I stared at mom as she lay unconscious on the hospital bed. Bandages were wrapped around her head, ventilators covering her nose, and she seemed almost lifeless. The same as dad who was on the bed beside hers.
Vicki sniffled as she sat by the other side of mom’s bed, staring deeply at her. “I can’t believe this,” she said. “Just this morning, I saw them smiling. Now, they seem dead. How did it even happen? Dad’s car’s never had any faults. In fact, only two days ago, he took it to a mechanic for servicing.”
I was silent. Silent since we had come to the hospital. I couldn’t even cry anymore. After hearing the sad news, all I had done was to inform Vicki about it, over the phone, and hurry to this place.
“It’ll be fine,” I mumbled. If I didn’t encourage myself, no one would.
Vicki glimpsed at me, wiping off her tears with the tissue in her hand. “Um…” Her voice was hoarse and kind of low, due to how much she had cried. “What did the police say? Did they figure out what went wrong?”
“No.” I shook my head. “But, they said they’ll give me feedback. They said they’ll investigate the scene of the accident.”
“Okay.” She nodded.
“Miss Alan.” The moment the doctor walked in, Vicki and I stood up, and hurried over to him, even before he reached us.
I sighed, terror racing in my facial feature, and even through my body. “Is there a problem, Mr. Alfred?”
He sighed. He looked pretty exhausted. “For now, your parents are fine. But, I can see that prior to the time of the accident, they had high blood pressure. Due to that, they might have suffered a shock.”
I blinked away my tears. I just didn’t want to cry right here. First, for Vicki. I had to be strong for her. And, second, my parents wouldn’t like to see me cry. So, for them too.
“What?” Tears trickled down Vicki’s cheek as she asked that.
The doctor glanced at his wristwatch, and sighed again. “I have an appointment with another patient. So, I need to be quick,” he informed us. “According to their current situation, I can say that they will be fine, as long as you get to provide the necessary things they need. We’ll try as much as possible to take care of them. We’ll be scanning their brains, to spot some internal injuries, if there are any. And yes, some delicate parts of their bodies would be scanned as well. It might take a while though.”
“Does this mean their lives are at risk?” I inquired, my voice faint like the sizzling sound of an air conditioner. I was dreaded.
For a third time, he sighed. “I can’t tell. Well, they’re fine for now. I just need you both to be hopeful. As I’ve said before, we’ll try our best.”
I nodded. “Okay. Thank you, sir.”
“Will see you later. Take care,” he added. He turned around, and walked out of the room.
As soon as he did so, Vicki clashed her body against mine. She cuddled to the point I felt choked. Her tears soaked in my shirt, and I had really never seen her cry this much.
“It’ll be fine.” I soothed her back gently, and pecked her on the forehead. As she leaned head on my shoulder, I looked up, blinking away my tears.
After a while, she pulled away. I rubbed my palm against her cheek, smiling at her.
She whimpered. “Are you leaving? I’d like to stay here for a while.”
“That’s not a problem. Will return soon. Just wanna hang around, and try to make myself happy,” I said.
“Okay.”
She walked back to mom and dad’s bed, while I stepped out of the room. I checked what time it was, patiently waiting for Ryan to come over. He was the only person who could comfort me.
“Miss Alan,” someone called my name, as I settled to sit on one of the benches in the hallway.
Squirming my neck in the direction of the sound, I stood up when I saw the inspector, Rita Cowell, walking towards me.
“Mrs. Cowell,” I called, and walked over to her first. “How’s it going?”
She tucked some strands of her blonde hair behind her ear, and cleared her throat. “It’s going well, I can say. We’ve checked your parents’ vehicle. From what we saw, we can tell that the vehicle was completely fine. The road is usually silent, so we weren’t able to get an eye witness. However, thanks to the road cameras, we were able to get footage of the scene. The footage shows that someone had deliberately hit their car.”
“What?” Tears went running down my cheek. Someone had wanted to kill them or what?
She sighed. “It was a truck. Your dad tried to dodge the person’s attack, but the person kept moving in your dad’s lane. Unfortunately, the truck driver succeeded in hitting their car, which is the reason their car went down the valley. We’d thought their car had a brake failure, but now, we know what really happened.”
“Why would anyone want to harm my parents?” I pulled my hand over my mouth to prevent sobs from escaping it.
“I’m so sorry, Miss Alan.” She put her hands in her pocket, looking quite tired and worried. “We’ll try our best. Unfortunately, the footage didn’t show the truck’s number plate. The truck zoomed off after hitting their car. Thanks to the old woman who spotted them, while driving on that road. Else, their car could have exploded or something.”
“This is upsetting.”
“I know that.” She nodded. “We’ll ensure the person gets caught. In the meantime, you’ll have to be strong for your sister.”
“Thanks.” I rubbed my palm against my face.
“See you later,” she added, then left this vicinity.
I sauntered back to the bench which was tugged to the wall, holding back my tears at all costs. I was so devastated, unaware of how to react to this. I wouldn’t have ever thought that anyone would want to kill my innocent parents. Those people were so kind.
Could it be mom’s aunt who hated mom so much? Or, could it be dad’s cousin who betrayed dad for no good reason? Who could have done it?!
Frustrated, I leaned close, put my elbow on my lap, ran my fingers into my hair, and grunted hard. I felt so terrible and confused.
“Are you okay?”
The sound of the thick, masculine voice caught my attention. Looking up, I spotted Ryan standing a few feets away from the bench. I sniffled, which made me realize that I had been crying.
“Ryan.” I hurried over to him, and embraced him tightly. Like an upset and unhappy toddler, I wept on his chest. All he did was to pat my back, kiss my forehead, treat me like an actual toddler.
“It’ll be fine, sweetie,” he assured me.
“My parents’ lives are in danger. They’re unconscious. Their health might even worsen,” I lamented, weeping hard.
He pecked my forehead once again. “It’ll be fine. That’s my assurance.”
I just kept weeping on his chest. For now, he was my comfort.
For some reason, I felt like this issue was going to make my life get warped. But, hopefully, nothing would go wrong. I would be fine. Vicki and I would be fine.
***