Would You Read Online Free Page B

girl alive.”
    Dr. Cooper blinks a couple of times.
    Not anymore, I can hear him thinking.
    “I see.” He writes something down. “Did any of you witness the accident?”
    We all murmur no, shaking our heads. I wonder for the first time who
did
see it. Who called?
    “Is anyone else hurt?” I ask.
    He doesn't look at me. “I'm not at liberty to tell you that,” he says. I glance around, maybe to see Kate's parents, or Joe's, but then I remember the nurse saying, It's
the
family, like there's only one.
    “How old is Claire?” asks Dr. Cooper.
    “Eighteen,” say Mom and Dad together.
    The doctor's pencil hesitates. “Oh.”
    “What, ‘Oh’?” I don't like the way he said “Oh.”
    Dad pats my shoulder.
    “I think the doctor means that Claire is not a minor, am I right?”
    “What difference does that make? Shouldn't you be in there saving her?” I say. “Aren't these questions kind of pointless?”
    “There may be certain decisions,” says Dr. Cooper, “about her treatment. If she were a minor, your parents would have to make them. As it is …”
    “Can you just tell us the situation?” says Dad.
    Dr. Cooper ducks his eyes. He can't look at us during the next part.
    “It seems that Claire, after impact, somersaulted and landed a distance away from the collision site. She apparently had a seizure on the spot. She has a broken collarbone and several other injuries. Most importantly, she has suffered severe trauma to the head and brain.”
    He stops.
Severe trauma to the head and brain.
    “Can we see her?” asks Mom.
Spin Mode
    We follow Dr. Cooper through the swinging doors and he sticks us in this room by ourselves, as if he's considering our privacy, but really it's just the Bad Effing News Room.
    Dad pulls Mom into a hug.
    “Come on,” he says to me. “Let's have a Lump.”
    So I go over and let him fold me in too.
    “Knock, knock,” says a nurse, coming in. “I'm Sue. You're Claire's family? I do triage.”
    We all just look at her. Triage?
    “We're preparing Claire for surgery, but you'll be able to see her for a minute before we take her in. She could be in there for, well, a few hours, maybe, depending on how it goes. I'm going to warn you, there are several tubes, intravenous lines and cardiac monitor wires all in place. We've put her on a ventilator. She's not in good shape and it might be alarming for you to see her, but—”
    “We're coming,” says Mom, and she's out the door right behind Sue, with Dad at her heels.
    I'm not so sure.
    I see where they're going, and I see the rolling gurney thing. And I see the shape of a body under a draped sheet. I see extra carts with machines on them, and tubes and hookups and bags hanging there…. All these people are moving like mechanical dolls.
    I stay back while Mom and Dad go right over and Sue is saying something, but all I can really see is a hand sort of curled inside the railing of this bed on wheels.
    That's Claire?
    Mom picks this moment to fall to the floor in a heap. I don't know if she fainted or took one look and justcouldn't stand up anymore. She's on the floor and there's a silent pause and then she starts to howl. Dad bends over, trying to soothe her, rubbing her arms. She wrenches away and wails. I'm just watching, hot all over, mostly behind the eyeballs. My mother has lost her mind. What am I supposed to do? I've never seen anything like this.
    “Mom?” I creep closer. The medical people are zooming around, pushing Claire's bed out of the way through some doors and gone.
    I don't know what to do. But neither does Sue or Dr. Cooper. I hear the murmurs; they're going to give Mom drugs.
    I want to start screaming too but I can't breathe, can't breathe in to scream out.
    I sit on the floor next to Dad. Mom is kneeling, rocking a little, holding herself.
    “Mom.” I'm afraid to touch her, so I just lean in close. “Mom,” I whisper. She catches her next noise before it comes out. She hears me and she's trying to stop, I