mad, Margaret. I saw that damned Rottweiler trying to bite him. It wasn’t his fault. I don’t blame him.”

“He heard you, Michael. Now I want you to shut your eyes and try to relax and don’t move. You may have a spinal injury. EMT will be here in a few minutes. I need to call your mother and tell her to meet us at the emergency room at University Hospital.”

“OK. Please, Margaret, don’t let anything happen to Alex. Take care of her. I love her, Margaret. I want to marry her.”

She put my hands together on my chest and that hurt like hell too. She saw the pain on my face worsen and looked down at my left hand.

“Michael, the back of your hand is badly abraded and your thumb looks like it might be broken or dislocated. Let your hand rest on your chest and don’t move it. Try to relax. OK?”

“OK.”

She moved back to Alex and held her hand and whispered to her. I saw Alex lift her other hand and then I saw her eyes open. I immediately relaxed. I knew she wasn’t dead.

“Michael, Alex is trying to regain consciousness,” Margaret said. “She’s going to be very confused for a while. Remember I’m going to tell her you’re injured but you’re OK.”

I shut my eyes and surrendered to the pain but it was only in my back and in my hand. It wasn’t in my heart anymore.

I heard the EMT siren and a minute later, a man and a woman were examining me and Alex. The guy knew Margaret was a nurse and the two of them talked so low I couldn’t understand what they were saying.

Then I heard Alex say something and Margaret immediately went back to her. The EMTs quickly moved me to a stretcher and strapped me down, chest and arms and legs, and even immobilized my head. Then I couldn’t see but I assumed they were doing something with Alex.

Just a few minutes after their arrival, Alex and I were in the back of the EMT van and on our way to the hospital. The EMT guy said he wasn’t supposed to let anybody else but him and the patient ride in the back but since he had two patients and Margaret was a nurse she could go with us. He looked at my left hand, saw it was injured, and then used my right wrist to start an IV. I couldn’t move my head but I heard Margaret talking to Alex and she replied like she was drunk or sleepy.

At the hospital emergency room, they wanted to put me and Alex in separate rooms but I protested and asked them to keep us together. They refused but I threatened to scream. Margaret told them Alex was blind and I was her fiancée and we didn’t want to be separated. They put us in the same little room.

Within a minute, two nurses, a woman and a man, started examining us. He asked me about my pain level, 1 to 10, and I told him it was a 10. He put something in the IV tube and I felt something strange flush through me and then the pain eased a little. I didn’t even protest when they stripped me naked and put a hospital gown over me. My head was still immobilized and I couldn’t see Alex but I heard them putting a gown on her too.

I listened to the nurse examining Alex and she didn’t seem too worried about her. Margaret told her what happened and the nurse said I probably knocked the breath out of her when we fell and then she hit her head and the combination probably made her unconscious for a few minutes. Alex was awake but not making much sense and the nurse said that was normal for someone who had been unconscious.

A few minutes later, they took me and Alex to the X-ray room. Margaret said they were going to X-ray Alex’s skull and my spine and hand and for me not to worry because everything was going to be alright.

After that, they rolled us back to the little room and a doctor came in and looked at our X-rays. He told Margaret that Alex’s showed no signs of bleeding in her skull and he thought she would be fine but he wanted her kept in the hospital overnight for observation. Then he read my X-rays, a bunch of them, and said he saw a nice straight spine and he couldn’t see any damage and my pain was probably caused by a bad sprain. He said my thumb was dislocated and he was going to fix it.

Then I heard Mom asking where I was and Margaret went out of the room and I heard them talking. Gianna came in the room and kissed me on the forehead and just stood looking at me and rubbing the side of my face and smiling at me. I felt better because her eyes told me what she didn’t want to say with the nurses in the room, that she loved me. Mom came in and kissed me on the cheek and held my right hand, the one with the IV in it. The doctor stuck me with a needle on my hurt hand, my left one, and tried to pull my thumb off and then the nurse put ointment on my hand and bandaged it and taped my thumb in place. Then they removed the stuff holding my head and I was able to look at Alex. Margaret was holding her hand and they were whispering.

I heard Aiden talking outside and a minute later he came in, rubbed my cheek, and said “Thanks, Mikey.” He spoke to Mom and then turned and spoke to Alex. She called him Dad so I knew she was about back to herself.

After a few minutes, Aiden went outside and Azee came in. One asked me, “Whassup, Mikey,” and I didn’t feel like talking but I smiled. The other said something to Alex and I heard her call him Anthony and then Zorba said something to her too and she called him by name. I felt like I was swimming through Jell-O but I felt better because I knew Alex was OK.

I heard somebody talking about finding a two-bed room and a little later a couple of guys came in to take us to a room. Dad was coming in just as we started to the elevator and both families squeezed in the elevator. I wanted to talk to Alex but I couldn’t think right.

