Gifted: Finders Keepers Read Online Free

quickly. He could hear, he could see . . . he was aware. And he realized he was in a hospital.
    Gradually the memory of what had happened started to come back to him. He remembered Jack right behind him, moving fast. Apparently the collision had been pretty bad. They’d both been running at full tilt when they hit each other. Both he and Jack must have been knocked out.
    ‘What time is it?’ he asked his mother.
    ‘Almost midnight,’ she told him. ‘How do you feel?’
    He winced. ‘Everything hurts.’
    A nurse appeared. She looked into his eyes, took his pulse, and then gave him an injection. ‘This is for the pain,’ she told him. Then she had a whispered conversation with his parents, and left.
    Ken was trying to think, and it wasn’t easy. His brain seemed to be operating in slow motion. Training had started at four. It must have been nearly five o’clock by the time they started the match. His mother had just told him it was midnight. Twelve minus five . . . simple subtraction made his head hurt, but he persevered.
    ‘I’ve been unconscious for seven hours?’
    His mother spoke gently. ‘It’s Friday, Ken. You’ve been in a coma for four days. You had a concussion, some broken ribs, and you’ve got some badly torn tendons in your left ankle. But you’re going to be OK.’
    All he really heard was ‘Friday’. ‘I’ve got a game tomorrow . . .’ and then the rest of her words sunk in. ‘I suppose I won’t be playing.’
    ‘No, dear. But you’re going to be OK eventually. It will take some time though.’
    Was she saying he’d be out for the season? he wondered in dismay. Then he realized he hadn’t even asked about the other victim.
    ‘How’s Jack? Can he play tomorrow?’
    The injection the nurse had given him must have been pretty potent. He had drifted off to sleep before he could get an answer, and he wasn’t even sure if he’d actually asked the question out loud. Maybe it was the painkilling medication that made his dreams so vivid.
    He was back on the soccer pitch, running after a ball. But every time he got close enough to kick it, the ball moved further away. He kept running, the ball kept moving. From behind, he could hear Jack’s voice. Ken, wait for me! Wait up, Ken! Or maybe he was yelling, Wake up, Ken, wake up!
    And he did.
    He was alone in the hospital room now. Light poured in from the window. He lifted his head and tried to sit up but it was too painful, and his head sank back down on the pillow.
    The door opened, and a young woman in a pink pinafore came in wheeling a tray. ‘Good morning!’ she said in a bright voice. ‘How do you feel?’
    ‘OK. It hurts a little.’
    ‘The nurse is coming around with your medication,’ she told him. ‘How about some breakfast? Are you hungry?’
    ‘No,’ he replied, but she didn’t pay any attention to his response. She pressed a button on the bed, and it raised him painlessly into a halfway sitting position. Then she set up a tray over his lap.
    He looked at the food without interest. ‘I’m really not hungry.’
    ‘Try to eat a little,’ she urged him.
    Without any enthusiasm, and mainly just to get rid of this perky girl, he picked up a piece of toast and took a bite. The girl smiled with approval and left. He took another bite, and to his surprise, he managed to get both slices down. Moments later, an orderly came in with a basin. Ken suffered through a sponge bath, but at least he was allowed to brush his own teeth. A nurse appeared with some pills for him to take. The pain went away, but he stayed awake. And he actually began to feel almost human.
    He must have looked almost human too, because when his parents arrived they seemed very relieved to see him. His mother began to prattle about the doctor’s report, how Ken could probably come home tomorrow or the next day, as soon as he learned how to manoeuvre some crutches, but his father was oddly silent. And even as his mother continued to prattle, Ken sensed