The Werewolf and the Human

A Sturdy Girl

Something kicked me in the stomach. Or that’s how it felt. My head was spinning. I was sure that I was going to vomit too. Somehow, I didn’t. Instead, I sat up. Instead, I looked around. Jackie was sleeping in the chair beside me. Poor thing. She looked worn. It was my fault too. At least the vague bits and pieces I could remember concluded to it being my fault. I was the one that had lost the map. I was the one that had insisted on going after it. I was the one that had said that I would stay with the wolf. Did I regret it at that moment? Not really. I regretted not knowing what had happened to that wolf. I regretted not being able to put up much of a fight. Those were the things that I regretted. I didn’t regret actually helping that wolf. Out of everything that I had done in my life, that was one that I believe mattered.

              I moved around a little. The IV was annoying my arm. It was rubbing against my skin, and I was getting testy with it. I thought that moving would make it less irritating for me. Jackie must have heard me move, because her eyes fluttered open. She saw me sitting up slightly. “You alive?” she asked.

              I gave her a smile. “You were the one that was supposed to be able to tell me that,” I said, trying to laugh, but it hurt. It hurt a lot.

              “Even now you’re going to be smart with me. Do you know how to turn off your sarcasm?” She shook her head, and then put her hand on the bed for me to reach it. I started trying to move, but it didn’t work well, I even tried to sit up. “You need to stay lying down. You have a concussion.”

              “Mild one?”

              She rolled her eyes. “Doctor didn’t say.”

              I rubbed my right hand against my forehead. “Should you go tell someone?”

              “What?”

              “I feel like you should tell someone that I’m awake.” She stood up for a minute and grabbed something beside me. It turned out to be my phone. I only know because she started looking through it and saw the cover. “What are you doing?”

              “Making a phone call.”

              “Who are you calling?”  

              “Your parents. I thought that you said that I should tell someone,” she said, looking at me like I was the one that was confused. I wasn’t.

              “No, I meant here, at the hospital, like a nurse, or a doctor, so we can have that dramatic, she’s alive. She’s awake moment.”

Jackie started walking away from me. She seemed to think that everything was fine and then she just stopped. She was almost at the door too. She froze, for just a second, and then turned to me. “You are awake, right?”

              I looked at her for a few seconds. My eyes blinked open and they blinked closed. I moved my right hand, so I could I feel my left. I felt like I was awake. “I think so,” I finally whispered, and then I stopped her before she could turn and walk back into the hallway. “Why?”

              “They said you wouldn’t wake for months,” she said, closing her eyes.

              I swallowed on the nothingness in my throat. “Months?” I whispered.

              She nodded. “If you were going to wake up at all.”

              I closed my eyes. I knew that questioning myself was not going to help her. She needed confidence. She needed my confidence. “I am awake.” My throat felt like I had swallowed sandpaper.

              She nodded, and then walked out of the room. I was left alone, and I looked at the IV bag that they had given me. Saline drip. Something to wash out my system. They must have believed that I would be out for at least a little or they would have given me some pain medicine I had hoped. I didn’t want to say anything when Jackie was there, but I still felt like a dump truck had run me over, and then for good measure ran over me on more time. I also didn’t know why, but I was sick to my stomach. I was nauseated in a way that I had never been nauseated before. I felt like someone was twisting my insides all around and it didn’t make sense to me.  It was like I had butterflies in my stomach, and those butterflies were attacking me.

              It took a moment for Jackie to come back. She was followed by a pretty nurse. Long black hair. It was pulled up using a green ribbon. She was wearing green scrubs, and she had slight black eyeliner, above her dark grey eyes. “Hello,” she said, softly to me.

              I gave her the best smile that I could. “Hello,” I said, my voice was that of a smoker’s.

              “Would you like a glass of water?”

              I tried to nod, but my head still felt dizzy, and also felt like it weighed five thousand pounds. I finally sighed before saying, “That would be very nice of you, thank you.”

              She gave me another smile, before walking out of the room. “She seems nice,” Jackie said.

              I tried to nod again, but again, it just hurt my head. “Yes, she does,” I said, moving my right arm to grab my throat. 

              The nurse came in shortly after that. She handed me some water. “Here, this might help.”

              I took the water and took a sip before I said anything. I wanted to make sure that I could swallow, and that I could talk without my throat, being sanded smooth. I took another sip, and then one more, before I finally felt like I could speak again. “Thank you, so much,” I said, feeling my throat returning to some form of normal.

              “You’re welcome,” the nurse said, taking the cup from me. “How are you feeling?”

              I stared at her for a second. I wasn’t sure how I wanted to answer that question. “Alive,” I said, turning my attention to Jackie.

              “Alive is not a feeling,” the nurse said, laughing.

              I tried to laugh, but it hurt. “I am not feeling well, but I am alive, so I am thankful.” I tried to take a deep breath in, but even that hurt.

              “Do you remember what happened?”

              “I remember getting beat up is that what you are talking about?” I asked, knowing that my sarcasm was there. I tried to sit up, but my head was spinning faster than it should have been, and I had to lie back down.

              “Stay lying down,” the nurse said, putting her hand gently on my head.

              “I don’t really want to. How long was I out?” I asked, putting my hands on the bed getting ready to push myself back up again.

              “Just a few hours,” Jackie told me.

              “Not an answer,” I told her. “Let’s try this again. What time is it?”

              “About 3 in the morning.” Jackie looked down at her phone.

