five feet in front of them was the staircase to the cafeteria. Slade saw it at that same moment because she could hear him gasp sharply. If he was trying to slow the runaway wheelchair, he wasn’t doing a very good job. Lily continued to race forward.
“Boy this is going to hurt,” Lily thought. “Why? Why is this happening to me? I am almost finally out of my cast, and just watch, I’m going to break my legs all over again. Maybe my arms will break too. I might have to have a full body cast and live in the hospital for my entire senior year. I can forget about prom for sure. Or my nose, and then I’ll have to get a nose job, but that might not be so bad. Although I kind of like my nose, despite its quirks. I can’t go through this again, I just can’t.”
Lily couldn’t think anymore. She knew what was going to happen. It was inevitable. She would fall, be injured and then Slade should feel terrible. Maybe this would turn his behavior around. For the slightest moment she wondered if she should try to jump to the side, but it was too late to do anything by then. She was falling. First inside the chair, and then she was out of the chair and tumbling down the stairs. She pounded down on what seemed like every single step. Thud, thud, thud. It was as though giant piano keys were beating her to a pulp. Although it wasn’t as bad as she thought. It was painful, but not quite as bad as the car crash had been. No cracking or crushing of bones; at least not yet.
“Okay, I can handle this. Maybe I won’t get any breaks at all,” she thought as the steps were slowing her fall. She was reaching the bottom and she was starting to feel relief knowing it was almost over.
“Maybe I’ll escape with a few bruises and be back to normal in no time,” she hoped. As Lily approached the ground level, she was a little surprised when she was enveloped by darkness. She saw nothing. She felt nothing. She heard nothing, and it seemed she was nothing anymore. Nothingness was empty, and it wouldn’t go away. She seemed to still be thinking, but that was all. She was alone with her thoughts.
Chapter 5
The raven blackness was beginning to annoy Lily. She wished she could scream out and get someone’s attention. She knew there must be people out there somewhere. Who wouldn’t come running when a cripple fell down a flight of stairs?
“Slade must have gone for help,” she thought. “As rotten as Slade was, he couldn’t be heartless. Or maybe he is totally devoid of feeling, and he ran away to protect himself. He wouldn’t want to be involved. What if I’m still lying on that filthy cafeteria floor? Or maybe his nice guy act wasn’t an act? Is it possible that he might actually care enough about a lowly nobody to go for help? Maybe they are taking me to the hospital, or maybe I’m already at the hospital in a cold, dreary room hooked up to blinking machines keeping me alive”
Her imagination invented endless scenarios. Then her thoughts led her to another option that had not even occurred to her.
“Maybe I’m dead,” she thought despairingly. “I thought I would see a white light or a winged angelic being.”
As she contemplated this, she realized she was beginning to hear voices. They didn’t sound like anyone from the school or hospital staff. The voices were muffled at first, and then became crystal clear.
“Lily honey, Lily it’s okay, we’re going to get this all straightened out. Don’t worry; your old dad will take care of everything.”
Dad? She was dead then.
“No, you’re not dead sweetie, although “old dad” here wants you to be,” a woman said half serious and half-jokingly.
Lily could tell it was her mother. She knew her voice so well. It was as smooth and rich as chocolate cheesecake.
“It’s not that I want her dead, but a father would like to talk to his daughter now and then.”
“Well it’s not her time yet, so you better put that dream on hold.”
Lily’s thoughts were in a tangled mess. She was so confused. So if she wasn’t dead, how was she talking to her parents? Was she dreaming? Why couldn’t she see their faces and run into their arms like other dreams she had had in the past?