Mind Jump
By
Leland S. Kropp Jr.
Taylor laid in what he thought was a bed, he wasn’t quit sure where he was. All he knew was that he was in a world of pain. It had been his buddy Gus’s 18st birthday and he had been sure that he had drunk way too much yet again. He knew he had been in trouble when Shawn had broke out the Southern Comfort, a new which was quit misleading to say the least. Taylor didn’t like the taste but everyone had said that it was an acquired taste. Taylor’s dad, Big T had always said that you could acquire a taste for dog shit if you ate enough. He had also said that doing shots of anything was a fast path to stupidity. The buzzing in his head was driving him nuts; this was by far the worst hang over to date. As he laid there, somewhere the thought of getting up and getting some Tylenol was just out of the question, the world seemed to sway back and forth giving him the feeling that he always had after he would spend the week on his dad’s house boat. That was the only time that he would ever get motion sick which was strange because of the lack of motion. Big T called it land sickens and it would usually last a couple of days. Taylor could see light peering through his closed eye lids which burned a hole right into his brain. The thought crossed his mind to grab a pillow and cover his eyes from the blinding light. “God, I swear I will never take another drink if you would just make this headache go away” he thought to himself. He almost cracked a smile as he thought of the two dozen times that he had made to God and knowing that he would break this one next weekend when he and his friends would party yet again. Deep sleep began to fall over him but the buzzing remained as he prayed that his father Big T wouldn’t find out that he had been drinking again.
This had been by far the worst hang over to date and he knew he would drink again he just hoped that it would not get to this level again. It could have been hours or days and it didn’t really matter, all that mattered was that on a scale of one to ten his head felt like a twenty plus on the pain scale. The sleep that he had was unrest full and filled with nightmares. While he slept he could hear voices all around him that reminded him to the parents from the Charlie Brown cartoons. As the gibberish played just beyond the hornets nest within his head he thought about taking up Big T on his offer to go to rehab. “Yet, that’s the ticket. I go to rehab.” As the thought crossed his mind it was soon lost when it felt as though God himself opened his left eye blinding him with the sun and if that wasn’t bad enough the fucker did the same to his right eye resulting in screams of anguish. Screams of which echoed though out his head as he fell back into the nightmare of his hangover.
Taylor woke to his own screams, sitting up he swung his feet out of bed and covered his eyes with his hands to block out the blinding light of the sun. The pain was worst and he had to find some relief and fast. Lifting himself up he gathered his balance as he rushed to the bathroom to throw up. Taylor had made it just in time to deposit the contents of last night meal into the toilet. Getting up and wiping his mouth he walked to the sink and turned on the cold water. Wetting his hand he splashed water on to his face relishing the cool relief that the water brought. “Gonna have to call Guinness, this has to be a record for hangovers.” Splashing another handful of water into his face he looks at the hands that he had just ran though his hair. “What the Fuck!” as he looked down his hands were covered in blood. Pulling the medicine cabinet door open he looked at the three way reflection he can finally see the root of his hangover. There on the back of his head starting at the base of his skull was a deep cut ending just above his left ear. Another bout of nausea began to over take him as he mad his way back to the bedroom. “Jesus Christ, I must have been in a god damn coma.” The pathway back to bed seemed to stretch for miles and with every step the distance seemed to grow, “I have got to call Big T, his dad would be pissed beyond belief but he needed his daddy. Tears began to flow as he force his self to walk, each step became harder and harder. It felt as if someone were pouring molten lead into the wound into his head. If body was growing heavier with each step and each step the distance between him and his cell phone grew. Why hadn’t he just taken it with him as he always did? Tears began to roll down his cheeks and he began to sob. Taylor’s body began to quack, he wanted his daddy so bad, and his daddy would make everything OK just as he always did.
The buzzing was back and Taylor knew that somehow he had made his way back to bed. All he needed to do was rest, he hoped that the visions of the cut on the back of his head had just been a dream, but the pain assured him that had not been the case. His life had been in peril and he was pissed at his so-called friend for not taken him to the hospital. If he didn’t get up he might slip in to a coma that he couldn’t awake.
