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Chapter 5

Sophomore Kamryn Schultz, begins a serialized book titled Redemption. Chapters will be revealed every two weeks. Make sure to check back twice a month and leave comments on what you think about it. If you missed the fourth chapter, read Something New.

I decided to go see Emiline. She hadn’t even crossed my mind since the accident, and it was important that she got some attention while she was in the hospital.

My mom offered to drive me to the hospital, but after our talk, things didn’t need to be made more stressful for her. She wouldn’t want to go back to the hospital anyway, after quitting her job, so I would have to rely on my feet…again.

I looked outside my bedroom window. The rain had stopped, and there were only a few clouds in the sky. The perfect day for a walk.

I wanted to bring something for Emiline to cheer her up. I searched my room and my closets for something interesting.

She was probably stuck in a hospital bed, so nothing that would require her to get up. I opened my drawers to search for knick knacks.

After a couple minutes of digging through my closet and drawers with one hand pinched over my nostrils, I had gained no success. I decided that the only gift worth giving was food.

I opened my pantry and dumped a few candy bars and some cookies into my book bag I planned to take with me.

I slipped on a pair of tennis shoes and put on a light jacket. I slowly peeked out the doorway.

Mom was still in her room. Perfect.

I could slip away unnoticed. I grabbed the book and tiptoed down the hall. I grasped the door handle.

“Paige?”

I didn’t look back as I flew out of our house and shut the door behind me.

The hospital was a thirty-minute walk from my house, and I was already aching half way through the journey. But it wasn’t my body that was aching. It was my head.

I couldn’t get that man from the car crash out of my mind. He looked strange but oddly familiar.

I didn’t know who he was or where he came from, but I knew that I had met him sometime in the past. Even with all his wounds and cuts, his face looked soothing and calm, and almost perfect.

I shook my head. Ugh. I need to stop letting my mind wander. I didn’t even notice the giant clinic building in front of me.

As I entered the hospital doors, a cold blast of air hit my warm cheeks, making me shiver. But I got even more chills when I looked at the familiar building.

There were bathrooms to the left, and a waiting room on the right, with coughing patients and wild children running around their parents. Some of them were playing with toys in the corner.

Most of them were watching the TV screen above the play area, which seemed to be playing a Disney movie of some sort.

I was so distracted by Aladdin flying on his magic carpet that I completely forgot I was still standing in the middle of the doorway. Some shouts came from behind, very loud voices, screaming, “Help us! Please! Help us!”

I didn’t know who that was or what was happening, but I quickly stepped out of the doorway.

A tall, bulky man with lots of tattoos rushed through the doorway, carrying a little girl in his arms. His tough outward appearance was clouded by the tears in his eyes as he looked at the child he held.

I didn’t look for much longer; the girl’s appearance almost made me gag. She had broken both her legs and was bleeding profusely from her forehead.

Her eyes fluttered open and closed, struggling to stay awake. I could barely hear her voice, cracked and broken, “Papa, it’s ok… I’ll be ok…”

As I turned my head back to peek, two nurses with a stretcher rushed to the big man’s side. They carefully hoisted the small frail child from his giant arms onto the cot, making sure to situate her in an appropriate manner.

They pulled her down the hallway, with the tough man by her side holding her hand and sobbing. But the little girl had no emotions. Except for her tiny voice trailing down the corridor, assuring them everything was fine, no crying or moaning escaped her mouth.

She looked so at peace, so calm. Like, she knew she was dying, but everything was going to be OK.

My head spun as I thought of Farryn.

Had they taken her to a hospital before she passed away?

Was there even enough time?

What were her last words?

Were they about me?

I shook my head. I looked around me and realized that no one had reacted to the terrible scene.

Even though they didn’t notice the commotion, they still glanced at me standing awkwardly at the entrance.

I gave them a quick smile and walked up to the front desk. The lady at the desk had jet black hair, with the same blue eyes my father had.

She wore a neat office outfit, with a white blouse that showed more than necessary for a day at the hospital. She looked up at me from her computer as I rested my hands on the counter. The tag on her revealing top read ‘Janae’.

