Читать книгу Triple Double - James Lewis - Страница 7

Piercing bright lights. Barely audible mechanical sounds. An odor akin to cleaning fluids. His eyes began to register the light and a strange new environment. First reactions began with a wariness of his surroundings then an inherent alert to be on guard. His eyes hadn’t fully opened, nor had his hearing been tested, for several days and nights. In a coma, his mind was beginning to move forward. But he was still lost in a cloud of confusion for several long seconds. As his eyes began to focus, new questions were coming to fruition. He thought, Am I alone? Are those hospital noises? Abron tried to speak out loud, at least he thought he had. There were more questions. Why can’t I wake up? Where am I? Up to this point in his short life, he had never imagined himself asking that oldest of stunned phrases.

He tried moving his hand to feel skin, but someone or something was holding him down. Both arms and legs seem to have feeling, he thought. Why can’t I move? Why can’t I see? Again, that gnawing thought, Where am I?

“Mr. Kelsey, I can hear you,” said a strange voice. Abron Kelsey—tall, strong, athletic—was a man with a hard face, deep-blue eyes, and brown hair. He was currently lying immobilized and numb in body and mind, trying to listen while searching within the maze of his slowly awakening thought process for answers. He was reclined, immobile, dazed, and in physical and mental pain.

He began to realize that no amount of education or past experience could help him. Abron thought out loud, “Patience. I think that was a voice.” It was unfamiliar. Real or not, his head was splitting with pain—pain so intense he involuntarily yelled then screamed. And then the lights went out.