Mom and the nurses moved me to another bed and the nurse told me that I should not try to sit up and I should stay flat on my back. When she asked if I was comfortable, I shook my head no. She stuffed a pillow behind my knees, asked again, and I nodded. I felt like saying whoopee but I didn’t want anybody to think I was drunk.

After a while, the nurse came back with a huge ice pack and said she wanted to put it under my back. She and Gianna and mom slowly and gently rolled me over on my side and even that hurt so bad I struggled not to scream. I realized the damned hospital gown had fallen to the side and my dick and balls were all hanging down for everybody to see but I didn’t care. I thought maybe I might charge admission to see the show. Then they eased me back down on the ice pack and I felt the cold from my shoulder blades to my butt. Mom covered my good parts again and smiled down at me. I tried to calm down and relax and gradually I did. Later, they rolled me to the side again and removed the ice pack. This time, I held the gown over my privates. I didn’t want to let anybody see the show for free.

Still later, Mom raised the head of my bed a little and Azee and Gianna fed Alex and me some stuff. I probably drank too much liquid because later I had to piss and I did not like what happened then. A cute nurse came in, chased everybody out, and put a catheter in my dick. I wanted to crawl under the bed but she was a cute girl and I smiled back at her. My dick didn’t even think about getting hard. I’d never had a catheter before but I suppose it did its job because the urge to pee subsided. I was glad the nurse stood between me and Alex so she couldn’t see. Then I remembered that Alex couldn’t see no matter what was done to me and I knew I still wasn’t thinking right.

I heard our families talking outside and Azee and Gianna begging to stay in the room with us first and our parents finally agreed. I felt better and I talked to Alex some and with Azee and Gianna but I was sleepy and not making much sense. Alex had to go to the bathroom and Gianna pushed her buzzer and a nurse came in and the nurse and Gianna took Alex to potty.

Then another nurse came in to ice me down again. Azee and Gianna rolled me to the side and the gown slid off my hip again. I was tired and I didn’t care if everything was showing. She put a hypodermic needle full of something in the IV tube and I felt it flush through me again and I wanted to say whoopee again but I didn’t.

The nurse talked to Azee and they played with her about getting confused as to which was Anthony and which was Zorba. I didn’t say anything because I couldn’t think right.

Finally our parents left and we were with just Azee and Gianna. I asked them to do something and Gianna called the nurse. A guy came in and she put on her best sexy girl act and asked him, using her sultry voice and her smile and her eyes on him, if we could push both beds together. He helped Azee and Gianna do it. He even took my hand in his, the one with the IV in it, took Alex’s hand, and put our hands together. He smiled at me and then shook his head.

“Alex, three little words,” I said, as soon as he left.

“Yes, Mikey, three little words.”

“I think I’m going to sleep. May I hold your hand?”

“Yes, Mikey.”

I wish I could say that was all I knew until the next morning but it seemed like every few minutes somebody was checking on me and Alex. At least twice more I was iced down again and I wondered if I was pissing ice cubes into the catheter bag. I complained about being cold and somebody put a warm blanket over me. Once I complained about hurting and they squirted some more stuff down my IV tube.

Azee and Gianna sat on one side of room and whispered and giggled a lot but they also wiped my face with a cold washcloth and talked to me and held my hand and kissed me on the cheek, Gianna, not Azee. Azee did hold my hand for a while. He squeezed a few times and I squeezed back and he smiled at me. Maybe I smiled back.

When I woke up the next morning Margaret was sitting in a chair reading something. I asked if I could hold Alex’s hand again and she put our hands together and smiled at me. Alex and I talked and I told her what had happened and she seemed back to normal. Maybe I was too in my head but I still couldn’t even think about sitting up.

Mom came back and fed me breakfast. Margaret fed Alex and our two moms talked back and forth over us. After a while Margaret made me turn loose of Alex’s hand and they moved our beds apart. She said the doctors would be making rounds in a few minutes. They finally came and poked and prodded me and asked me and Alex lots of questions and then told our moms that we would be released shortly. The nurse came in and removed the IV in my hand and the damned catheter in my dick and that made me feel lots better. Margaret and Mom put my old robe and some socks on me and I was naked and they both saw me but I didn’t care. It hurt a lot to move but it was more of a sore hurt and not so much a bayonet in the back hurt.

It seemed like forever but finally they put us both in wheelchairs and took us downstairs. Our families were waiting with different cars and I thought that meant I was going home with my parents. The nurse helped me in the front passenger seat and Dad reclined it and I shut my eyes. Then Mom said something about me being home and I opened my eyes and I saw Alex’s house and her parents helping her in the door.

