A Bullet For Romeo

Voices mixed and mingled in the darkness.They weren't familiar and it startled me because they were slowly becoming louder.My eyelids felt wieghted down as I tried unsuccesfully to blink; "Bryson",someone cooed.I opened my eyes and took a deep breath.The air was sterlie and cold,I looked over to see the nurse. "what happend", I rubbed my eyes with the palm of my hand. "There was a shooting at your school and you were shot in both of your legs,"she paused ,"You lost a lot of blood and on the way here you passed out."The mans voice played through my head as I tried to remember what exactly had happend.She had my chart in her hands as she had checked the machines monitoring my heart rate.
Later on they wrapped my leg and explained that I would need a month of therapy to be able to walk again.The first bullet had torn some of my muscle fibers which would have to be repared today.Four days is how long they decieded to keep me.At around 11 o'clock they prepared me for surgery, which was scheduled at 11:45 A.M. They inserted Iv's and took my blood pressure while chatting casually.I remained polite though,trying to say as little as possible and answer their questions.
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My eye lashes fluttered as I opened my eyes.How long could I have been in surgery?Maybe and hour...or two, I glanced at the clock.Three thirty, which was around four hours.I pushed myself into a sitting position.All around my room I saw flowers,cards,and stuffed animals.I reached for the card on my tray next to my me."Get Well Soon,"it said in bright colorful letters.I rolled my eyes at it.How many people had come to see me while I had been unconsious?I tried counting all my gifts but gave up after twenty three.

The wounds were starting to heal up more rapidly than the doctors had expected.They let me go home a day earlier because of it.Not to mention I wouldn't eat the hospital food they gave me.My appitete decreased to the point that I didn't get hungry. The doctors had threatend to place a feeding tube in my throat after hearing the information from the nurses.They also suggested this to my mother,who strongly disapproved strongly.She began bringing me the kind of food I would usually eat.The doctors began to complain that the food was unhealthy and wouldn't be allowed.Which is also another reason they signed my discharge papers.
"we won't tolerate this Mrs.Russel ,"they said.
"Well then sign the forms so I can leave,"she would say smugly.My mother didn't like the hospitals but she hated having me in one because she knew that people died here.To her death was a contagious disease that could spread easliy through this stale air.I worried more than anything about her as she sat beside me in my bedroom.I was the only thing she would ever truly love in this cold world.As she pushed my hair back I could felll how nervous she was.
"You are my sunshine...," she would sing to me.Often I felt small drops of salt water fall on my face as she sang to me.I would brush them away from her eyes as she would have done the same for me.Since my father had died a month before I was born I had never had a fatherly figure in my home.I was the man of the house and I was never sure if I did the job right.
"You remind me of your father ," my mother would say.This never made much sense to me because the man in my mothers stories wasn't like me.