Talania - a Trip Down Memory Lane... (27 page)

“Tristan, did you see that? Did you hear them clapping and screaming for us? We did it baby; we totally just rocked this beach party!” She screams.

“Yes, we did. What’s with these damn pink streaks in your hair
?”
I pick one up, tossing it around. I am always looking for a reason just to touch her.

“Oh hush it. You know you like it.” She rolls her eyes and smirks at me.

“That did feel good, huh baby?” I grin at her. Her excitement is contagious. She is so damn cute when she is like this.

“Yes! That was great baby.” She is so excited her body is trembling.

“Dude, that was fucking awesome!” Drake runs over to where we are standing, and with a flying leap, jumps on my back.

“It was! It was so awesome!”

I look over at Evelyn and my breath catches. Her smile is so bright that her whole face is glowing. She did great tonight, but I never had any doubt about her. My infinity has the voice of an angel.

She catches me watching her and the look on her face softens.
“We’re gonna make beautiful music and beautiful babies together, aren’t we?” she whispers.

Oh hell yes we are!
“Do you even have to ask?” I tease.

She shakes her no.

“I love you baby,” I push Drake off my back and grab hold of her, bringing my lips to hers.

“I love you too.”

I wake from a deep sleep bathed in sweat, laughing at myself for dreaming about the past. Damn, she did so good tonight.

I look over at her. She is sleeping so peacefully that she’s not even stirring about. Tonight must have really worn her out.

Shit! She’s not moving at all! She is dead still!

“Evelyn baby, wake up,” I say as I lightly shake her arm. I reach over and turn on the lamp. “Damn it baby, wake up!”

I grab a hold of her; she is not moving. I put my head to her chest and find she is barely breathing. I check her over from head to toe and notice a pool of blood on the sheets where she is laying.

“Baby, please wake up!” I yell, shaking her harder. Nothing is working. Why won’t she waking up?

I grab my cell phone from the nightstand. My hands are trembling with fear and I drop the phone. Snatching it up, I unlock it and dial 911.

“911, what’s your emergency?”

“My girlfriend is pregnant. She has cancer and is going through chemo. She’s not waking up. There’s blood everywhere!”

God, why isn’t she waking up? Why is there so much blood?
“Baby, wake up!” I can’t choke back a sob.

“Sir, I need you to calm down. What’s your address?”

Fuck baby, wake up! Why won’t she just wake up?

“Drake! Drake!” I yell at the top of my lungs, dropping the phone to the bed and pulling her body into my arms.

The hallway light flips on and seconds later, Drake comes flying into my room.

“She won’t wake up! She won’t wake up,” I chant, rocking her back and forth.

“Tristan, oh God, hand me the phone.”

No, no, no! This is not happening. This can’t be happening. Not my infinity.

He jerks the phone out of my grasp and talks to the operator.

“Wake up baby! Damn you, wake up! Drake, where the fuck are they? Are they coming?” I growl, my voice laced with anguish.

“Shit! Fuck! Yes, they are on the way. I gotta go unlock the door.”

He takes off down the hall, running at a breakneck speed.

My heart is pounding! My face is soaked with tears. All I can do is hold my infinity and rock her. She still won’t wake up.
Why the fuck won’t she wake up?

Drake flies back up the stairs and bursts into the room. Two paramedics follow him in, wheeling a stretcher in with them.

“They were going back to the station after taking someone to the hospital. They got the call and turned around. Thank God they were just right down the road,” he gasps, out of breath from running.

“She won’t wake up,” I whisper, shaking her.

“Sir, we can take it from here. We need to move her so we can help her.” They gently take her from my arms and lay her down on the stretcher.

I am covered in blood and my hands are shaking. “Why won’t she wake up? Why the fuck won’t she wake up?”

They move quickly, checking her eyes, and listening to her heart. They put a breathing mask on her face and attach a monitor to one of her fingers. One of them writes some notes on a clipboard while the other contacts the hospital on his radio. They start out of the room with the stretcher between them.

“Tristan, come on. We need to follow the ambulance. I’ll drive. I need to call her father and our parents, but I can do that on the way there. Do you want a shirt?” he whispers.

Do I want a fucking shirt?
“No, I don’t want a damn shirt! I want her to wake up!”

“I know, I know. Me too.” Drake heads towards my closet, grabbing the first shirt his fingers touch. He grabs me by the arm and starts steering me towards the door.

“This is my fault; all my fault. I shouldn’t have made her sing last night. It made her stress out! Oh God, this is my fault.”
My fault! My fault! All my fault!
I am beginning to sound like a broken record.

“Tristan, this isn’t your fault. You know that. Now shut the fuck up so we can go.” Drake throws my shirt at me and runs out the door.

We follow the ambulance straight to the hospital. I curse myself the whole trip. Rocking back and forth in the seat, I mumble over and over, ‘
she has to wake up
’. I feel Drake’s eyes on me while he calls our families.

“Why won’t she wake up Drake? Why won’t she wake up?”

He sighs, hanging up the phone. “I don’t know bro. I just don’t know.”

“I want her to wake up. I need her to wake up, Drake. She has to wake up!”

We pull into the parking lot behind the ambulance. I jump out before the car even comes to a stop and follow the paramedics through the door to the emergency room. She is still not awake. She looks so small on the stretcher. So frail. So breakable.

“Paging Dr. Zelanburg. Paging Dr. Zelanburg,” The voice on the intercom stops me dead in my tracks.
Oh God, I didn’t call him. How could I forget that?

“Bro, don’t worry. I called her doctors,” Drake wheezes as we follow Evelyn down the hall.

Everything is such a blur. The lights are flashing across my eyes like a giant disco ball. Everyone around me seems to be moving in slow motion. I hear voices around me, but I can’t understand a word that is spoken. Nothing is making any sense to me. I race to follow her stretcher through the operating room doors.

“Sir, you need to wait here.” A nurse puts a hand to my chest and holds me back.

“You can’t tell me to wait here. That is my girlfriend and my miracle. I’m not standing here while she is in there!”

“Sir, you need to calm down. She needs emergency surgery to stop the bleeding.” The nurse speaks to me in soothing voice, hoping to calm me down.

“Surgery? She can’t have surgery! She’s pregnant. She has acute leukemia! Do you understand me? She is pregnant and she has cancer! She’s too weak to survive surgery!” I am screaming at her now, trying to make her understand what I am saying.

She pauses a moment. Taking my shoulders in her hands, she gets right up in my face, forcing me to listen. Quietly, she says, “Sir, she needs surgery or she’ll die.”

The word ‘
die’
slams into my brain. It explodes into a kaleidoscope of angry colors. Each color slowly spreads and begins to strangle any hope I have left.

“Die?” I choke over the word.

“Yes sir. Please. I need you to stay here.” The nurse pleads with me before heading through the doors into the OR.

“Die?” The very word cuts off my air. Gasping, I fall to my knees. Grabbing my head in my hands, I rock back and forth, screaming. “She can’t fucking die. She can’t! I just got her back! My infinity can’t fucking die!”

“Tristan, what’s going on?” I hear my mother’s voice coming from the end of the tunnel but I can’t answer. I can’t focus on anything by my infinity.

I feel a warm hand on my head and look up to see Drake’s tortured expression. “She’s been taken back for emergency surgery to stop the bleeding.” Drake’s voice breaks on a sob. “She’s unconscious mom. She won’t wake up.”