I woke up in a hospital bed. There were blinding lights shining in my eyes, and people scrambling all around me with blue masks on, concerned looks on their faces. All I could hear was a dull buzzing which occasionally formed words I could barely make out, words like, “Arm… Help… Blood… STAT!” My vision was super blurry as well, but I fell asleep almost immediately.

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This time when I woke up, I saw two men in blue shower caps looking at me with furrowed eyebrows.

“There he is, come on,” I felt a hand on my upper back as the man to whom it belonged spoke. I tried my best to sit up but immediately fell back onto my mountain of pillows.

“It’s ok,” the hand left my back. “Try again.”

I decided to stay lying on my pillows.

“That’s fine, you stay right there.”

The second of the two men was still standing motionless just staring at my left. I looked down to see what he was looking at, but all I saw was a wad of white bandages that blended in with my sheets.

My mouth dropped slightly, “Wh- What happened?”

The one staring at me moved his eyes up to mine. I saw his watering. “You- your parents,” He stopped and put his hand to his mouth to hide his trembling lips. He let out a breath and continued. “Your parents are gone.”

“Well, where are they?” I didn’t quite understand what he meant.

“They’re dead buddy.” He tried to say it as easily as he could, but it was still a knife to the heart.

My vision went blurry again, I tried to stand up. I left my bed but was stopped from moving 4 feet by all the wires and tubes going in and around me. I ripped one out of my wrist, but it hurt like nothing I’ve ever felt before.

I yelped and tried to walk further, but I tripped on one of the long tubes filled with some kind of liquid. I fell and smacked my head on the floor, then it all went black.

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I woke up once again to the steady sound of a high-pitched beeping. I lifted my head and opened my eyes. I cried out in pain when the blinding light met my eyes. It felt like an elephant herd was stamping all over my skull.

“You just keep making this more and more expensive for me, don’t you?”

I tried to look over at who had spoken, but my head hurt too much to try. Instead, I just called out, “Who’s there?”

Silence for a moment, but then the unknown person spoke, “I’m your uncle.”

I was a little bit surprised, before I chuckled and decided he was kidding. “No, you’re not, he died 4 years ago.”

“That’s just what they told you. They wanted to keep you safe from the life I used to lead.”

“What does that mean?” I asked curiously.

DEMERS

“I used to be the kind of man that winds up in jail and never has anything going for them.”

“What does that mean?”

The man chuckled and let a breath of air escape his mouth. “You’ll learn when you’re older. I’m going to go get the nurse.”

I heard his steps leaving the room. Once I was alone, I thought about how the man sounded. His voice had a slight twang to it that sounded distinctly like he was from the south. It was scratchy; like he had been smoking his whole life. Now that I thought about it, that’s how he smelled too. My dad always smelled like that. This man smelled like my dad.

I heard his steps re-enter the room with a second set of steps, only these sounded softer and lighter than his, which sounded like steel toe work boots.

“Well, kiddo,” He began speaking in what sounded like an exasperated tone. “They say you’ve got to stay here over night so they can make sure your arm is alright and you don’t have some kind of brain damage. But after that, if you want to,” now he sounded nervous. “you can come live with me.”

I knew then that this man really was my uncle. My dad always had the same small quiver to the end of his sentences when he was nervous.

“Ok.” I responded.

I could practically feel the beams emanating from his smile.

“Well alright then. It’s settled.”