9. My First Valentine

Richie visits the hospital. Also, Meet V.

I got to the hospital as fast as I could. I didn’t have  to ask the people at the front desk where to go, I just followed the directions Carrie’s mom specified in her text. I thought I’d gotten lost for a minute but I saw Ms. Thompson waiting outside of one of the doors. She was in a stylish sweatsuit, as if she was at the gym or someplace when the emergency struck. Her eyes were a little puffy, it seemed like she had cried a little earlier.

“There you are,” she called as I walked over to her. “Carrie’s inside. You can go see her but she’s asleep.”

“How’d it go?”

“The doctors said she has to stay in the hospital for a few days to receive extra antibiotics, but she should be fine.”

I let out a sigh of relief.

“You can go in and see her if you want but she’s asleep.”

“Has she got up at all since the surgery?” I asked.

“Not fully, she just talks a little in her sleep,” Ms. Thompson explained. “I think she’s having loopy dreams from the anesthesia. She keeps asking to see Superboy.”

Carrie turned her head a little. I sprang up in my seat. That was the most movement she’d done in a while now. That seemed to be the end of it though, she was still nowhere close to consciousness.

Ms. Thompson had gone home after making certain with the doctors that her daughter would be alright. I stayed behind, not sure exactly what I was waiting for, but I didn’t want to leave yet. It was nine-ish when I’d gotten to the hospital, and I hadn’t checked the time since. I’m sure Uncle T was wondering where I was, or what was so important that I rushed out in the middle of the night and left him to babysit King Ghidorah. All that didn’t matter now, though. I was here with Carrie, and that’s all that was important.

I wondered when the nurse would show up again; if anyone would tell me I had to leave for visiting hours or some other arbitrary hospital rule. I didn’t care what they said anyway, I wouldn’t leave her. For a moment I was distracted by how innocent and helpless she looked, laying there in that gown no different from the others all throughout the building as if she were another indistinguishable face among thousands in this infernal place, stripped of her identity and reduced to a patient number.

I sat back in my seat and watched her there, not sure what I was expecting to see. An hour passed, or maybe two or three, it was getting hard to tell. I closed my eyes for just a second and when I opened them back up, I wasn’t at the hospital anymore.

I don’t know where I am but it’s someplace far away from anyone else, alone in the night. The only things in sight any direction is darkness and stars. The cold touches my skin through my jacket and makes me shiver until I clutch my own arms to get warm. My jaw is trembling but I can’t see my breath. I realize the stars aren’t above me, but rather all around me. I get up from my seat and look down to see what I’m standing on isn’t ground, but a stone-like surface with little rocks slowly raising themselves off of it.

I desperately look around for a sign of life but can’t find anything. I’m alone in this cold nothingness. An all too familiar empty feeling grows in the pit of my stomach and spreads throughout my body, eating away at it worse than the cold. Without thinking, I begin to walk. I have no specific direction, nothing to expect to find, but I continue stepping forward because it’s the only thing that makes the emptiness begin to fade.

I see a figure in the distance, too far to make out but I’m getting closer. It’s a person walking. I can’t see who they are yet, but the way they’re strolling they don’t look troubled at all. I almost think I can hear their voice laughing. A girl’s voice I’d recognize anywhere, it’s you. I try to call your name but you’re too far away to hear me. I jump up and wave to no avail. I start running to you, even though it’s getting harder and harder for my body to function in this cold. You’re wearing a flannel shirt and one of your plaid skirts with high socks, yet you don’t seem to be bothered by it at all. You’re looking up at the stars with an expression of wonder on your face. I can’t run anymore, I want to drop to the ground and start shaking. I look down at my hands and see they barely have any color left to them. I want to scream out in pain but I can’t breathe. That’s when I feel your hand on my shoulder from behind, turning me around.

You look me right in the eye, your face seeming worried for a moment, then the smile returns to your mouth as you take my hand in yours. Your touch warms my hands instantly, and it spreads until my whole body is fine again. I can breathe now, and it’s like that empty feeling was never there. You gently push me back, causing me to trip over a small stone and fall into a chair. You sit down in one just like it and suddenly there’s a familiar table between. You straighten your glasses and reach your hand over the table toward me. I hold it with both of mine.