The pain in his head was gone alone with the constant buzz of hornets that had take nest inside his head. Taylor found himself standing in front of the mirror once again; in the distance he could hear “Nine Inch Nails” roaring pool side. In the mirror he sees Jessica laying nude in Gus’s parent’s bed. He popped the “Exisity” pill that Shawn had given him and chased it with a swallow of So-Co. Thank God that the pain was gone, looking down at the bottle in hand Taylor thinks to himself that tomorrow would be a good day to quit. Though the open window he hears the crowd of party goers singing “I want to fuck like an animal, I want to feel you from the inside” and as he goes to the window to watch the party from the second floor balcony he see some dumbass jump from the roof into the pool. The splash and thud bring a stop to the singing followed by a stop to the music. Taylor rushes to the balcony to see what had happen and what fuckwad it happened to. Gus parents were out of town and they didn’t care whether or not he had a party just as long as they cleaned up. The one rule they had was no one was to jump off of the roof into the pool. This stunt had been a right of passage for all of Gus’s friend until Shawn had jumped short and broke his leg. As he reached the window he knew that they were in deep shit. Whoever had jumped was fucked, there was a cloud of blood in the pool and a couple guys that he didn’t know were pulling another guy out of the pool. He couldn’t see who it was but he could see Gus and he was crying. “God I hope it wasn’t Shawn” he thought to himself looking down he can’t make out who it is but he can see blood begin to seep past the legs of the guys crowded around him. In the distantness sirens could be heard moving surely in this direction. Hopefully in this direction, he thinks as he sets the bottle down. “Maybe now is a good time to quit” he thinks as he sets the bottle down and runs for the stairs. Taking the steps in three and fours he rushes to the scene of the accident. The closer he gets the louder the sirens become, by the time he reaches the lanai the sound is deafening. Taylor make it with in ten feet before he falls to his knees, the buzzing is back and was back with a vengeance. Reaching for the back of his head he feels the damp sticky feel of blood. The hornets must have made their way home. Taylor rested on his knees as he watches the police officers rush though the gate as the crowd clears giving him a clear view of the young man and the pool of blood that he is laying in. He had seen the face before but he wasn’t sure where or when. He watches helplessly as the boy starts to convulse, foam pouring from his mouth and nose. Muscles tighten to the point that his body arches leaving his head and feet the only contact to the ground and then his body falls lifelessly to the ground. “You dumb mother fucker” he says to no one and as the words leave his mouth the pain and buzzing become so loud that he falls once more into darkness.
Morning light creeps over the distant horizon of Eureka Missouri as Taylor sits on the edge of the diving board dangling his feet into the pool. The blood on the deck had been washed away just as the cloud of blood had been filtered from sight from the pool. It was still there even though it had been removed from sight. The tainted water had felt good on his feet and he knew that it would feel even better on his tired body but he lacked the motivation and energy to dive in. It had felt like years since he had talked to any of his friends or family. The feeling of shame washed over him like a cloud of darkness, he was a son with out his fathers light. It had shamed him living in his fathers shadow knowing that he would never be able to shine bright enough to draw his father’s attention. The only time his father pay him any mind was when he would fail his expectations and that was the only thing in which he excelled. The party had cleared out hours ago and he was the only one left to pay tribute to the dumb ass that went and screwed the pooch. Those that care went to the hospital and those that didn’t went home. All would be scared by the life’s lesson brought forward by the stupidity of alcohol. Nothing bothered him more that the fact that Jessica had left with the crowd and not even bothering to say goodnight. Surely anyone would have been upset by the turn of events but one would think that a girl friend would remain to give comfort and yet she left in tears as though her best friend had die. Women were as strange as Big T had said and nothing would change that fact. One could be mad, glad, or just pissed off, a woman would always do what a woman would do and his woman cried for a stranger’s demise today. Nothing he could or would say would change that he was sure. So today he sat alone, he was sad but he had his own problems and they had nothing to do with Senior Dumb Ass. He just hoped that Gus would return be Gus’s parents returned. The migraines that he had been having were bad enough but the last thing that he needed was to have one during the cross examination of Gus’s parents. As the sun baked his skin as he sat on the diving board he could hear the hornets off in the distance and as they returned sleep was sure to follow.