Dad and Aiden almost carried me in the house and took me straight to Alex’s room. Before they put me in Alex’s bed, they helped me into some black exercise shorts and then took off my robe and helped me get a t-shirt over my head. Then Margaret and Mom helped me lay down on the side of the bed. The pain wasn’t too bad as long as I let them move me without using any of my muscles. Alex crawled in her bed, shorts and t-shirt and white socks just like me, and cuddled up to my side. I felt like I really was home then.

I heard Mom and Dad and Margaret and Aiden talking outside the room and I understood what they wanted to do. I was to stay with Alex overnight and my family was coming back for lunch Sunday and then I was going home with my parents. Azee and Gianna must have been with them because I heard Azee begging Gianna to stay too. Gianna and Azee promised they’d be good, whatever that means to sixteen year-olds, and my parents let her stay.

Later that morning, Margaret came in with another big ice bag. I tried to turn on my side but that wasn’t what she wanted. She and Azee and Gianna turned me like a flap jack and Margaret pulled my t-shirt up to my shoulders and my shorts down below my butt. They all stood there looking at the big bruise for a while and talking about it. I shut my eyes and tried to relax and let them look.

Then I felt a warm soapy washcloth on my back and I opened my eyes. It was Gianna. Margaret told her to be very gentle and I suppose she was. She even rubbed down in my butt crack a little. She didn’t hurt me so I shut my eyes again. Next I felt somebody rubbing my back with some lotion so I looked again. It was Alex and I thought maybe I could get to like this.

That day, Saturday, I ate lunch with Alex, sandwiches, flat on my back in her bed. Azee and Gianna waited on us. Afterwards we took a nap with Alex lying half on me and her head on my shoulder. I woke up feeling much better except for a full bladder.

I needed to pee but Margaret wouldn’t let me get up even to go to the bathroom. She left, came back with a plastic urinal, and told me to call Azee when I was done. Then Alex and her mother left me alone so I could pee in privacy. I finally managed to get the urinal down between my legs and stuff my dick in it and then grunted until I pissed. Azee took it half-full, brought it back empty, and sat it on the nightstand next to me.

After dinner Margaret gave me another ice treatment and a gentle massage. That’s how I ended up naked on my stomach with a towel over my butt, at least part of it, with Gianna and Azee watching, giggling, and making obscene suggestions and trying to guess which part of Europe the bruise on my back looked like. Alex told them about the port-wine stain on my butt that looked like Africa and they looked at it and everybody agreed it did and asked her how she knew.

Margaret wanted Gianna to watch so she could give me the same treatment once a day for a while. After she finished, Margaret didn’t bother to help me put on my shorts and shirt again. She just pulled a sheet over me up to the waist and I turned over. I was naked in Alex’s bed and Alex was cuddled up to me and I knew her mother approved of me being there. Gianna and Azee probably wanted to play video games or something else and they left.

Alex started squirming and I watched as she took off her t-shirt and panties and she was as naked as I was. She cuddled up to my side again, both of us naked, in bed together, her head on my shoulder, one leg over both of mine, and one arm over my chest. Margaret was watching and she just smiled, pulled the sheet back over us up to our waists, and left the room. Alex and I were naked in bed together in her room and I knew her mother approved.

By eight o’clock that night, I was convinced that I should take one of the pain pills the hospital gave me in order to sleep. Alex left the room, came back with her mother, crawled back in bed with me, and cuddled up to my side. We were both still naked under the sheet and Margaret acted like it was perfectly OK for us to be together. She said I should start with one pill and, if I wasn’t asleep in a few hours, I could take another. She gave me the pill and a little water.

Then she leaned over, kissed me on the forehead, caressed the red side of my face, leaned over further, and kissed Alex on the forehead and whispered to her. She brushed my face with her breasts, looked me in the eyes, smiled wickedly at me. Before she left, she turned out the overhead lights and a little night light near Alex’s desk came on. I wondered why Alex needed any light at night since it was always dark to her. Then I remembered Margaret’s breasts on my face, how soft they were and how nice she smelled.

I laughed a little too loudly.

“What’s funny, Mikey?” Alex asked.

“Your mother. When she leaned over to kiss you, she dragged her breasts over my face.”

“She’s just playing with you, Mikey. In lots of ways, she and Dad are both like kids. They like to tease and have fun just like we do.”

“Yeah, but, damn it, she had on a t-shirt. It would have been a lot more fun if she’d been bare breasted.”

“Mikey, you’re being bad. You must be feeling better.”

Alex scrunched up closer to me and put her head on my shoulder again. She also put one hand down below with her fingers sort of cupping my testicles and her thumb around my penis. I liked that and, any other time, I would have had a big boner for her to play with. My dick wasn’t hard and I didn’t care. It was just so damned good to relax with Alex while we whispered and giggled and talked and laughed. Inside I felt like crying because Alex was OK and was with me and I knew she loved me like I loved her.