“Are you gonna stay?” I ask, finally finding the courage to speak. “After our lives change, even if everything’s falling apart, will you still be here?”

At first you don’t say anything, you just look me in the eyes and your hold of my hand tightens. You smile again as you speak my name,

“Richie...:”

Your voice doesn’t match though, even though you’re smiling it’s tired and raspy.

“Richie… Richie?”

I jolted upright in my chair, rubbing my eyes as they readjusted to the sharp light of the hospital. I looked over in ecstatic surprise to see Carrie awake, wearily reaching over to a nearby table for her glasses.

“Richie is that you?”

She straightened those glasses over her eyes and suddenly looked a lot less troubled and helpless.

“I’m here,” I answered. “Are you… Okay?”

What a stupid thing to ask right then. She laughed a low, breathless laugh that almost seemed like it hurt her. Gritting through it, she looked up and smiled at me.

“Richie, why are you so awkward?”

The cafe felt like a different place without Carrie there. I was suddenly noticing artsy decorations on the walls and counters I never had before, and I was surprised by how many people there were.

“Is it always this busy?” Theo asked. I shrugged, honestly not knowing if this was more than usual or if I’d just stopped paying attention. King Ghidorah sporadically tugged the leash in my hands, making a break for it after every person that walked by.

In the back of my mind I always wondered if I would see her again, but I never imagined it would be like this; at mine and Carrie’s private spot with a spastic puppy and an awkward Theo who didn’t know what to say. But there she was, sitting across from me, casually sipping low fat, non-dairy chai latte. Viola Walters had gotten a new hairstyle, a ponytail I guess that frizzed out wildly, and wore gold hoop earrings and blue lipstick that went along with the rest of her ensemble. She looked like she was about to go shoot for a magazine cover or something, but that’s kinda how she always looked; she was an artsy girl with a style that matched her personality, and she wouldn’t be caught dead blending into a crowd.

“It’s good see you V,” I said, tying Ghidorah’s leash to my chair. “Sorry my date couldn’t come through, being hospitalized and all.”

“No problem, Rich,” she said with her radiant smile. “This is a real nice place you and her found, though.”

“Yeah, it’s pretty chill. It’s also the only place we could think to meet this dog’s owner after Carrie’s mom finally tracked them down.”

Said dog had moved on from running around aimlessly to sitting still and licking himself unflatteringly.

“Jesus, KG, have some self respect.”

I noticed Theo had been uncharacteristically quiet for a while now. I wondered if he was still feeling awkward around her even now.

“So,” I said to her, trying to incite a conversation between the two. “You know where you’re going to college?”

“Nowhere,” she answered proudly. “The things I wanna do with my life, the places I wanna go, college isn’t gonna get me there.”

I wondered what and where exactly those things and places were, but figured that was information I didn’t need to pry at.

“What about your parents,” I asked. “They cool with that?”

“They’ll learn to be,” she answered with dismissive sass. “My parents are real old fashioned most times, but deep down they know I don’t live to meet anyone’s expectations. Not even for a society that brainwashes families into thinking college is the key to life so they can live off our student loan debt. I don’t need anything to succeed in life but my dreams and my will, I mean that’s what’s got me this far.”

“You haven’t changed, huh, V? Still fearless as ever.”

“Fearless? Nah. Life can be scary as hell. But that’s what makes your decisions meaningful. Until you’re ready to take chances, until you’re ready to put it all on the line, you’re not ready to live.”

As she spoke those words, her big brown eyes glowed with wonder and a lust for excitement as she passionately stared off into space. I was beginning to remember why Theo always seemed so smitten with her. He looked a little uneasy as she talked about rising above the blood-sucking system, probably fearing that she’d laugh at his football scholarship. He changed the subject,

“Ayo what time is it? Ain’t the dog’s owner supposed to be here?”

KG happily let out a high pitched bark, as if answering Theo’s question. I checked the time on my phone.

“According to Carrie’s mom, they should be here two minutes ago.”

“That them?” V asked, pointing to the glass double doors as they pulled back and opened. Theo immediately started cracking up, King Ghidorah excitedly pulling his leash with his teeth. I sat there for a moment in shock and disbelief, and an angry emotion I can’t really explain. I bitterly thought aloud,

“Are… You… Kidding me right now?”

