Total pages in book: 150
Estimated words: 147136 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 736(@200wpm)___ 589(@250wpm)___ 490(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 147136 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 736(@200wpm)___ 589(@250wpm)___ 490(@300wpm)
There was a crash cart next to the bed and several other nurses circling and doing their jobs, plus other workers standing around watching. Then my eyes cut through the crowd and fell on the parents, who were huddled together at the back of the room, holding each other and crying.
I recognized the father first. He was facing the door. Then I recognized the kid when I looked back at the bed.
His wheelchair was in the corner next to the bathroom.
“Oh, God,” I whispered, bringing my hand up to my mouth. “Oh, my God.”
Brian didn’t say anything, but I heard him make a noise deep in his throat like he was choking, and I reached down and grabbed his hand, slid my fingers between his, and held on tight.
He held me back.
We stood outside that room together, watching as the doctors and nurses did everything they could to keep that boy alive. They worked tirelessly, switching off with compressions after several minutes, and at one point a doctor looked up and motioned for me to come in and shoot the x-ray, but then the heart monitor started alarming again and they had to go back to doing CPR.
Brian and I didn’t speak. We didn’t look at each other. I didn’t let go and neither did he.
Pneumonia can be a complication of spinal cord injuries.
People died from pneumonia. I wished that little boy could’ve been the exception that day.
But he wasn’t.
After eleven minutes, the doctors and nurses stopped working. There was nothing more they could do. His body gave up.
The parents ran to his side and held him as the team cleared the room to give them their privacy.
I was already crying but started crying harder.
I was devastated for them.
Brian dropped his head into the hand I wasn’t holding and fell apart next to me. His big, strong body nearly buckled in half.
“Honey,” I soothed, my voice trembling. I turned into him and wrapped my arms around his shoulders, holding the back of his head as he buried his face in my neck and pressed closer, his tears absorbing into my skin, his arms holding so tight around my back it hurt, but I let it.
I had to comfort him.
“It wasn’t your fault,” I whispered as we cried together, because I didn’t know if Brian was allowing himself to think that again and I couldn’t let him do that. I couldn’t. “Don’t go to that place, Brian. You didn’t do this, okay? This is not on you.”
He didn’t say anything back, but his arms squeezed tighter.
I winced and came up on my toes.
I didn’t tell him to stop. I kept comforting him.
And he kept holding tight.
I have no idea how long we stood there, but I did know I would stand there for as long as he needed.
“What …what are you doing here?”
Brian and I pulled away from each other at the sound of a woman’s voice at my back.
I turned my head and saw the parents of the boy standing just outside the room now. They were both staring at Brian, tears still filling the eyes of the father and the mother with fresh ones on her cheeks.
Brian didn’t respond. I looked to him and he was staring back, his body rigid and yet shaking somehow.
I grabbed his hand again and did the only thing I could think of.
“He’s the one who’s been giving you all that money,” I told the parents, feeling Brian’s hand tense in mine. “For your son. It’s all been from him.”
The father’s shoulders dropped. He stared in disbelief at Brian.
The mother sucked in a breath, her eyes widening as they slid from my face and looked to the man standing next to me. Then her lip started quivering, new tears built behind her lashes, her head started shaking, and she came forward, crying again as she threw her arms around Brian and gave him a hug.
I felt Brian stop shaking and his body go perfectly still. He didn’t reciprocate the affection and he never let go of my hand.
The hug lasted only a couple of seconds and she never said a word to him, then the mother stepped back, covered her mouth, and moved back into the room.
The father came in front of Brian then and placed his hand on Brian’s shoulder. He looked him in the eyes and I knew the man was expressing his gratitude even though he didn’t speak the words.
Maybe he couldn’t.
But Brian heard them. I could feel the tension leaving his body.
When the father stepped away, I looked up at Brian. His eyes had lost their focus and his breathing was shallow.
He was processing what he’d just been given.
It was a lot. I could tell.
I was sure he never expected it.
Brian gave that money knowing he’d never take credit for it.