The other three shortly followed her outside and, as soon as the door was closed behind them, I spoke to the nurse.
“Thank you!” I’m pretty sure she could hear how sincere that was.
“No problem. Need anything else?” she asked, her tone was suspiciously understanding. I wondered if I had gotten so loud, she heard my rant from outside.
“Could you pass me the bag with my belongings real quick? I need to check my wallet for my insurance card.”
“Insurance? I don’t have a note of that missing for anyone on this floor. Shouldn’t that have been taken care of by your parents already?” she asked with surprise.
“Probably. But I have my own insurance. The doc said I could leave tomorrow if there are no complications overnight. If so, I’d like to be able to leave without having to wait for them to sign stuff. That would be possible despite me not being eighteen yet, right?”
“Darling, I’ve been a nurse for thirty-six years now. I’ve seen sixteen-year-old girls come into the ER by themselves after their water broke. They stayed in the labor room for ten hours before finally giving birth, gave the child up for adoption, and then left again by themselves. Their parents didn’t even know they were pregnant until the hospital-bill came in the mail. If there is no medical necessity to keep you, nobody will stop you from leaving.” she explained as she handed me the bag. I produced my Insurance Card out of my wallet, and she promised to update my file. Then she left and I finally went back to sleep.
The next day went much as I had hoped. Off the IV-painkillers, I was surprised about the pain distribution. Honestly, the stab wound in my stomach hurt less than my broken rib. My stomach felt like the mother of all muscle aches, but the chest-pain was explosive and kept stopping my movements. Hearing me explain that to the doctor checking me over, he just nodded. Apparently, this was normal.
“These are Zydol capsules” the doctor said, handing me three pills in a little paper-pouch. “If you feel pain, try an ibuprofen first. Zydol can cause severe drowsiness, dizziness and blurred vision, basically making you useless for the day, so only take them if the ibuprofen isn’t enough to let you sleep. We also prepared the note for school. Try to get an appointment with your GP as soon as possible, so they can take out the staples from your stomach and the stitches from your chest in time.”
I could finally call for an uber and had it drive me to the Walmart parking lot to retrieve my Jeep. My shirt didn’t survive the ER intake, but I had my training clothes in the back of my car. Interestingly, the uber driver didn’t seem phased at all by the shirtless, battered and bruised guy who sat in his backseat.
I arrived at the parking lot and, to my relief, found no parking ticket. The big dark spot next to my front tire, however, made me pause for a moment. I suddenly had absolutely no interest in going back to that house and being confronted with these people again, so I drove to the office instead. It was almost empty, being a Sunday and all, but the ones who were there once again offered me the support I needed. The simple difference between them and my family was that I actually believed them when they seemed concerned for my wellbeing.
I dropped the adapter off in Bill’s office, went downstairs to the basement, and sat at my desk. But I didn’t have anything to do there, so it didn’t take long before my thoughts started drifting back to the fun I had with Tess on this desk. As I was contemplating my life-choices, my phone rang.
“Timothy Brown?” I answered the call.
“
“Oh, of course! I was discharged this morning and went to the office. Do I have to come in or would it be possible for your men to meet me here, so I don’t have to move around so much?”
They quickly agreed to meet up in the office and stepped through my opened door half an hour later.
“Sergeant Mills?” I asked, offering him my right hand before we sat down. He got right to the point.
“Yes. Thank you for making time on short notice. You see, the parking lots at Walmart stores have quite effective surveillance coverage. So, we already got a pretty clear picture of the fight, in addition to the statements from your family members. The reason we wanted to talk to you today is not just to make sure we have the complete picture, I’m afraid. There are some contradictions in the information we received that we’d like to sort out.” he explained after shaking my hand.