“Alex, I wish you could see my face, my eyes, I mean. I wish you could see how much I love you. I’ve heard that the eyes are a window on the soul and if we could look in each other’s eyes maybe our souls would connect and I’d like that.”

“Mikey, there’s some possibility I may see again someday. Mom and Dad keep up with the surgical possibilities and there’s been a lot of improvement since my accident. My eyes are just fine. It’s the optic nerves that are damaged. The doctors have had some success in helping patients see again. I haven’t given up. Now that I know you love me, I’m never going to give up.”

“I thought it was permanent.”

“No. The surgery is risky but it’s being improved all the time.”

“Why is it risky? Could it make things worse?”

“No, I don’t mean that. There’s just a risk that it won’t help me see again. If they keep developing the surgery, maybe I can have it done in a few years.”

“I wish you could get your sight back before we have babies.”

“That would be nice.”

“Well, anyway, I’m afraid you’re stuck with me. You may never see my beautiful face.”

“Don’t say that, Mikey. I’ve already seen your face with my hands. I know it’s beautiful.”

“You’re the beautiful one, Alex. Maybe we’re like beauty and the beast.”

“No, Mikey, you’re not a beast. I’m Sleeping Beauty and you’re the Handsome Prince who’s going to kiss me and awaken me. Now shut up and kiss me.”

“I can’t. I’m supposed to stay flat on my back. You’ll have to kiss me.”

“OK. If I have to, I will.”

I was almost asleep when I heard three taps on the door.

“Come in, Mom,” Alex said.

Margaret came in. So did Aiden. They were both naked.

“It’s your mother and father both, Alex,” I whispered. “They’re both naked.

“I told you we were sort of like nudists at home, Mikey,” she said. “It’s Saturday night so they’re probably going to make love before they go to sleep.”

Margaret and Aiden, hand in hand, walked over to the side of the bed and stood looking down at Alex and me. I was conscious of where Alex’s hand was but the sheet was still over us up to our waists. I looked at Margaret’s beautiful breasts, down to the dark patch between her legs, and over to Aiden. His penis looked swollen and ready to stand up about like mine.

“I told Aiden how beautiful you two were together,” Margaret said. “He said he wished he could see. So I brought him to let him see.”

Alex didn’t raise her head from my shoulder. She didn’t move her hand from my good parts. She whispered, “Hey, Dad, Hey, Mom.

“They are beautiful, Margaret,” Aiden said. “Very beautiful.”

Margaret reached down, caught the sheet, and pulled it down to our knees. I knew Alex could feel the sheet being removed but she still didn’t move her hand.

‘Thank you, Aiden, Margaret,” I said.

“For what?” Aiden asked.

“For your daughter,” I said. “She’s going to be my wife.”

“Yes, I know, Margaret said.

“Be good to her, Mike,” Aiden said.

Margaret reached down again to where Alex’s hand was cupped under my testicles with her thumb curled around my penis. In the warmth of the room and with Alex’s hand on me, my penis was swollen just shy of getting hard. Of course I wanted Alex. I always do now but I knew I couldn’t move my butt tonight. Margaret put her hand over Alex’s for a moment and then trailed her fingertips up over my penis, my chest, and my cheek. I couldn’t believe it. I looked up and Aiden and Margaret were both smiling down at us.

“Welcome to the family, Mike,” Aiden said.

Hand and hand, they quietly left Alex and me together.

As usual I wasn’t conscious of what time I went to sleep. I woke up sometime later with my bladder insisting it wanted to be emptied. I eased up and at the same time swung my legs off the bed and ended up sitting on the side of the bed, waiting for the pain to ease. My back hurt but not too bad as long as I was slow and easy. Alex woke up too.

“What are you doing, Mikey?”

“Sitting on the side of the bed. I’ve got to pee.”

“Are you hurting? Do you want me to get the urinal for you?”

“Yeah, I hurt some but it’s more like sore, not sharp like a bayonet in my back. I want to go to the bathroom.”

“I’ll go with you. You need me to hold it for you.”

“No, I don’t.”

“Yes, you do.”

“I know where it is. I can hold it myself.”

“Yeah, but it would be more fun if I’m holding it.”

“OK.”

She stood there behind me, both of us naked, belly against my butt, breasts boring holes in my back, and hands holding my semi-hard dick. I leaned forward, put both hands on the wall, held back and whispered to her until she was pointing my dick to the center of the commode. When I let go, we drilled down in the bowl and foamed up the water.

I put the seat back down for her and she sat down and peed down into my pee. When she asked me to hand her some toilet paper, I asked if I could do it. She spread her legs and told me to pat, not wipe. I squatted down and, damn, my back hurt but it wasn’t too bad. I patted and dropped the paper and patted some more with my fingers. She giggled and we both stood up. We held hands and walked slowly back to her room and crawled in her bed. I wasn’t quite ready to go back to sleep. There was something I wanted to talk to her about.