They’re thought processes were broken when the driver said; “Are you boy’s ok? It’s a good thing you dived or I don’t think you’d be stood there right now!”
“Uh, yeah I think so” Danny answered confidently.
“What about your arm?” the man said as he reached them and stopped, noticing the intimidated and slightly scared look on their faces, “it looks hurt, is it broken?”
“I think so,” Danny said holding his left arm up with his right hand, “it sure as hell hurts enough to be!”
“Okay, is it just your arm that hurts?”
“Yes sir”
“You can call me Bill, we should probably call your parents and explain to them what happened, do you have a mobile phone?”
“No, please don’t make me call my parents” Daniel said in a moment of panic as Jake glared at him quizzically, “I…I don’t want to worry them!”
“Danny…?” Jake responded questioningly in a concerned tone.
“Jake, please, I don’t want them to hear about this.”
“What, do you think that they won’t notice a broken arm?” Jake responded wondering what the hell Danny was thinking of. “Don’t be stupid Daniel, they’re going to find out!”.
“Just leave it, please… for me.”
The truck driver butted in saying “Well alright but at least let me drive you to the hospital”.
“Well, I don’t wanna cause you any more hassle Bill…”
“Yes,” Jake interrupted, “yes, it would be great if you could give us a lift, that’s very kind of you Bill”.
“Really,” Bill acknowledged, “it’s the least I can do”.
Danny gave Jake an evil look as he reluctantly followed Bill towards the truck. Jake rolled his eyes in annoyance and then slowly followed after him.
***
At the hospital, Jake sat impatiently in the waiting area as Danny was being taken care of by the nurses. Bill had already left because he had to get his shipment to London later that night and thanks to this, he was already behind schedule. Jake tapped his feet on the shiny white hospital floor, nothing to do but sit and wait. He looked around the room reading the boring posters which offered him advice about various illnesses and problems, all of which he didn’t have. Then, he noticed the red payphone in the corner of the waiting room. It was as if it was calling him, luring him over, persuading him to pick it up. He had a few coins in his pocket and wondered if he should call his parents to let them know where he was. Then he thought about calling Danny’s parents. He knew that Danny really didn’t want him to, but he didn’t know why and deep down inside, he thought that they really ought to know what the situation was. He decided to do it. He didn’t understand what Danny was talking about. `They have to know` he thought as he walked over to the phone. He pulled the loose change out from his pocket, picked out what he needed and inserted it into the slot. He was just about to dial the number when he heard a voice say “alright then, you just need to change the dressing twice a week and I’ll see you in 2 weeks time”. The voice cut through his thoughts and brought him back into the real world! He had no time to react.
“Okay thank you”. Danny replied to the nurse.
Jake slammed the phone down and turned around quickly to see Daniel glaring at him from the other end of the empty white room.
“How did it go?” Jake blurted out trying to act casual, but Danny saw right though his act.
“You didn’t?!” Danny questioned sounding upset.
Jake paused for a second and just stared back at his friend with a blank facial expression. He considered trying to cover up what he was about to do before he was interrupted but decided that it was probably best to tell him the truth.
“Huh,” he groaned, “no, I didn’t … but I was going to.”
Danny noticed the guilt in his body language as he looked down at the shiny white floor slouching, but he was still upset and annoyed by this; “But you promised me Jake, you promised me you wouldn’t say anything. You lied to me!”
At that moment, Jake knew that he had messed up. He could sense the hurt that he had caused Danny to feel as he hung his head in shame.
“Sorry Daniel”.
“Well that makes two of us then doesn’t it”.
“I just thought…”
“Well you thought wrong! … Look, it doesn’t matter now anyway, let’s just go home, I’m tired. We can talk about this tomorrow”.
Jake didn’t say anything. There was nothing he could say, he felt so ashamed. They headed out of the hospital in silence. The bus journey back to the neighbourhood where the two young men lived was like torture. They went the whole way without saying a single word to one another. It wasn’t that they didn’t have anything to talk about; they clearly had a number of problems to sort out, but now was neither the time, nor the place. Daniel and Jake were both exhausted. They had been through so much in the last week or so that nothing really made sense any more. They needed time; Time to think, Time to adjust, Time to decide what they wanted in the future and how they were going to get what they wanted. Everything had been happening so quickly. It was like they were caught in a violent storm which was pushing them along giving them no control over where they were going or what they were doing. They needed it all to stop for a while.
***
11AM the next morning. Both boys were at home. Both were in their own beds. Both were safe, and their parents were relieved. They were both awake by now after sleeping better than they had ever slept before. Due to the extent of their mental and physical exhaustion the day before, they had no trouble sleeping at all regardless of everything that was going on in their mixed up minds. However, another thing they both shared was a problem. They knew that as soon as they got up out of bed, it would all start again. They would have to face the world once more, and the world included their parents.
All parents worry about their children, it’s only natural and of course, that’s the way it should be but at this moment in time, neither Jake or Daniel felt like answering a million questions. “What’s been going on?”, “Where have you been?”, “Why didn’t you tell us where you were going?” and so on. It was all so complicated, so confusing, so frustrating! They just couldn’t bare it. There was a part of both of them that wished they could just stay where they were forever. Safe, warm, comfortable, alone in their own beds, with nothing to do but lie down and think to themselves. However, they knew that this wasn’t going to happen. They had to get up eventually, and besides, the sooner they faced the world, the sooner they would be able to deal with their issues and get on with their lives.
Jake looked over at the small round digital alarm clock on the wooden cabinet beside his big king-sized bed. He just stared at the numbers and thought about how meaningless they were on their own. He thought about how, when those numbers were together in the way that they were, they had a purpose, to tell the time. Together they had meaning, but if you take a number out of the clock and look at it on its own, it’s useless; it’s just a number with no purpose, no meaning and no reason for existence. His head rolled back to its original position facing upwards towards the ceiling and Jake returned his thoughts to Danny. “You know,” the voice in his head said, “Those numbers are a lot like you and Danny. On your own your no good at all, you have no purpose in life but with him…with him you have a reason to be alive, – to make him happy, to respect him, care for him, be there for him…to love him!”.