The nightmares were unlike any that he had ever had and calling them nightmares was and understatement. The horrific dreams were only broken by distant voices and to occasional searing light that would stab into his brain. Tonight he was trapped with in a tunnel and at the far end of the tunnel he could see his mother and father. The buzzing was gone but the vision brought on a wave of motion sickness, it was as if he were walking and using a telescope to see. What he did see made him want to scream, his mother and father both looked haggard and both had been crying. Never in his life had he seen weakness in his father, Big T had been his rock. Always there and always strong but today he had tears in his eyes and this broke Taylors heart. He had been a disappointment in the past and the sight made him want to change. Could his behavior in the past really have caused his daddy to cry? When he woke he would call Big T and he would allow his father, his rock to take him to rehab. All of his life he had wanted to step out of his father’s shadow not realizing that living in the shadow of a great man wasn’t really all that bad. With the way he had behaved he really didn’t have the right to soil Big T’s shadow. Though his tunnel vision he could see Big T saying something to him but try as he might he could not make out the words. It was as if they had been speaking a foreign language which gave him a degree of comfort because he knew that was not the case. The likelihood of Big T learning a new language was like winning the lottery, you can win if you don’t play and you can learn if you don’t try. Dad had always said it would be far easier for everyone else to learn English. The head with the tunnel vision turned to look down at the body lying in the bed, who ever it was, was fucked up. They really should turn off the machines on this one and as fast as that the buzzing was back and the darkness of sleep washed over him like a blanket.
The headache had subsided just as fast as it had come on. One moment all was as well as one could expect when visiting your best friend as he laid in a coma and having to deal whit his parents. They said that they didn’t blame him and it was and accident but how in the world could they not blame him. It was his fault, it was all his fault. Gus on more than one occasion convinced Taylor that he didn’t have a drinking problem all because he wanted his drinking buddy. If Taylor sobered up he would surely loss his best friend and the light would then shine on him showing the world that he was a drunk also. The best part of drinking with Taylor was that he was a train wreck. Anyone who was around Taylor when he drank could and would get away with murder. He had been fun and loud, always drawing attention to himself. Gus had gotten out of two DUI’s while drinking with his friend. Taylor had been sitting safely in the backseat as the police had pulled Gus over and before the cop could even approach the drive side window Taylor would be out of the car screaming at the cop and even taking a swing at the officer. As the officer had subdued Taylor placing him in handcuffs Gus had fled finding shelter at a friends house until he could sober up. Gus wasn’t stupid, he knew that he would have to deal with the cop for fleeing the scene but it would be better to do it sober. After Big T bailed Taylor out of jail the plan had been to take him to Tennessee for rehab, but being the friend that Gus was he convinced Taylor that he didn’t have a problem and he could stay with him until his dad cooled off. Now his best friend laid in a coma with his parents considering turning live support off ending his friend’s life. The events of the night played over in his mind, “Come on T take the jump for me. It’s my birthday for Christ sake.” Gus pour T another glass of Southern Comfort, “Naw, I’m not thinking that would be a good idea and I told Jessica that I wouldn’t jump again. It always scared her and it scares her even more since Shawn got hurt.” Gus turned and walked away, “You’re a fucking pussy, let me know if Jessica lets you have your balls back.” Gus smiles to himself because he knows what buttons to press to make T jump though his little hoops. Just a couple of shots of So Co and T would screw a nun if he told him that it was a good idea. Now because he had refused to grow up and let his friend get the help he needed T was going to die. The stress and guilt of standing and facing T’s parents brought on a migraine that was out of this world and quickly dissipated as he left. “Won’t be doing that again anytime soon” Gus says to himself as he takes a mouth full of Scotch from the flask that he kept in his pocket.
As Gus left the room Big T broke down in tears once more. He had hated Gus, but the two were like magnates, the more he would try to keep them apart the stronger their pull to each other was. The two had talked about Taylor’s drinking and it had always made Big T feel like a hypocrite, the conversations always brought back flash backs of the fights that he had with his father. Taylor was a mirror image of himself in every detail. Wisdom could not be taught, it had to be learned. He had learned the hard way and so had his son. Big T was there for the birth of his son and now it looked like he would be there for his death. The thought had brought on a wave of shacking and sobbing, joining him in his sorrow was his wife Shea of thirty years and the mother of their only son. The fall from the second story roof had left his baby boy broken in more ways than one. The worse of all was the fact that the doctor had said that he would never wake and if he did what had been his son, their baby was no longer in the broken shell. Four time the doctors had come in to turn off the life support system and all four time Big T turned them away asking for more time. As he looked down at his broken baby boy the tears had flowed. Big T had hoped that sooner or later Taylor would grow up like he had. Every time T had gotten into trouble he had been there to bail him out unlike his dad who had left him to get himself out of the situation that he had gotten himself into. His father, Taylor’s grand father had always said, “I was there for the pleasure so why should I have to deal with the pain?” Life was always full of self doubt and second guesses, it seemed that no matter what you do with a child you are wrong. Good parenting can not be gauged until your child had children of their own, and even then the answer is not that clear. Every father wants to give his child the parenting that they felt that they lacked. If you were too tough they would be to soft, give them the world and they would deny them everything. These were things that no parent thought about until they were standing on the death bed of their child. The morning’s activities included a stop at Schrader’s Funeral Home to plan Taylor’s finial resting place, and just like it was with turning off the life support he could not pull the trigger even though he knew that he had to. As the minutes turned to hours Big T knew that the chances of this being a nightmare were growing slimmer with each tick of the clock.