“How can I help you today, miss?” Her voice was surprisingly higher than I expected.

“Hi, um, I’m Paige Hawthorne, and I was wondering if I could see my friend. She was recently injured in a car accident. Um, her name is Emiline Taylor.”

Janae whipped her head from me back to her computer. Her fingers were very fast as if they weren’t even touching the keys. But of course they were, because five seconds later she clicked on a file with her mouse and looked at me.

“You said Taylor?”

I nodded. I wondered if they would let me in, knowing I was not a family member. She picked up the phone and dialed the room number.

I waited there awkwardly for a few minutes, wishing they could hurry it up. Finally, Janae put down the phone with her manicured hands and looked up at me with her bright blue eyes.

“I’ll send someone to come get you so they can lead you to her room. Do you mind waiting for a couple minutes, though? She’s still with the doctors at the moment. She’ll be done soon.”

I nodded again and walked towards the waiting area.

The waiting room had rows and rows of chairs along the walls, and almost every single one was filled. Thankfully, there was one unoccupied by the door I came through, so I quietly slipped into the seat.

Most of the people waiting were adults, coughing and sneezing as if the entire room was filled with allergies. I saw some on their phones, and some attending to their crazed kids.

But there were a few that just stared off into space. Like they were in a whole other world, away from all the madness and chaos that conflicted with their realities.

One such person caught my attention. As she did to almost everyone in the waiting room.

She didn’t look younger than 20, but her hair said otherwise. It was bright red, the victim of a bad paint job.

Her white clothes had little splotches of rainbow paint on them, and her shoes portrayed the touch of an artist, with fancy design work and colorful details.

But for such an evident colorful appearance, she didn’t show the least bit of sunshine throughout her body. She was hunched over, head down, and fumbled with her hands in her lap, making her wardrobe seem a bit less cheerful.

I noticed beside her a large brown bag. Almost like a portfolio case.

She coughed into her stained sleeve. She rose up from her chair, taking her case in hand, and walked towards the front desk, still acting in a daze.

As she did this, two giggling children ran right past her. The kid in the front of the chase tripped over the artist and started to cry.

Because everyone was paying attention to the now screaming child, no one had noticed the woman fall onto the ground as well, her bag opening up and papers flying everywhere.

I was the only one in awe.

The painting and drawings flew out of the case as if they possessed wings. Every shape and size in every color you could possibly imagine rested on the thin papers.

I saw a sketch of a woman and her child, looking off into the sunset. I glanced at a watercolor of a magnificent butterfly, swooping past my face as if it could actually fly off the page. I caught a glimpse of a painting of a tiny dandelion flower poking its head out of the soiled ground.

It was all too wonderful to be true.

I was so taken aback as to what I had just witnessed that I didn’t even notice the woman still needed help. I quickly rushed to her side as she began picking up her work.

My hands trembled as they picked up a drawing of a mother and her daughter. Together as one. They looked so happy, and-

The paper was ripped from my hands.

“Don’t touch that,” a lowered voice came from the woman.

“I’m so sorry, I just thought you needed help,” I assured her. “Are you OK?”

“Am I OK?” she asked me, as if I was completely stupid. “Kid, if I were OK, I wouldn’t be in this crappy hospital, waiting for an hour to get in, now would I?”

I was again taken aback by her comment. I had only been prepared for her to say something like, “Oh, yes I’m fine.” or “Thank you dear, for helping me with my things.” No one had taught me what to say next.

“Well no, I suppose not,” my mouth responded. “No one likes to be in a hospital. It’s a scary place, to be honest.”

“Oh ya? Well how would you know?”

“When your mom works 24/7, and you barely have time to eat or sleep without thinking about what’s happening in this hospital, call me.”

My anger was getting to me. This woman was so rude and disrespectful.

She looked alarmed as well. It was as if we could keep sending hateful comments back and forth, non-stop.

I waited for her to respond. She loosened her grip on her drawing and put it back in its case.

I took that as a sign and slowly reached for another piece of paper. She didn’t say anything.

