Chapter Twelve; The Hospital

Ryan was in the hospital with 2nd degree burns, blisters, sunburns, and all. Hundreds of ice bags wrapped around him to keep his body cool. His mother had burns at some point, so she didn’t worry much about him.

She still stayed in the room with him, holding his hand while tears flowed out of Ryan’s eyes. His face scrunched up tight like a rasin, a cold, sandy rasin. One that you would leave back in the box. His monitor showed a racing heartbeat with no slowing.

Doctors came in and out of the room occasionally checking on Ryan. Whimpering noises came out of Ryan’s mouth as he started to shake. His mother thought he was just cold, but the shaking got worse. His mother ran out of the room to get a doctor, she bumped into one in the halls, grabbed his hand, and rushed him to Ryan’s room.

The doctor got close to him but kept the ice on, he was having a seizure. The ice kept him cool, but also caused the seizure, he called a few more doctors into the room to help him with this problem. Two nurses and two doctors rushed to his side and held him down.

Then he stopped, he wasn't shaking anymore and the doctors were relieved. They got up and walked out the door until they heard, beep, beep, beeeeeeeeeeep. He flatlined, the doctors all rushed back to his side and began chest compressions. C.P.R, a breathing tube, his mom on the ground praying to the gods. It was a nightmare. Lucy at home, ripping out her hair, while the salamander wasn't eating nor drinking. Ryan’s dad oblivious to the whole situation.

The doctors looked at the monitor, beep, beep, beep, beep, he was back to normal. But still very sick, the doctors took him to a new room with a doctor that could examine him. Ryan couldn’t form a sentence or walk. When the doctor asked him to stand up, he fell flat on his face. The doctor examined him closely and carefully, he saw new marks that looked a deep brown color. “Watch those marks, Ryan.” he told him in a deep voice.

Ryan nodded as his eyes closed. He was very tired, they took him to a new room where he would stay for the night. It had a lifting hospital bed that reached all the way to the ceiling. The nurse brought him a bowl of mac and cheese, broccoli, and a glass of water. Not the best meal, but it would do. The room also had a T.V. and an extra bed for his mom to sleep in. They watched movies for an hour up until Ryan had fallen asleep.

His mom turned off the light and went to bed as well. Lucy couldn’t sleep, her head hurt, and her stomach hurt more. She hadn’t eaten that night. She refused to leave her room, refused to leave her bed, refused to move. She stared at the salamander all night long, playing around, not having a care in the word. Lucy wished she was a salamander, not caring about anyone or anything seemed awesome to her. She prayed in bed that she would turn into a salamander by morning. Even though she knew it wouldn't work. She didn’t sleep a second that night, she barely even blinked! Praying, watching, praying, watching, all night long. She refused to get out of her bed by morning, her mother tried to lure her out with food, but it didn’t work.

She just stared at the salamander. Her mother had to bring in a plate of food with lots of yummy things. Cookies, muffins, cereal, juice, you name it! Lucy refused to eat what was on the plate. Her mother sat the plate down by her side table, and left the room. Lucy just stayed in bed the entire day!

Flies began to gather around the food on her side table to consume it. Lucy would usually get up and throw the plate out, but she stuck to her roll and refused to get out of bed. By night she was getting really tired, her eyes began to flutter closed. Her mother peeked into her room and saw her sleeping.

She grabbed the plate turned off the light, and left the room. Lucy slept through the entire night, she didn’t dream about anything, just darkness. She liked this feeling, and smiled as she slept. The salamander had found a spot in the cage that it found comfortable, and dozed off. Everyone was asleep.