The buzzing of the lights started to become more noticeable to Jaquelynn as her eyes began to flutter open. The room was too bright for her eyes to remain open for longer than a few seconds before closing back up again. The room was brighter than any of her white gym socks, and the sound of mumbling coming from the old TV set posted on the wall in front of her seemed to sudden become louder. Her shoulders and chest were magnetic to the bed as she tried to sit up. Her limbs would pull back to the bed whenever she would try to adjust, each time a little heavier. The more she struggled, the more she wondered whether or not the force of gravity had changed since she’d been unconscious. She began to lose focus on her surroundings and more on the fact that her natural instincts began to feel incomprehensible. Only the unnoticed mechanics of her body were adjusting the way they always had. Her bottom felt as if she was sitting on a campfire while her palms soaked with panic. She realized that she hadn’t always been in this bed. In fact, she’s never been in this bed. She could hear a ringing noise begin to quicken the more she realized where she was. The droplets forming above her hairline seemed to roll down her face. She couldn’t turn her head towards the door; she couldn’t see anything but the blurry TV set in front of her.
Sudden footsteps from a distance grew louder as they appeared closer. Someone popped his head in, noticing Jaquelynn had awaken.
"Ms. Huffman, is everything alright?" He runs into the room and straight to the monitor next to her. He examined the screen as he grabbed her hand. "You must be scared." He stops, looking at her with a concerned, yet reassuring smile. "Ms. Huffman, I am Dr. Anthony Andrews. You were in a car accident. Do you remember what happened?"
Jackie stared at the man in front of her as if he spoke a different language. It was as if five minutes ago she had entered the football game, unaware of the situation that was going to unfold in front of her. The man begins to point to the ceiling, asking Jackie to follow his finger as he runs some responsive tests. She does as he asks, and follows his finger.
"Can you hear me just fine?"
"Yes," Jackie quietly mumbles under her breath. She could feel the pressure of her vocal chords pressing against the back of her neck. "How long was I out?"
"A couple weeks. After we could locate your parents, they told us you had finished up practice and wanted to catch the game at your school." He sits down beside her on the bed as he continues to run a couple visual and auditory tests. "By the look of you in the accident, we were lucky to have found you when we did."
"How did it happen?" Her voice felt shaky as the feeling of her shoulders began to come back to her.
"We don’t know exactly, we thought you would remember."
"How could I remember something that happened a couple weeks ago if I could never remember what day it was?" The doctor chuckles at Jackie, grabbing her arm carefully.
"Your family is in the waiting room. Would you like me to bring in?" Jackie nods softly as she regains more consciousness in her body. Although she was beginning to wake up, the pain began to grow stronger the more she moved. Her hand met the softness of her cheek, but as her fingers explored the rest of her face, her cheek grew to have scrape marks from the upper-parts to her right eye. She applied pressure, but winced at the pain she didn’t expect. She refrained from any more movement that would cause sharp dagger-like discomfort.
A few moment s later, the sound of sobbing outside the door became louder as her mother rushed into the door.
"Oh baby! You’re okay! You’re awake! " She tries to hug Jackie tight, but Jackie cries out in pain. Her mother quickly backs away, more tears flowing down her flushed cheeks. "Oh baby, I’m so sorry. Are you okay? How are you feeling?"
"Mom, I’m sort of in pain." Jackie smirks a little. "But I’m glad you all are here."
"We should never have let you go to that game." Her father then enters the room with her little sister, Rachel, whose tears have gone but the grief in her eyes showed heartbreak in the situation.
"Dad, please. If you wouldn’t have let me go, I would have tried to sneak out anyway. You know how much of a rebel I can be." Jackie smirks.
"Jackie, this is NO time for jokes!" Her mother cried out more. She excuses herself into the bathroom and slams the door.
"Jacquelynn, you know how your mother is."
"I know, sorry." Jackie begins to adjust some more when she starts to realize that the feeling in her legs have not came back yet. The doctor walks back in with a sympathetic smile and a clipboard.
"Doctor, I know I was feeling a little heavy when I first woke up, but some of me has started to come back slowly. How long does it take before every part of me is okay?"
"What do you mean?" His eyes meets Jackies as his smile begins to disappear from his face. Jackie places her hands on her legs as she manages to sit up properly. Her father and daughter glance nervously at each other, then back at the doctor.
"You haven’t told her yet?" Jackie’s father’s eyebrows begin to squeeze together as his face becomes inflamed with anger. Dr. Andrews grabs his clipboard and examines the information given to him. His eyes widen, flipping through more pages.
"No sir, the previous doctor was the one who operated on your daughter. I was informed on most of these, never briefed on her resulting condition."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Jackie feels around her legs, noticing a shortness of limb. Her breathing quickly shortens, noticing that something doesn’t seem alright. Just below the right knee, her hand comes to a sudden stop as there is no more to feel for.
"Ms. Huffman..."
"What the hell?" Jackie reaches for the end of the blanket slowly as the nerves jab at her shoulders with the more effort she puts into reaching for the covers.
"Ms. Huffman! You’re adding more stress to your body, slow do-" it was too late. The covers were folded up on the bed as her thigh was revealed to everyone in the room. Her eyes examined the missing puzzle piece that was of her body. Although her eyes told the truth, her heart could still feel the piece as if they were in her reach. The confusion filled in her hands as they searched under the covers some more, her father accusing the doctor of not being a real doctor. How could he not tell her, or even KNOW of her condition? The doctor kept apologizing and excused him from the room. The lights begin to dim, and suddenly Jackie didn’t feel as eager to look for her leg anymore. She slowly laid back down and closed her eyes as she heard the ringing of the monitor speed up again. A faint shout from her father was the last thing she heard before becoming unconscious.
The cold, wet pavement underneath her cheek was pressed aggressively against the skin. She felt all of her nerves at once, yet no feeling to move at all. She slowly opened her eyes to see a flash of light staring directly back at her. The light moved, revealing an unfamiliar face. His mouth was moving, yet the words went without meaning. Panic painted these foreign eyes, but hers wouldn’t keep its fix on him. The face didn’t seem recognizable. It was like in a dream, when you dreamt of a person whose identity is never revealed nor remembered, and you suddenly wake up without their name, without their appearance or a moment to remember them by. All she could do was dream a little more, in hope he would find the time to arrange the pieces that scattered across the road and into the night.