After all the papers were picked up off the ground, I smiled at her and reached out my hand.

“Paige Hawthorne.”

She looked at me, cautiously, as if I were an animal waiting to strike. But she slowly reached out her own hand.

As I took it, I felt her calloused palm against mine. The touch felt rough, but she shook very lightly.

“Indiana Kelly. My friends call me Indi, at least they would if I had any friends.”

I laughed, but she didn’t seem to be joking.

“Well, it’s very nice to meet you,” I said, taking my hand away. “And I’m sorry again about invading your space, it wasn’t right of me to do so.”

She shrugged. “Don’t worry about it. And I’m also sorry about snapping at you. I’ve been in a bad mood today.”

“Oh,” I paused. “If you don’t mind me asking, what brings you here today?”

She was silent for a while and didn’t look at me. I’d crossed a line.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean-”

“No, it’s OK.” She finally looked at me with piercing green eyes I had never seen before.

“I’m here for my daughter. She was recently diagnosed with cancer. I’m here to check up on her.”

“Oh, wow.” I stood there in shock. “I haven’t been here in forever. My mom was a nurse here; she worked most of her days in this hospital, helping people…” I trailed off, thinking about my earlier conversation with my mother.

“I see.”

I snapped back to our conversation. I looked at her brown bag.

“What’s with all the artwork? It’s amazing,” I said, remembering the beautiful painting I had seen.

“Oh, it’s just a couple of rough sketches. I drew them for my daughter.”

“Rough sketches?” I gasped in disbelief. “If these are rough sketches, then I would really like to see your real work.”

“Thanks.” She gazed at the picture of the mother and daughter together.  “I try to make my daughter happy with these. They’re really the only thing she looks forward to right now.”

“I bet she will be really excited to see them today,” I said. I silently cringed, sounding a little cheesy.

“I really wish she could be.” Indiana looked up at my confused face.

“My daughter is blind; her eyes didn’t form entirely at birth and I’ve been struggling these past eight years with her condition.”

“Oh my gosh.” This woman just shared half of her life story with me in the five minutes that I had met her. And I felt embarrassed for making her do so.

“I’m so sorry. For your daughter and everything else. I’ve asked you too many questions, and I’ve invaded your privacy, and-”

“No, it’s ok.” Indiana interrupted me. “It’s been nice to talk to someone about all this.”

We both smiled at each other.

“Indiana? Indiana Kelly?” Janae held a clipboard as she yelled out her name from the front desk.

Indiana looked back at the front desk. She shook off the kind vibe she was giving and came back to her original mood.

“I’m sorry to end this little meet and greet we’re having, but I really need to go see my daughter.”

“Oh, of course!” I said, a little too loudly.

As she turned away, she waved back at me and said, “See ya around, kid.”

As I watched her leave, she reminded me of Farryn a little bit. Confident, sassy, but also secretly isolated.

“Paige Hawthorne?”

I turned towards Janae. A tall blond nurse stood next to her.

“Yes?”

“Ms. Taylor is available for visitors. A nurse is here to take you to her room.”

I lugged my book bag onto my shoulder and followed the nurse down the hallway.

She held a clipboard in her arms and walked in a uniform manner, her long ponytail swishing back and forth with each giant step. Her dark brown eyes never glanced at me as we headed towards an elevator.

She pressed the up button and we waited there for a couple seconds.

“So, how are you?” I asked, trying to make the time go by faster.

“As well as a surgeon nurse should be.”

I looked away.

“Great.”

No matter what I said, I knew no conversation would start between the stone cold nurse and I.

The doors opened and we stepped inside the elevator. We rose from the first to the fifth level, ever so slowly.

We jerked to a stop and the doors opened up to a long lit hallway.

“This way.” The nurse took huge steps that I almost couldn’t keep up with. She lead me all the way down the hallway, to the very last blue door.

Room #117.

For the first chapter, read Confronting weaknesses. If you missed chapter two, read Is she OK?.

This writer can be reached via Twitter: @schultz_kamryn and via email: Kamryn Schultz.