“Adam? How are you feeling today?”  Sandy asked.
She’s a tall and slender woman who’s been with me
since I got here.  She’s the bedside nurse
“Better I guess,” I groan.
“Do you think your ready to talk to them now?”
“Their here now?” She nodded  “ok.”
My eyes drifted downward, trying to remember the
events of one particularly night.  You would think
that a life-threatening event would never leave your
mind, it all happened so quickly, a glimpse of silver
and a warm sticky liquid running down my back is all
that comes to mind.  The police officers walked in.
In a calm, collected voice one of them said
“Now Adam, to catch these guys we need to here exactly
what happened, try starting at the theater, right when
you and your friends left.”
The other officer took out a pen and paper, sat down
in one of the chairs and looked up silently.  Many
parts of my body still are in pain.  I reach out my
hand and push the lever to rise up my bed.
“I don’t remember too well about what happened but
I’ll try to tell you everything I can.  I remember the
movie had just ended” I started…
“Now that’s the way to see transformers!” I exclaimed
as I began to push on the emergency exit.
“No” shouted Mezzy.  “Your about to set off the alarm,
lets just go out the front”
I looked over at the front exit and it was packed.
Everyone wanted to see “transformers” in I-max
theaters and the mob trying to escape the theater
wasn’t going anywhere.  “I think I’ll take my
chances-”
“No” but it was too late; I pushed the metal bar in
and the door cracked open.  The cool night air
whooshed in as I pushed the theater door the rest of
the way open.  No alarm sounded.
“You didn’t think I would actually set off the alarm
did you?  This door’s always been busted or at least
the alarms always been turned off” I said over my
shoulder.
“Man, that beats any regular theater” Bill piped in.
The conversation bounced around from the movie to
who’s going to ask who out for the prom to what ever
else we talked about, I can’t remember. It was cold so
we were walking quickly, to keep warm and so that we
could get to the car faster… you know.  Well, we cut
across the park to get to the parking garage, and
that’s where it all happened.  Bill was a few steps
behind us and I guess they thought we wasn’t with us
or some thing because one of the hooded guys got up
from the bench where the four of them were sitting and
walked past Mezzy, Jacob and myself and bumped into
Bill…
“Watch the f*ck where your goin’punk!”  The hooded kid
shoved Bill off the pathway onto the dirt.
“What the hells your problem!”  Bill shot back.  The
rest of us tuned back to help Bill out and the other
four hooded kids came over to help their friend out.
The kid who shoved Bill didn’t realize that all of us
were together and started backing off.
“Jose!  You aint goin’ to b*tch out now is you?”
Shouted one of the holder guys.  It worked; Jose began
yelling about how Bill better give him his wallet and
stuff like that.  When Bill began to walk away the
Jose kid swung a punch right at Bills head.  That’s
what set me off.  I ran up and tackled the guy that
punched Bill and from that it was all down hill.  I
never got a good glimpse of any of them, I think they
were Hispanic, or they at least had an accent, it was
dark and everything happened so fast.  I was on the
ground on top of Jose or who ever he was punching him
in the face and everyone else was yelling or fighting
or maybe doing a little of both, I really wasn’t
paying attention.  In the midst of all this I caught a
clips of a flash of silver coming from behind me.  I
hopped up to my feet but it was too late.  The blade
pierced right through my right side.  I stumbled back
grabbing my side, pain shot through me, a pulsing pain
every time my heart beat. My attacker moved to strike
again, holding my side with my left hand I held my
right hand up to hit the knife out of his hand.  He
jetted the knife forward again, my feeble attempt to
hit his hand did nothing, and another hole was
engraved into my body.  I didn’t know my body was able
to feel suck pain.  My head was getting lighter; it
felt as if I was floating on a cloud.  A hard force
knocked me to the ground, loud voices surrounded me, I
turned my head, a blur of people were running away, I
turned my head the other way, a blurry crowd was
running to me, I closed my eyes, the pain was almost
gone.