T awoke to find him self standing on the peak of the second story roof at Gus’s house. The feeling of Déjà vu overwhelmed him for a moment, but the thought had been stupid. He had been here before and he would be here again. Taking a finial swallow from the now empty bottle of his Southern Comfort he tosses the bottle into the neighbor’s yard. Staring into the nights sky and feeling the warm summer wind blow over his shirtless body Taylor thinks of what could have been, he could have, no would have been an Olympic diver. He had his choice of scholarships to any college he had wanted, but his asshole coach had made sure that would never happen. Coach Hunt had always hated him, that asshole would punish the entire team losing tournament after tournament and laying the blame at his feet. Coach had a rule that if you missed practice you couldn’t compete, the problem was that when you had the talent that T had the rules didn’t apply. The problem was that Coach Hunt was loser, he had always been afraid of success and that was why he was a high school coach. People like him needed to learn the rules of the world, when you had money or talent the normal rules didn’t apply. T though had both money and talent which put him into a league that few others would ever have. He could do whatever he wanted whenever he wanted and if you needed proof all you had to do was ask the Eureka Police Department. They had grown tired of arresting him, each time that they had slapped the cuffs on him they would get the call to release him, hell the cold steel never had the chance to warm up. Not sure how it would happen but sure that someday it would, the world would see that it needed a class system. As he looked down on the peons dancing pool side he prepares to show them a dive that would leave everyone speechless. As he prepares to make his dive déjà vu begins to creep back over him. In the distance he can hear a familiar buzzing sound like a swarm of hornets racing towards him. As he steps into position he stagers and takes a step back as a blinding light shots though one eye then the other stabbing into his brain. The pain is so sever that he blacks out.
Though the blackness of sleep Taylor begins to stir at the distant sound of someone calling his name, “Taylor, Taylor, come on son wake up!” He had missed his father, but he now felt safe knowing that he had survived a long drunk educed slumber. It had felt like he had been asleep for at least a week. The one feeling that he hated more than the weekly hangover it was getting to much sleep. Sleep was one of his favorite pass times but like anything else too much of a good thing was never good.
Big T stood across from the doctor as he shined the light into his boy’s eyes. For the first time Taylor’s pupils dilated and then he tried to squeeze his eyes closed. “Taylor, Taylor, come on son wake up!” Taking his son’s hand in his own Big T sits down next to his son and cries. A weight had been lifted from Big T’s shoulders and he breaths a sigh of relief. Tomorrow was to be the day and he thanked God for this miracle. Refusing to see his wife suffer he had planed to take her live in the morning while she slept then he was going to take his son with him to the kingdom of heaven. One bullet for Taylor and one for himself, it was the only answer that made since. “Mr. Connell, I don’t want to get your hopes up but that may have been reflexes. Even if your son regains conscience he won’t be the same. Taylor will be paralyzed from the neck down for the rest of his life.” Big T kisses his sons hand and looks to the doctor, “Doc, do you have kids?” The doctor shook his head “no”, “We will talk one day when you do, and then you will understand. You can leave now.” With that Big T was left alone with his son. As he watched his son Taylor’s eyes began to dart back and forth, Big T knew enough to know that that was an indicator of REM sleep. His little boy was dreaming, hopefully they were sweet dream. Big T stood and removed the 9mm Beretta from his waste band and examined the pistol just before he place it back into his overnight bag.