              “So, I’ve been out for about 6?”

              “More like 7,” the nurse told me.

              “Got it,” I said, rubbing my head again.

              “You took quite a beating.”

              “I’ve always been called a sturdy person,” I said, trying to laugh, but again it just hurt. It felt like it her to even move.

              The nurse bit her lip. “I should probably get the doctor to see what he wants to do.” I lifted up my right arm, and tried to give her the thumbs up. “I will be back as soon as I find him.”

              “Thank you.”

              “You’re welcome,” she said, walking out of the room.

              “How are you?” Jackie asked me.

              “Mentally? Physically? Emotionally?” Those were three different questions, with three radically different answers.

              “I want to check on all three,” she said, as if that was actually going to answer the question. It wasn’t. “Let’s start with Physically.” Sometimes it was really creepy how she could read my mind. I think I would hate someone actually being able to read my mind.

              I bit my lip and looked down at my hands for a moment. “I am sore. I am very sore. Honestly, I’m in pain, but truthfully, I am not in as much pain as I could be, from what it sounds like I am lucky.”

              “Are you sure?”

              I forced out a smile. “I’m sure.”

              “Ok.” She let out her breath like a leaky faucet. “What about emotionally?”

Was I emotionally alright? I had been physically attacked. My body showed that. It showed the bruises. Bruises were just something that was going to happen. “Emotionally? I’m a little shaken.”

              “Shaken isn’t really an emotion,” she said, shaking her head.

              “It is in this case, because I am not sure what other emotion to feel right now,” I said, looking down at my hands. “Give me a little more time and then I will decide how I want to feel.”

              She nodded her head. “Alright,” she sighed. “Shall we move on to mentally?”

              “If we must.” I tried to give her a smile. We needed to talk about it, no matter how little I wanted to talk about it. I had to talk about it, so I told her the truth. “I don’t know. I’m too close to it all. I don’t feel mentally too bad, but I feel like I should be mentally wrecked by it. I’m just not.”

              “You have always dealt with things different than others,” she said, shaking her head.

              “I could also, just be dealing with shock,” I told her. “It’s ok if you are scared.” I tried to grab for her hand.

              “What about you?” she asked, looking down at me. I titled my head at her. That question had stumped me. “Do you think you are allowed to feel bad?”

              “What? Of course. I know I’m allowed to be scared. I’m just…” The doctor came in before things got too awkward, thankfully.

Unthankfully, he was a pompous prick, and I do mean that in the nicest way possible. He looked like he was going to be one too, again in the nicest way anyone can call someone a pompous prick. He had light brown hair, and brown eyes, but that was what was normal about him. What wasn’t normal was his outfit. His light blue shirt with the collar slightly popped. His white pants, yes, they were white. All hidden under his doctor's coat, as if the touch of authority would somehow make me overlook the clearly prick outfit. If you can believe it, his personality was worse. The first thing he said, walking through the door, was, “I knew you would be a fast healer.”

I looked over at Jackie, and she looked ready to wring his neck. I quickly grabbed her hand. “Thank you, Doctor,” I told him.

“A very sturdy girl, I said to myself,” he continued and I tried not to laugh. Sturdy is not a word a guy like that would have used. Fat. That’s the word that he would have used.

I looked over at Jackie and she was seeing red. I grabbed her hand a little tighter. I smiled before saying, “Do you know how long I’ll be here?”

He looked me over and laughed. I grabbed Jackie’s hand tighter yet. “You should be out of here tomorrow, a girl as strong as you.” 

The nurse quickly tried to hold off on making that statement. “She was badly injured,” the nurse said, looking me over. “I believe that in this case we should at least observe her for the next 48 hours.”

“Nurse,” he said, sharply, and for just a second, I wondered how the me-too movement had affected him. “I think that I know more about this subject than you. I will talk to the morning doctor, but I think he’ll agree with me.” The nurse was about to say something, but quickly shut her mouth. The doctor walked out without another word, and I wondered how much of an ego he had, that the nurse making a comment, made him walk away.

The nurse smiled at me, and said, “You should try and get some rest.” Before she too walked away.

That left Jackie and I alone once more. “Where are you going to sleep?” I asked Jackie.

“This chair was comfy,” she said, already walking over to it.

“It can’t be that comfy.” I scooted over to the edge of the bed. “You can sleep here with me. If you want.”

“I couldn’t.” She sat down in the chair.  

“It’s fine. I’m the one that kicks in my sleep, you know that,” I said, looking to the now empty half. I could see the hesitation in her eyes, so I continued, “You’ll be stopping me from rolling on to my side, so I’ll owe you.”

“That isn’t how that works.” She shook her head.

“Come on. Just do as I say or I will find ways to make you feel bad, and make you come over here.”

“How can you make me feel any worse?”

              “Is that a challenge?” 

              “More like an understanding of the situation.” She shook her head.

              “There,” I laughed. “You can shake your head and I can’t. That makes me feel awful. It makes me feel like I am not the same as you.”  

              “That’s dirty,” she said, laughing. She sighed. “Alright, but if I get in trouble with the doctor…”

              “He won’t care,” I interrupted her.

              “Fair point,” she said, walking to the other side of the bed. “What about the nurse?”

              “She might care, but I doubt that she will be here much longer. Her shift should be over soon.” I gave Jackie a smile. “I doubt she is going to care once her shift is over.”

              “Alright.” Jackie climbed into bed. “You’ll kick me out if you get in too much pain, yes?”