Part 2


“So you don’t remember anything after that?”
Questioned the officer taking notes.
“No, I woke-up in this bed yesterday” I could only
guess how bad I looked by the way neither one of the
officers made eye contact with me for very long.
There were no mirrors in my room so I had no clue as
to what they were looking at.  “Do you think you could
keep me up dated?”
“Of course, we’ll be in contact with until we find
these guys.”  The officer said in a heroic way.  Both
the officers walk out; before the door slams shut the
nurse slides in and closes it softly.
“You feelin’ a bit better now?”  She says with a
caring voice as she walks in with a tray of hospital
dinner.
“Ya I guess so” I groan “I just want them catch those
ass holes.”
She set the tray down on my lap.  The meal doesn’t
look very appetizing; it’s a type of jello, a
perfectly clear, flavorless, bland bowl of jello,
which is supposed to pass as a meal.  I look up to ask
the nurse if she could take it away but she’s on to
the next room already.  I picked up the cold medal
spoon; turning it around in my fingers I thought if I
really wanted to know.  All things considered, I
turned the spoon so that the back faced me and brought
it up to my face.  The spoon fell, it hit the tray
with a sharp metallic sound.  The face I glimpsed in
the spoons reflection was one I had never seen.  The
doctors haven’t told me exactly what in wrong with me
but I did hear some talk about needing a new kidney.
I guess I was stabbed right on the kidney, but after
that I passed out.  What did they do to me?  My face
is hardly recognizable, both my eyes are swollen a
purple black color.  The color of my skin isn’t its
usual happy glowing pink, it’s a darker tone, a more
gloomy color, broken open by slashes across my face,
as if I was attacked my a panther and left for dead.
My nose is heavily bandaged it must be broken. Once
more I picked up the spoon.  Staring into the sober
swollen eyes and at the elongated face a tear began to
form.  Quickly I brushed it away.  I shouldn’t feel
bad about anything, I saved bills life, they’ll have
me patched up and I’ll be on my way in no time.
However some part of me knew that it wouldn’t be that
simple.  Not wanting to think about it any more I
flipped the spoon around and carved the tiniest sliver
of jello out from the bowl.  Eating the jello is like
getting stabbed all over again.   The tasteless jello
has a weird texture to it that makes me jag.  I
swallow it quickly but the moment the slippery
gelatinous substance flows down my throat my insides
begin to gurgle.  The deep puncture wounds in my sides
ignite.  With every micro quake in my body searing
pain shot through my insides.
Days turned to weeks and I still refused to eat.  The
pain it takes to force down a tiny morsel of food
isn’t worth whatever beneficial aspect there is.  I’ve
lost my appetite completely; the very sight of food
sends shocks of sharp burning pain up my sides.  The
nurse says that they’ll have to put tubes up my nose
and down to my stomach in order to feed me.  At this
point that sounds like a luxury.



Part 3
       It’s been weeks; everyday seems like a repeat of the
previous one.  Wake up in pain, get pain killers
injected into my blood, watch TV, talk to the police,
watch more TV, talk to some people who come to see me
as I dwindle away, get some more pain killers and some
sleeping drugs, fall asleep.  The scale built into my
bed reads that I’m a hundred and ten pounds.  Before I
ever ended up in this bed I was a hundred and eighty
pounds.   My health, energy, and hope have been slowly
diminishing.
       “You ready to fall asleep?”  Asked Sandy.  There was
a pause, I’ve tried to ask the question every evening
and choked up every time she came around.  Determined
to successfully ask her to night I stammered it out.
       “How am I doing?”  The works came from behind a pail
and frail face.  Before she answered she sat in the
chair next to the bed where visitors had sat earlier
that day. As if she had been through the conversation
many times before she took a deep breath.
       “You’ve been steadily loosing weight, and it doesn’t
look like that’s going to change.  Without gaining
some pounds surgery would be fatal.  You’ve also been
taking an extreme amount of morphine everyday and it
looks like your still in pain.”  Her words came softly
and in a caring voice.  Yet nevertheless my heart
still sank as she spoke.  Before she was done telling
me how doomed I was tears where poring down my face.
       “Why me?  Why did I have to fight him?  Fuckin’
stupid.  It doesn’t even matter if they catch him.  I
don’t want to die.  I don’t want do die.  I still want
to live.  I haven’t done anything.”  I choked out
between sobs.  As I began to accept my fait Sandy sat
with me rubbing my head, doing what she could to
comfort me.  By seven O’clock the next morning, Adam
was shipped off to be prepared for burial.