Chapter Fourteen; Paralyzed

Ryan woke up that afternoon groggy and tired, he had multiple sun burns and blisters. He looked around the house but his mother wasn’t there. “She is probably running an errand,” he thought. He was very hungry and his stomach began to rumble.

He wasn’t a great chef but he could manage cooking a bowl of pasta, maybe. He stood on the counter and grabbed a box of pasta from a tall cabinet above. He set it on the stove and grabbed a pot, and a measuring cup. He measured about two cups of water and a tablespoon of butter.

He put them all in the pot, and turned the heat on high and stirred the pasta. He set the spoon down and went to watch T.V. in the other room. Of course, the sports channel. He watched T.V. for a while when he heard loud bubbles and sizzling, “The pasta!!” he screamed running into the kitchen.

The noodles were bubbling over the pot, and water was everywhere, HOT water. Ryan ignored that his feet were boiling from the water on the ground, and took the pot off the stove. He turned off the heat and was left with a puddle of water all over his kitchen floor. He sighed, grabbed a towel, and cleaned up the mess. After the floor was dry, he put the towel away, and went to watch T.V. again.

He sat down on the couch and grabbed the remote to turn it on, but before he could turn it on, the phone rang. He stood up and walked slowly to the phone, but when he got there, the line hung up and he was left with a voice mail. “Hi sweety, this is your mother. I’m at the hospital with Lucy, and it’s not looking good. She was shot in the head by someone, and she might not survive. Just stay there until I get home ok?”

He put the phone down still chewing on the hard pasta. A tear dripped from his face. He didn’t cry though, he started to laugh! He laughed for about five minutes before stopping and going back to watch T.V.. He laughed because of how many times she had gotten shot over the summer. “Why did I even do this stupid project?” he thought, “And why did I get paired up with the worst bullet dodger in the world?”

then he laughed again. He was acting very strange the entire time, insulting, laughing, bullying Lucy, all while she was not looking to good. He sat down on the couch to eat his cold, hard pasta. Lucy at the hospital stopped bleeding, and breathing.

She was on a large machine that helped her breath while doctors examined her. She opened her eyes and mumbled something, she screeched, and went back to sleep. “Sleep” if you could even call it that. She was dying. Doctors touched her nose and felt that she was breathing again. The doctors cheered and high fived each other. They waited overnight to see the results. She still had to stay on the breathing machine just incase she stopped breathing again. Her mother was now at the hospital and Ryan’s mom went home. She found him sleeping on the couch with spaghetti in his mouth, and the T.V. still playing.

She turned off the T.V. took the bowl of spaghetti away. Ryan started to snore and she chucked. She grabbed a blanket, and laid it over him as he slept. She turned off the light and went back to her room. She read a book for a few hours when she fell asleep with the book lying on her face.

Ryan snored on the couch. Lucy slept on the machine. And her mother by her side saying a prayer. Lucy stayed alive all night miraculously, but didn’t say a word. For a few days it would stay like this. Doctors were baffled by how long she had survived. But they would soon find out that Lucy was paralyzed.

Not only did she get a shot to the head, but to the spine as well. The doctors found this out and started surgery right away. But little did they know, this paralyzation was permanent. Nothing to do about it. About a week later, they decided to tell the mother.

The four doctors approached her slowly. Holding a wheelchair with Lucy in in. Lucy held her head sideways with a drop of drool sliding out of her mouth. Her mother rushed below her and hugged her tight. Lucy wailed as the doctors pulled her mom up and told her, ”She is paralyzed.”