And that was all I could say as Grant Peters awkwardly walked up to us, that dumb, cocky jock look that was usually on his face replaced in part by reluctant gratitude and in part relief that his pet was okay. He walked up to me and we made eye blank-faced contact for a solid minute, nobody knowing what to say. He bent down and lifted Ghidorah into his big arms, not flinching at the subsequent onslaught of face-licking.

“Thank you.” he said.

“Don’t mention it,” I said. “Keep the leash.”

And with that, he turned around walked out. Now dogless, Theo, V and I sat there, with only the cafe’s selection of hipster music to cover the silence, until Theo busted out laughing again.

“Wait,” V uttered, confused by the whole thing. “Why’d that guy look familiar? Y’all know him?”

Carrie’s face was bright red as she laughed, then the color was immediately drained from it as she grabbed her side and winced in pain.

“Sorry,” I said sheepishly. “Still can’t breathe too hard, huh?”

“It’s okay,” she sighed, tossing and turning in those hospital sheets.. “I needed that.”

“How can a person so terrible have a pet so innocent?”

She smiled. “And circumstances had it that you ended up taking care of his puppy. Isn’t irony spectacular?”

“Theo thought so. So did V when he explained it to her.”

“Seems like they didn’t need us there to get along again after all.”

“That reminds me…”

I took off my backpack and slowly unzipped it. Her face perked up with curiosity.

“Do you know what today is?”

“No,” she replied. “When you do nothing but sleep nonstop and perpetually wake up to an unchanging white ceiling in an otherwise empty, equally white room, you begin to lose track of the days.”

Even in this state, she’s still herself.

“Well,” I clarified. “It’s Valentine’s Day.”

She raised a brow at me. “I wouldn’t have known anyway,” she said. “I’ve never actually had a Valentine before.”

“Same here,” I replied with a shrug. “This holiday normally equates to isolation and loneliness to me.”

“Isolation, loneliness, that sums up this hospital room pretty accurately. I bet everyone else we know is on some romantic date right now. ”

“Well,” I said, shifting my eyes to the dingy floor tiles. “Since we’re both here, isolated and alone together…”

She sat upright in the bed and moved a strand of hair from her face, wanting to know what I was going to say. I let it out,

“Do you wanna be my Valentine?”

Her eyes widened, and her face turned bright red again. She smiled at me and instinctively covered her mouth with her hand.

“Well?” I asked, looking away from her.

“I would love to be,” she answered. “If you’ll be mine.”

I felt myself smile back at her. “I’m pretty sure that’s how it works.”

I reached into my backpack, into one of my folders and ever so gently pulled out a sheet of sketch paper. I got up and walked over to Carrie’s bedside, handing it to her as she threw on her glasses.

She looked down at it to see a picture that I’d spent the previous night on after returning Grant Peters’ puppy. It was a black and white, thoroughly shaded piece that I liked to think was a little abstract. It showed a girl with cartoonishly large glasses and a Mona Lisa-esque vague almost smile on her face, holding a singing microphone in her hands, surrounded by stars.

“Oh my god,” Carrie blurted out. “It’s beautiful!”

“Thanks.” I awkwardly laughed, feeling embarrassed now for a reason I couldn’t determine. She looked up at me, her eyes notably glossy.

“Richie, I…” she began, then trailed off. For the very first moment in all the time I had known her, Carrie Thompson was at a loss for words.

“What is it?” I asked. She gathered her thoughts, took a breath and spoke.

“Thanks for noticing me.”

Now I was the one who didn’t know what to say. We remained there, looking each other in the eyes and seeing something we never had before. The gross, cramped, dimly lit hospital room around us stopped being there, and in its place were stars.

“Happy Valentine’s Day.”

Reviews

[fwvalidus]

I'm not sure I quite understand the need to go into detail about the double-date turned third wheel scenario. It didn't seem to develop any characters or advance much detail on V/Theo's relationship. Perhaps you can tell us quickly what happened in a paragraph or two before Richie is back at the hospital. Or perhaps spend a little more time and develop whatever it is that you had hoped to convey in the coffee shop.

Ultimately, sometimes we show, and sometimes we just tell. You showed (which takes longer) when I see better value in just telling. Just my opinion though!