“Babe, I’m fine,” Jim laughed which quickly turned into a cough as she shoved clothes into his arms.
“Jim, can we please just rather be safe than sorry?” Pam asked, pleading with him. She knew her husband, the doctors’ office was just about the last place on earth he’d like to go. He was even awful in the hospital when their children had been born, anxiously shaking his legs, rubbing his palms across his jeans, riddled with anxiety.
“Listen, Courtney from work just had the test done. I promise, it takes two seconds and then after we can come home, I'll make you your favorite breakfast.”
“You’re going to make me grilled cheese at 9am?” He winked at her and slipped a foot into his jeans, overhearing the kids downstairs yelling about...something.
Pam scoffed, “pizza eggs?” she raised an eyebrow,
“Deal,” he smiled at her, bringing her close for a kiss. She put her finger against his lips.
“No way Mister, not until we know,”
He walked out into the hallway, “If I’ve got it, we’re all screwed!” he hollered playfully and moved down the stairs finding the kids in the doorway, and an irritated bus driver outside their house.
“Just today!” Jim exclaimed, raising his hand into a wave to thank the bus driver. He watched his two loves bound out the door, forgetting a kiss and a hug, far too excited for school.
“Keep your masks on!” He yelled, but they were already bounding into the bus, taking the first row of seats. He remembered how much of a treat it felt to ride the bus to school for the first time. He smiled to himself, and shut the door behind him.
“I’m telling you Pam, this isn’t Covid, I’ve just got allergies, or I got something from the kids, you’re overreacting,” She rolled her eyes at him, and continued to drive. It was a busy Monday morning, rain was pelting down on her windshield and she could barely see the road in front of her. It was a quick nine minute drive to their family doctors office, and Jim was fiddling with the radio, changing the channel. She knew it was anxiety,
“Jim, the q-tip doesn’t actually touch your nose,” she snickered at him, keeping her eyes focused.
“You don’t know!” he balked and nervously laughed. “That thing could be swabbing my frontal lobe,” she glanced over and smiled at him. Even when he was sick, sweaty, and wearing clothes that were wrinkly, she was still so enamored by him. The way his hair flopped into his eyes when he hadn’t styled it, how he was still too tall even for their SUV, and so he’d slouch into his seat. She loved all of him, this beautiful man, the other half of her soul.
By the time she looked forward, the light had turned red, but the only thing she saw before darkness was yellow, so much yellow, canary yellow coming directly at them. It was fear and beauty mixed together, and then suddenly as quick as it came, darkness.
Cece was holding her brother’s hand lovingly, and looking out the window at the rain. She loved the rain, it made her feel like she lived in London, so much like her favorite characters from the Harry Potter books her Dad had read her. She’d pretended she was on the train to Hogwarts, trying to remember spells in her head, thinking of how her first day of school would go. She’d known she’d have a new teacher, and that this year would look a little different than usual, but there was a ham and cheese sandwich in her lunchbox, and surely a note from her mother as well. And if she was lucky, maybe two chocolate kisses. One from Mom and one from Dad, for good luck of course.
Philip looked at his sister anxiously, she could tell he didn’t love the bus. It was bumpy and loud, as it turned through the suburban streets of Austin stopping every few seconds until the bus was almost full. She’d looked down at her phone and saw that it was almost 8am, almost time to start school, she tried to see if she could notice any familiar sights near her school, but the rain blinded her from seeing anything other than large pelting puddles across the window.
Within seconds she heard a scream from her bus driver, shouting words she knew her parents had said they weren’t allowed to say. She popped her head up over the large brown leather seat back in front of her to try and catch a glimpse of what was happening, and that was when she saw it. The blue Toyota in the middle of the road, the one with the Kermit sticker that Philip had put on the window that her Dad had tried to scrape off, but the little green frogs face remained, smiling back at her. There was only a moment before her head hit the leather seat in front of her and pushed her back into the seat, her ears ringing and sight blinding.
