I am Number Ten

CHAPTER 7

        My eyes meet the blinking red lights of an ambulance as I turn into the local hospital. It's not like the one I battled in before, it's smaller and more secluded. In a way, it's more quaint and probably poorer. I pull into the parking lot and leave the car locked up with all my stuff. The cold air picks my hair and blows it in my face while my skin develops goosebumps. No doubt there is a storm blowing in soon. I stare at the building before the wind pushes me to make my way inside.

        I head up to the front desk and ask the woman where Blake Levitt's mother was in. She directed me to the second floor and turn left. It was the intensive care unit. I turned into a brightly lit hallway and saw a hunched over figure at the end of the hall. I began running up to him and his head turned as I approached. I immediately put my arms around him and he met my lips.

"How is she?" I ask.

"Not good..." he says. I can see in his face that he's been crying. "Doctors say it's only a matter of time..." I pull him tighter as he begins to cry. He holds onto me like he'll never let go again.

"T-The stroke is too much for her body. Th-the Alzheimer's has taken away her...her ability to fight..." He can't continue any longer and I just let him cry. I make our embrace stronger as I start to think about Annie and how I lost her too. I begin to cry with him and we just hold each other.

        It's hours before we hear anything at all. The doctor walks out and Blake stands up with my hand in his.

"I'm sorry Mr. Levitt," He says in a grim voice. "The body won't recover enough to keep her alive..."

"No!" he sobs and collapses on the floor. I lean over and hold him. I look up at the doctor and he's trying not to cry either.

"How long does she have left?" I ask softly.

"Not long..." He says. "The ventilator is only prolonging the inevitable and it'll...be Blake's decision on whether to keep her on it or not."

I'm stunned and upset. Tears are rolling down my warm cheek and I squeeze Blake hard.

"If you want..." The doctor says. "You can keep her on long enough to say goodbye..."

        Blake slowly uncurls from his ball on the floor and he stands up to face the doctor. I try to hold his hand but he pushes past both of us and enters the room. He lets the door shut and I'm alone with the doctor. I bite my lip and stare into his blue eyes. I can hear all his thoughts and most of them I try to ignore and find the remorse in him. There is some but he has to deal with cases like these all the time and must learn to channel the emotions.

"I'll wait here," I say sitting down on the bench and the doctor lets me alone. I let the tears flow as l think of Blake and how he must be feeling. It feels so real that I feel I'm in his head right not and I'm the one sitting on the bench. Then something pops into my head.

        I turn around and slowly but silently slip into the room. I see his mother sprawled out on the bed. She's covered in IVs and the monitors beep constantly. Her eyes are sealed tight, her eyes and face seem shallow and sunken. Her skin is deathly pale and I swear I can see her bones through her skin. Blake holds her hand and he has his back to me. I can assume that before the disease settled that she was a beautiful woman, with strong arms and long flowing brown hair. I watch from a distance and I concentrate on his mom's mind.

        At first, I see jumbled thoughts and shapes but soon things start to take shape. I see a little child, only two or three years old playing with his trucks and then he's lifted into the air and swung around. The images change again, melting into the boy's back, the mom's teaching him how to ride a bike. They run together and then she lets go. The feeling of pride flows through me as the child takes off. There are blackness and the image of a boy in a suit. I can't tell what kind of celebration this is, maybe a birthday but the mother dances with him and gives him something shiny, I think it's a car and the boy's winning smile gives me a warm glow. The images change and there's a flickering of other times that don't make sense to me and the last one...I think it is a more recent image, maybe before the disease spreads of sitting under a tree with Blake and I think it is the stepfather and they watch the waves go by and Blake rolls over and smiles at his mom one last time. There's another shift and it's snowing and the mother holds a tiny child in her arms. From those eyes, I know it's Blake and there's a man with the same eyes holding the mother and he gives a smile...Blake's smile. So he's the real father. The images continue to fade and flicker like static on a TV set.

        I rush over to Blake and put my arm around him. He doesn't respond at first until I whisper in his ear.

"She's thinking about you," I say gently. Blake looks at me and I see the doubt in his face.

"She is..." I say, knowing what I am revealing by doing this. " She still has memories of you, even though she doesn't act like she does now. She's remembering the first time you rode your bike and the times you drew her pictures. Your first day of school and your birthdays..." I continue on and Blake cries on. He stares longingly at his mother. I'm crying too as I tell him everything his mother's thinking of. 

"And the one that she keeps coming back to is the one on the day you were born" I pause. I can't read Blake's expression but I finish for him. "She remembers what it feels like to hold you and your dad's there too... You look like him." I smile through the tears and we stare at his mother once more. When we clench hands, Blake whispers "I love you" to her and I hear the same from her and then everything fades out.