Teen Ink

Chapter Five; Phoenix

I was in a hospital room, with Aunt Penny and some doctors staring at me with astonishment. I had only one question; “Who was talking to me?” I squeaked.
“You heard me?” Aunt Penny asked.
“It was a guy,” I said. They looked at each other. “No one was, sweetie,” she said.
“Yeah, they did,” I said. I knew that, right after hitting the ground, I could hear someone talking to me, then I woke up.
A smile came to Aunt Penny’s face. “It was an angel!” she said.
“Whatever,” I said. Angels my butt, I thought. Her smile faded.
“At least you’re here,” she said, and sighed. The doctors left her and I, but still kept a close eye on me. “Mom’s in jail,” she said. I shrugged.
“Why do I care?” I said as I rubbed my raw throat. My chest didn’t really hurt, but that probably had to do with morphine.
“You should care because you have no where to go unless I take you,” she said.
“What about Dad?” I asked.
“Child Protective Services declared him an unfit parent. No custody,” she said.
I thought about it before saying, “Take me, I’m yours,” She smiled.
“Thought you might say that,” she said. Her phone rang. She looked at it. “Gotta take this,” she said, holding up a finger, and turning the corner out of the room. I sighed. I was stuck. Too little pain to complain about, too much pain to move. I reached over to get the remote for the TV off the table next to the bed. A pain shot through my arm and into my chest as I clasped my purple-tinted fingers around the remote. To get the job done, I tossed it onto my bed, then grabbed my chest. “Owwww….” I moaned. Hospital life sucks. I sat for a moment and let myself breathe.
I looked down at my fingers. It was cold enough in the hospital to make me turn purple. The place where the IV entered my hand was starting to turn blue. I probably looked like a zombie. I gently hooked my fingers on the remote, then hit ‘POWER’. I was greeted by Spongebob Squarepants’ nerdy laugh, and Squidward’s sinus-like voice snap, “Can’t you two morons let me be!”
I flipped through the channels. Mythbusters on Discovery Channel blowing up a car, Adam Richman on Travel Channel’s Man vs. Food trying to eat a ten-pound burger, Jeff Dunham and Achmed on Comedy Central making fun of suicide bombers. I came to the History Channel. They were debating the existence of angels. I thought about Aunt Penny’s guess, and my unknown visitor. Maybe it was an angel. I don’t know. I guess, in my mental state, I could have dreamed it, but I was sure I heard it. He told me to hang on. Knew my name. Said Aunt Penny needed me. Well, angel or not, I was there, and I wasn’t liking it.