Snippets of conversations. Sometimes I felt like I talked back to someone. Other times I tried but I couldn’t.
The headache. It was really bad.
“Water,” I rasped out.
“Here you go, sweetie.” Someone pushed a straw into my mouth.
I sucked a little of the water up, then the straw was taken away. I whined.
“A little at a time, Bear. Your doctor says just a bit at a time.”
“Okay.”
“Can you open your eyes? The room is dim,” the nice voice asked.
I tried my best. I remembered it then: I’d tried to open my eyes before and it had felt like daggers in my skull.
“Here. She’ll help you.” My hand was lifted and placed on something fluffy and familiar.
“Tonya,” I whispered.
“Luukas brought her to you earlier.”
Oh. Daddy! My eyes opened and I winced.
“There you go, sweetie,” the woman cooed at me quietly. “Hi.”
“H-hi?”
“I’m Luukas’ mom.” She smiled at me. “I’ll tell you my name later. It’s too Finnish for you to remember right now.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Try me.”
She let out a delighted giggle. “Luukas told me you were spirited and would fight this.” Then she said a word that had to be her name. At my blank expression, she grinned. “S-I-R-P-A. Sirpa.”
I rolled my eyes and winced when it hurt. “Okay. I won’t remember that. Even without…” I gestured at my head. “What happened?”
“Someone ran a red light while you were crossing the street.”
I thought for a while. It must’ve been longer than a while, because when I looked back at her, she wasn’t there, but instead she’d moved to the other side of the small room and was digging something out of a bag.
“I can’t remember that,” I said.
She glanced back. “No, I suppose you won’t.”
“Just the head?”
“No, your hip too. You had surgery to put some plates in. That’s not too bad though.”
I nodded, clutched Tonya, and closed my eyes again.
Headache. Real bad. I felt… frustrated. I felt….
“Morning, baby boy.”
I opened my eyes, expecting the piercing pain that didn’t come. I blinked, confused, then smiled as I saw Daddy.
“Daddy,” I breathed out and held out my hands.