“That’s my Daddy!” There were men and women surrounding the bus, chaos was abundant. The intersection had been blocked off, bystanders had pulled their cars off to the side of the road, within minutes at least ten police cars had shown up, as ambulances followed. There was an older boy in the back of the bus going through each aisle, looking at every child, “Are you hurt?” he asked over and over, and Cecelia was pushing up against the two women blocking the exit to the bus.
“We have to wait until the EMT’s get here,” there was crying and wailing coming from all around her, head hurt, Philip was on the floor, visibly shaking. And she’d pushed her body weight against these two strangers blocking her from the door,
“Let me out, that’s my Daddy!” she continued to scream, tears rolling down her face. She continued to stand on her tiptoes to try and see out the window, trying to find their family car in a blur of rain and red flashing lights.
It felt like hours later, but within moments an EMT had entered the bus, followed by another.
“Is anyone hurt?” They shouted over the commotion. Some older kids in the back mentioned just a few cuts and bruises, but no major injuries. The bus driver was being helped out of the bus, and all Cecelia could see was blood, covering his face. She wanted to throw up, she hated blood. This looked like something she’d seen in a scary movie she wasn’t supposed to watch at a sleepover. The two strangers blocking the door moved out of her way for the EMT’s and she had an opportunity. She pushed herself through the EMT’s, one of them trying to grab the back of her shirt, noticing blood on her neck but her adrenaline pushed her through the adults and toward what she thought, was their car.
She stopped. Standing in the middle of the road staring. There was dozens of firefighters surrounding the car, she stared at the Kermit sticker. Her eyes focusing only on the Kermit sticker, the rain pelting her in the face. Her glasses cracked down the center, mirroring the image in front of her.
Someone had grabbed her from behind lifting her off the ground, and she began to kick. She kicked as hard as she could against this man bringing her toward an ambulance,
“Let me go!” she cried, “Let me go!” It was only then did she realize the watery red substance across her hands and face. Everything around her began to spin, and suddenly she felt a prick in her arm, and her body went limp.
Cece opened her eyes and blinked a few times, feeling tightness in her forehead, a pounding headache, and bright lights blinding her.
“Hey sweetie, you gotta stay still okay?” She heard an unfamiliar voice and went to jump, but she couldn’t move her head, or her neck and panic ensued.
“Please let me go,” she whimpered, barely able to get her voice above a whisper. She felt drowsy, pained, and like her body felt as though it weighed 400 pounds.
“You’re okay baby,” the nurse rubbed her arm, inserting something into her IV, and she felt a wave of exhaustion fall over her. She wasn’t asleep, but she wasn’t awake either, she stared at a picture of giraffes on the ceiling until she couldn’t keep her eyelids open any longer.
“Oh my God,” Pam pushed into her daughters room, holding her wrist against her chest, pieces of glass still in her hair, and two nurses following her into the room,
“Mrs. Halpert, you’ve got to get an X-ray,”
There was no stopping a mother.
“Cecelia,” she never used her full name.
“Cecelia Marie,” she moved toward her daughter, her right arm extending and rubbing the staples in her daughter's forehead carefully. Her neck was in a collar, and her head restrained and she looked tinier then ten in this gigantic bed. Cece opened her eyes,
“Oh thank God,” she laid her head on the side of the bedrail, grabbing her daughter's hand.
“Mommy,” Cece whispered,
Pam looked up, moving toward Cece’s nurses eyes,
“Ketamine…” she replied, “She’s sedated” Pam nodded. A sigh of relief came over her,
“Is she-”
“She’s going to be just fine, she hit her head pretty hard. We’re waiting on the results of a CT scan, but she’s going to be just fine,”
“Mrs. Halpert, you REALLY need to come with us to take a look at your wrist,” The nurse set a hand on Pam’s shoulder.
“No!” she barked. She’d already been removed from enough rooms.
“I’m staying with her,”
“Mrs. Halpert-” a gentleman in a white coat with sandy brown hair came through the door,
“I’ve been looking for you, your husbands conscious-” Pam stood up, she glanced down at Cecelia, who was nodding off again, and squeezed her thumbs “I’ll be right back,” she promised, and kissed her cheek. It was cold and damp, and Pam wasn’t sure if it was tears or the never ending rain outside.
