I Will Love You Forever

Chapter 3, part 5: Delirium

Ken had only the vaguest memories of the next few days. They were kaleidoscopes of delirium and pain. His leg throbbed all the time, and he was only conscious enough to be aware of his surroundings on rare occasions. The rest of the time, he slid into and out of bizarre nightmares. Angels and coyotes and German Shepherds chased each other across the ceiling, and Lu touched his forehead with a glowing finger.

Lu brought him water, several times. It was the most wonderful thing he had ever tasted. After eagerly drinking a few mouthfuls each time, however, he sank back into the strange dreams. Later, she brought him food. It was all raw, out of the refrigerator, but it was meat, cheese, fruit, and vegetables. She started to chew it, then hand it to him on her tongue, but after the first bite, he was so ravenous, he grabbed the meat and started eating for himself.

After watching him for a bit, she did the same.

When he was done with the meat, he said, "Water?" She brought him a coffee cup full of water. After he had drunk it, he passed out again. He didn't know how long he lay in that bed. He woke and slept, and woke and slept again, before he was forced to get up to go to the bathroom. When he did, he realized that he had soiled himself where he lay. The house stunk.

He used the toilet first, and then showered, even though they had no shower curtain. He was standing in the shower when he realized he could put weight on his leg. He looked down on it, blinking stupidly, wondering what was wrong. His leg was still red and swollen, but not by very much. After a bit, he realized it shouldn't be that way, because he had broken it. Hadn't he? Maybe he just cracked it a little? He was too tired to do anything but shake his head in puzzlement, glad that he was still alive.

He was still terribly weak, but he managed to get the bedding cleaned up before collapsing on the inflatable mattress again.

This time, he sensed it was only a few hours before he woke up again, starving. There was nothing left in the fridge, but Lu apparently did not know how to open a can of soup any more. He showed her, and she watched closely, as he opened a can, put the soup in a bowl, stirred in a can of water, and put it in the microwave. Then he served it out into two smaller bowls, and he and Lu ate at the counter, standing up.

As he ate, he looked at her closely.

She still looked like part of her head was missing, but he thought about all the bizarre things he had seen in his hallucinations, and decided he must have hallucinated about how much had been missing. No one could have survived missing that much of their head, anyway. He had certainly had enough hallucinations. Her head wound was still horrible, but it was really just the part from above the cheekbone up that was missing. There was a bulging shape under the membrane, but he couldn't tell what part of her brain it was. That thought was almost enough to make him hurl. He couldn't keep tears from running down his face at the thought of his beautiful Lu, who would never be the same again.

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