Freefall

Epilogue

I stared down the aisle and swallowed. Half of me was irrationally nervous and the other half was still angry at myself for actually coming. It was stupid and childish. For all I knew, I had been lied to.

After a couple more weeks in the hospital, I had been sent to my parent's house to recover. The days had turned uneventful and by the end of my stay, I had been threatening the doctors I would throw myself out the window if they didn't release me. Even once I had left, though, I was bored. My casts prevented me from getting around much and whenever my mom was home, she was fluttering around me in perpetual worry.

A couple more months, a wheelchair, and a few crutches, I was finally walking on my own again. Though I was glad that I hadn't missed a lot of school, I was a little disappointed to have missed out on the summer. It was my last summer of freedom before med school started, and I had spent it in a hospital.

I still wondered where Elliott had disappeared to. I had expected people to question where my psychiatrist had gone, but oddly enough, no one seemed to miss him. It was as if all evidence of him had been erased, even memories of him. That was taking it a little far since my mom had asked me about him once, but I liked the air of mystery.

Over the weeks, I had contemplated and contemplated the events that had led up to my hospital stay and continued through the first few weeks. However, I never could come up with a reasonable explanation. I just let it be. After all, I had slept through the night just fine ever since Malcolm had told me I would be able to.

I had decided to leave it at that. If I tried to tell anyone about it, they wouldn't believe me anyway. And I had had enough of psychiatrists for one lifetime.

By then, I had found the aisle I had been looking for. It was absurd, I continued to tell myself, but I didn't stop walking. Whatever made me think I would find him here, I wasn't sure. But Malcolm had been right before.

No one was in sight as I stopped in front of what I had been looking for.

"This is ridiculous," I muttered but reached for it anyway.

I heard footsteps coming down the aisle and spun around with my arms full. I nearly dropped the two family packs of puddings.

Standing there was a lanky man with sloppy hair. He had familiar gray eyes that made me blush very, very red.

"Hey," he said with a large grin, apparently misunderstanding my embarrassment, "who doesn't love pudding?"