The Mason List by S.D. Hendrickson

stayed seared
in my mind.  Turning to the side, I saw something awful.
    Jess made
it a few more steps before sinking down in the snow.  Crawling up beside him, I
took a good look at his arm.  My stomach lurched seeing the bloody, oozy mess
mixed with melted fabric.  I stared back into his sad, blue eyes.
    “Maybe we
should put snow on it.”
    “Ok,” he
mumbled.
    I patted
a handful of white fluff into the charred arm.  I was afraid to push too hard. 
What if I knocked off part of his skin?  The idea caused bile to form in the
back of my throat.  Taking another clump, I added a new layer, seeing the blood
darken the ice.  “Feel any better?”
    “Yeah.” 
He half-smiled as a tear trickled out of his eye.  The water froze on his
cheek.  My chest hurt, seeing him cringe in pain each time I touched his arm. 
I stopped packing the burn with snow.  Jess needed a doctor.
    “I don’t
know what else to do.”
    “It’s almost
numb now,” he muttered.  “It shouldn’t be long now.  They’ll see the fire and
come lookin’.”
    Scooting
closer to his side, I wrapped my arms around his shaking body.  We clung
together in the snow, waiting to be rescued.  The smell of his burned skin lingered
in the air. 
    It wasn’t
long before two beams of light headed in our direction.  The big
four-wheel-drive truck barely stopped before both of our fathers came running
toward us out on the meadow.
     

    The burns
and the head injury landed us both in the hospital.  Tomorrow, Jess would see a
specialist in Dallas.  They held me overnight for observation for a
concussion.  Dr. Mason arranged for us to share a room in side-by-side beds. 
Once again, I slept in the Arlis hospital, but this time as a patient.
    Tonight
scared me.  It scared me in ways I didn’t want to think about as I watched my
friend stare up at the ceiling.  I knew he was still in pain. 
    “I’m
really sorry,” he whispered softly. 
    “It’s
ok.”
    “No, it’s
not.  I do stupid stuff sometimes.  I get caught up in the moment and I…I know
we joke ‘round but you’re my best friend.”  The blue eyes glistened in the dim
room as he rolled over to face me.  “You wouldn’t wake up after you got hit.  I
kept shakin’ you and you just laid there.  The boards were fallin’
everywhere…and I was scared.  I don’t know what I’d do if somethin’ happened to
you.”
    An odd
pain stabbed me in the chest.  I sucked in a deep breath.  Every time I closed
my eyes, I pictured his body covered in fire.  I pictured the orange flames
eating up his skin.  I pictured a life without Jess.  The image hurt.  It hurt
deep inside my chest in a way nothing else could reach me. 
    “I would
cry,” I whispered. 
    “What?”
His voice cracked like it often did these days.
    “I would
cry for you, Jess.”

 
     
    Chapter 15
     
     
    Today,
10:52 p.m.
    The
hospital still has the same wallpaper.  I notice this as I open my eyes.  The
dim moonlight illuminates a man sitting in the chair; his hand resting across a
knee.
    “Dad?”
    “Hey.” 
    Wiggling
my hand, I move it free of the restraints.  I lift it up to see ugly red marks
across the blue stars inked into the skin on my wrist.  Bruises speckle the
rest of my arm, disappearing under my sleeve.  I hurt in every possible way a
body could hurt.  I hurt from my skin to my soul.  
    “What
time is it?”
    “A little
before eleven.”
    “What’s
happening?  I want the truth.”
    “You need
to get cleaned up and we can talk.”  His face constricts on the words.
    “Stop
it.” 
    “Alex,
you broke the stained glass window in the chapel with a plant.  You need to
take it easy.  I know you’re upset.”
    “ Upset?  
You think I’m upset?   You of all people should understand I’m not just upset! ”
Panic grips my skin.  I can’t breathe.  Tucking my knees close, I grab on
tight.
    “Pumpkin,
it will be ok.”
    “Stop
lying to me.”
    His rubs
his tired eyes.