Wild Fire

The water splashed and rubbed against my skin like the unforgiving fingers of a predator, pulling my freezing form into the icy depths of the black water beneath me. Aside from the freezing liquid, which stabbed at my body like a thousand thorns, I felt nothing. My body, which was slowly loosing life, was numb. I found myself unable to move, unable to think, or to scream. All I could do was wait. Wait for death to take me, or wait for life to reenter my body, which was very unlikely. I had to at least hope that if God decided to take me now, he would do it fast.

* * * The cold was gone, I could feel again. The things I felt though, were unknown to me, There were many. I was wrapped in something warm, pleasant, though itchy. A blanket maybe? There was also the familiar pinch on the inside of my elbow, an IV? Did that mean I was in a hospital? Yea I guess I was. Suddenly, I was able to register the smell of antiseptic spray and medicine. I felt something else, In my hand this time, warmer then the blanket and far less annoying then the pinch of the IV. It was soft, but strong, soothing, comforting in a way. It felt like home. I twitched my fingers, trying to identify what the object was, it was on the tip of my tongue, but I couldn’t place it.

I heard a gasp when my hand moved. The sound was familiar to me, a rushed intake of air, hollow but still helpful. It sounded like Mama, when she was excited. Mama? She was here.

Of course she is stupid! Your in a hospital! The little voice in the back of your head was so irritating sometimes.

I liked the sound of that gasp, as if I had made her day, I lived for that feeling sometimes. I twitched my fingers again. This time though I moved them around her hand, a little firmer then before.

“Annabelle?!” The knife of my mothers excited whisper cut through the dead silence.

“Annabelle, Can you hear me? Move your hand again, if you can.”

I did as I was told, twitching my fingers as much as I could. My mother was happy to see me move, I like seeing her happy. I opened my eyes to see her face, and there it was, A little blurry at first, but as my eyes adjusted to the light I registered her better.

Her pretty brown eyes, always shining with emotion, looked down on me, red rimmed and puffy. She had been crying, over me.

‘Oh Mama! Were you crying over me? I’m sorry’ I wanted to say but I couldn’t, there was a tube down my throat . So instead I squeezed her hand again.

“Oh God Belle, you scared me so much honey, you had me and your father panicking! Don’t worry about it though pumpkin, everything’s fine now. Can you stay awake while I go get your father, and the doctor?”

I nodded weakly and she walked, no jogged, out of the room. Down a white and green hall, to what I guessed to be a waiting room.

I looked around my room, taking in the plain white walls to my sides, and one in front made entirely of glass. This was the Intensive care unit, the ICU. It was familiar to me, because my nana had spent her last hours in a room, very much like this one. I must have been really sick to have ended up back here.

Through the glass wall, I could see the nurses station. They were all hustling about. I looked up at a clock, it was 10pm, I imagined the nurses were getting ready to switch shifts. Someone had turned on the TV to some mindless sitcom that no one was interested in. Down the hall, I could here alarms sounding. Not like a fire alarm, more like an alarm clock, alerting the nurses that medicine tubes needed to be refilled.

beep, beep, beep.

On the interior of my room, on the regular walls, there was the same TV, on the same sitcom. The same boring white and green walls, my mother had run down earlier. I saw the monitors and machines next to my bed, all hooked up to me. The one that had my heart rate and stuff on it was to my left, and to my right, next to the back door, was a machine I recognized as a ventilator. It was a big old clunky looking plastic thing. Tan, on silver wheels, with big red numbers flashing on a small out dated screen. I didn’t know what any of them meant, except one.

70%

That was my current oxygen level, without the help of the machine. That’s less, way less then it should be. Normal humans can’t, shouldn’t get lower then 80%, but I had…

I shivered. I couldn’t believe that my life had slipped so far away, all because of one mistake. I shouldn’t have been any were near the lake, especially when daddy had told us about the mountain lion he had seen up there. I was so stupid, If Sunny hadn’t bolted and knocked my in the water, we would have both been killed.

I hadn’t believed the story about the lion, but when I saw it, coming out of the trees, stalking me and the horse, looking at us as if we were its next meal , I freaked out. Sunny had freaked out too, and the next thing I knew, I was in the water, freezing to death.

“ Annabelle!” I heard the deep voice of my daddy at the door. I looked up to see tears shining in his green eyes.

“Oh My God! Baby girl! You’re ok!” I had the feeling he was saying that more to himself then to me.

I nodded. This was weird for me. My daddy, in his late forties, brown hair turning grey, and in all his southern charm, was not an emotional man. Not once had I ever seen him cry, over anything.

Behind him was another man, The doctor I assumed. He was also in his late forties, grey haired and dark skinned, with a gawky, hawk like complexion, not like my broad shouldered muscular looking father . He had on the long white coat over blue scrubs and he was holding a clip board.

“Miss Grayson… How do you feel?” He asked me, and right away I didn’t like the sound of him. His voice was sort of high pitched, but not squeaky, just sneaky sounding. Like the bad guy in all the old western movies, the one that no one suspects until he tries to shoot the hero.

He knew full and well that I couldn’t talk, so I did nothing. He was staring at me, like I was annoying him, wasting his precious time or something. They all waited in silence, I could tell my parents were irritated at his behavior. It was obvious I wasn’t going to respond.

“Uhhhh Doc, She cant answer with that tube stuck down her throat.” Mama said, giving him a look she always gave the farm hands, or me when we said something stupid.

“Of course Mrs. Grayson, I am aware, but she still needs to respond in someway before we can further her treatment. You understand?”

She nodded and we were all annoyed. We all hated it when people acted like we were stupid, because we were southerners, Rednecks they called us. Well guess what Ya’ll, you live down here too!

I was about to give him a response, with the middle finger on my left hand, but daddy stopped me, putting and arm on my leg in warning. So instead I lifted my hand up and waved, cliché but it worked.

“Good, Good, But we cant take out the ventilator until your oxygen level increases to at least 80%. Ok?”

I nodded and gave him a look that said,

‘Duh Sherlock, I’m not stupid.’ and rolled my eyes.

He looked up at the clock, and left the room in a rush, he clearly had more important things on his mind then his patients.

I looked up at mama, I guess she could see the questions that were gleaming in my eyes, because she started to speak.

“Oh God honey, you had me and your daddy scared half to death! When you fell in the water you got Hypothermia, you would have drowned or froze to death if we had got there any later. You’ve been out cold for almost 3 weeks.”

three weeks! Oh my God, That’s insane!

Daddy picked up where Mama had left off,

“ We knew something was up when Caesar went off. That dog was going crazy! We went to look for you immediately. We wouldn’t have found you, if we hadn’t found Sunny first, We followed the poor creatures tracks through the snow.”

Daddy saw my concern for the horse and immediately put my worries to rest.

“Its ok baby girl, the horse is fine, she came home with us, Jesse and Riley have been looking after him.”

Jesse. Had he been here, to see me? I hope so.

“You found a good one hon. He didn’t leave your side for a week! We eventually told him he had to go back to the farm to take care of your horse.”

If I could’ve I would have grinned from ear to ear! My Jesse had come to see me, and he hadn’t wanted to leave my side! How sweet!

“You need to rest honey. We’ll stay with you ok?”

I nodded and closed my eyes.

* * *