My eyes narrowed and I got a scowl on my face.
“I’m mad at you.”
I shocked her. She looked around for reinforcements, but no one was around.
“Yes, I know you are.”
The side effect of the drugs was I had no inhibitions. This must be how my mom felt all the time.
“Why are you leaving me?”
Oops, didn’t mean to put it that way.
“I’m not leaving you. I’m just going off to school. We’re always going to be friends.”
I felt my chest tighten up. It made me sick to think of Tami not being here. If it hadn’t been for the drugs, I would have curled up into a ball and died. I needed to lance this boil or I was headed for a nervous breakdown.
“Look, just tell me we’re going to be all right. I don’t really care where you go. But you’re not acting like my friend.”
That did it. She was in tears. I just lay on the bed, and it felt like I was a bystander to a terrible car wreck. In my drug-hazed mind, I knew I’d messed up even more. Mom and Dad heard the commotion in my room and came in. Greg wasn’t too far behind. They saw me fuming, Tami crying, and Mom was true to form.
“David, what did you say to her? You will ask for forgiveness this instant!”
I felt like a caged animal. I was trapped in the bed with no way to get out of there, so I lashed out.
“All of you get out of this room!” They looked at me as if I had two heads. “I said... get out!”
Mom was not to be deterred.
“You little shit. You’ll apologize to everyone. I’ve had enough of your attitude.”
Luckily, a nurse came bustling in.
“All out! You, out! We cannot have you agitating the patients. Until further notice this room is off-limits to all guests,” my nurse ordered.
“What do you mean? I am his mother! He’s a minor under my care!”
The nurse got into Mom’s face.
“I said out!”
To Dad’s credit, he pulled Mom to the door. Tami and Greg had already beaten a hasty retreat. Once everyone was out, the nurse came over, looked at the monitors, and after a quick check looked me in the eyes.
“Okay, I need you to take deep breaths and try to calm down. I’ll make sure they stay out,” the nurse promised.
I slowly started to relax. I gave the nurse a weak smile.
“Thanks, I was feeling a little trapped.”
She just nodded. I wanted to know about my condition.
“So, how bad am I?” I asked.
“You’re okay. You just had severe muscle spasms. Your x-rays don’t show any real damage. It looks like you were in a car wreck.”
“Football,” I supplied.
“That makes sense. The doctor wanted to see you once you woke up. I’ll page him.”
She made some notes on my chart and left. A few minutes later, a young man, who must be my doctor, showed up with my mom and dad in tow. As soon as Mom came in, she glared at me.
“I won’t cause any trouble. I’m just worried about you,” she said, sounding reasonable, so I knew I was either dying or the pod people had taken my mom.
The doctor looked at her, then at me and just shrugged.
“David, it looks like you took a direct hit to the head that compressed your spinal cord. There doesn’t seem to be any damage. What you experienced was severe muscle spasms. I’m going to release you in a few hours and give you a supply of muscle relaxants. I want you to talk to your team trainers, work on stretching, and get massage therapy for the next few days. Then on Friday, I want to see you again. If everything looks good, I’ll clear you to play football again.”
Mom couldn’t keep quiet.
“No, you will not be playing football!”
Dad caught my look of defiance and grabbed my mom’s arm to stop further outbursts. The doctor took in the standoff and snorted. I think he’d heard the same thing before. I was trusting Dad would fix this for me, so I didn’t express my opinion of Mom’s plan. The doctor continued and helped tilt the balance in my favor.
“Like I was saying, using the football team’s resources will help you get well free of charge. If you need to use the hospital facilities for rehab, I can get the nurses to put together a fee schedule.”
There was one thing Mom was, and that was tight when it came to money. I just kept quiet; I was sure it would blow over by tomorrow.
Two hours later, I was unstrapped, put into a wheelchair and given a supply of meds. Did I mention I really liked these meds? They put me in a great mood and I felt very mellow. The only bad side effect was I had a motormouth with absolutely no filter. My poor dad tried to keep a straight face as Mom got some of her own medicine on the trip home. About halfway home I was told I was to be sent to my bachelor pad and I was never going to get out. It was a good thing my dad had a calming effect on my mom or I think she might have kicked my butt.
Wednesday September 11
THE NEXT MORNING I let Greg and Tami drive me to school. I really had no choice: Mom wouldn’t allow me to ride my bike.
Before school started, I went to see the training staff. There were three of them. Mr. Hasting was the head trainer and I gave him the doctor’s recommendations. He called in our newly minted trainer, Ms. Grimes who looked like a volleyball player. She was five-eleven and had short brown hair. She took me into the training room.
“Give me your meds.”
I didn’t expect that. I reached into my duffle bag and gave them to her. I gave her a questioning look as she took them and locked them in a cabinet.
“These are the type of pills people like to steal. We’re required to lock them up when they’re on school grounds. If you need any, let me know and I’ll get them out for you.”
“Can I have some to take home?”
“I’ll give you some at the end of the day. Now we’re going to get you ready to play Saturday. Let me call the office and let them know where you are.”
She went over and used the phone to check me out of my classes. While she did that, she had me go change into my shorts and t-shirt. When I came back, she handed me a pill and had me take it.
“You’re going to need this.”
That didn’t sound good.
“Ms. Grimes, these pills have a side effect,” I warned her.
She smirked. I think she knew what it was.
“Let’s just say I get a little chatty and say things I would never normally say. So please don’t be offended if I say something inappropriate,” I said.
We started out on stretching exercises. After about forty minutes I was glad I’d taken my pill. My back and neck started to feel better. Ms. Grimes told me to take my shirt off and get on the training table. I grinned at her.
“You’re such a dirty girl. You just want to get your hands on me.”
“I see someone’s medication is kicking in. Get your butt up on the table so I can make you pay for your smart-ass comments.”
I crawled up and she was putting some kind of smelly oil on her hands. I wrinkled my nose.
“You’re not planning on using that on me?”
She just grinned and started rubbing my neck. The oil started to generate heat. It felt soooo good.
“I take it back. You can rub that all over me.”
Ms. Grimes was very good at giving a massage. She would find all the tight places that hurt and work them until it felt like a twisted rubber band suddenly released and straightened out. Once she was done with my back, she started to work on my feet. By the time she was done, I was sound asleep. I woke up in time for lunch, and as I staggered into the training office, I went up to Ms. Grimes and gave her a big hug of thanks. I’m not sure she expected that, but I played it off as if I was still feeling the effects of the pills.
Friday September 13
THE REST OF THE WEEK was uneventful. I stretched and rehabbed through Thursday. On Friday, the doctor cleared me to play. We had a rare Saturday afternoon game, so on Friday we did a quick walk-through, and then were told to keep out of trouble.