Nurse Betty Roach found Mr. Connell sitting next to his son with head on the bed next to his son. She had been a nurse for nearly 15 years and she was glad that she was still affected by tragedies such as theirs. Way to may nurses and doctors became desensitized to the pains of patients and families. Betty swore that the moment she stopped caring she would hang up her nurse’s hat. She loved her job and the joy that it brought when she was able to help and there were time that she would go home and sob because of the lose of a patient. You win some and you lose some, but she always fought to win and that what kept her in the game. Today was going to be a winner; looking up from Mr. Connell she sees that Taylor’s eyes were open. “Mr. Connell, I think you may want to wake up. There’s someone that may want to see you.” She said as she gently roasted him awake. Big T woke slowly and appeared to be lost; this was something that was common in tragedies such as theirs. Whenever a patients family woke in the hospital their look was that of someone waking in hopes that the last days were just a dream, each share the look of disappointment of finding that there nightmare was real. Mr. Connell quickly woke and sat on the edge of his sons bed, “Hey Taylor how are son?” If he had heard his father it didn’t show and if he did he wouldn’t be able to answer. Taylor had more tubes, IV’s and breathing tubes the boy looked more machine that human. It had been a good sign that he had opened his eyes but he had a very long road ahead of him. The poor boy would always have to rely on others for everything forever. Ten years ago Taylor would be have spent his life trapped in an iron lung but technology had advanced to where he could at least be mobile. For the moment Taylor stared off into the distance seeing nothing and not responding. His life would be full of tiny victories such as this. Mr. Connell cried tears of joy and kissed his son and continued his one sided conversation with his boy. Betty went about recording Taylor’s vital signs and checking on the machines and monitors when she staggered. “Betty are you OK?” She sat down on one of the chairs and held her head in her hands as she looked towards Mr. Connell, “It feels like someone released a can of bees in my head. I’m sorry but I think I need to go home.” Big T had gotten up and was kneeling next to her, “Do you want me to call the nurses station?” Betty stood up, “No, I’ll be OK. It’s just a bad headache. But thank you, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
The busy bees that had become apart of Taylor’s life had disappeared. They left without preamble or warning leaving him in silence and alone. Though the silence in the far distance he was able once again to make out alien voices. He had opened his eyes to the darkness that had become apart of his live just like the bees. The darkness had begun to leave following the departure of his buzzing friends. It was as if someone had turned on a projector but had left the projector just out of focus. In the room he could see his father, Big T looking at him. “Dad, thank God you’re here, I am so sorry!” The word fell on deaf ears as his father knelt down before him, his mouth was moving but he could not make out what he was saying. Then he stood and walked away down a brightly light hallway. As he walked the projector started to dim and the buzzing bee’s returned home leaving him in darkness and in tears. Why couldn’t he hear his father, why couldn’t his father hear him? Tears fell on checks that couldn’t feel he was alone and scared, but try as he might he couldn’t break free from his nightmare.
Nurse Betty had been fully prepared to head to the nurses station and inform her team that she would be going home sick. This would be the first time in years that she had done such a thing. She hated leaving her team short handed because it meant a double work load for some of her team mates. As she had made her way down the hall she began to feel better with every step. Something was wrong she just didn’t know what, but knowing what she knew she would get what ever had happened checked out just to be safe. The last think she wanted was to end up somewhere that she didn’t want to be. Even though she loved her job not everyone was like her.
As time when on the voices became clearer within his own head but the langue still seemed foreign. He knew the words but could not put the connection to their meaning together. It had given him comfort knowing that he was in the hospital and it wouldn’t be long before he was back on his feet. Taylor still wasn’t sure how he had gotten here but he was none the less. Besides it wasn’t as if he had a choice, time would heal his wounds and he would be better then ever. On occasion he was able to jump into the minds around him but this he had no control over, but the voices were crystal clear yet the meaning to them and he could connect just yet. At first it was like looking though a dirty telescope but that improved as well, now it was like looking though a pair of binoculars. He hadn’t been sure it these jumps were real or not but it did give him some peace from the buzzing bees. The English langue was coming back in bits and pieces; he knew his name and could not place the voices with the people speaking
Awaking to silence Taylor quickly noted that the bees were gone. Opening his eyes he can see normally and this gave him pause. Normal really wasn’t the right word for he was seeing though someone else’s eyes. Whoever it was, was staring out the window. It was a beautiful day and he wished that he could feel the warmth of the sun on his skin. It wasn’t until this moment that he realized how cold and lonely he truly was. He had been use to being lonely but that would change once he was better, but the memory of warmth for some reason was almost too much to bear. Chills ran though his soul and there was nothing that could change that. This is what it must be like to be dead he thought to himself. The person that he had jumped into had been crying and Taylor knew this because of the tissue that kept coming to block his view. T sat and enjoyed the change of scenery; it had felt good to be out of the confines of his own mind. A compact mirror came into view revealing that his host had been none other than his mother. She was fixing her mascara that had been damaged by her tears, tears caused by his actions. This had brought him to tears as well, how could he be within his mother and not fell her. How could she not feel him, their souls had been tied from conception. He longed for her warm embrace, he longed for the feeling that only a mother could give. His soul ached; he had no arms to reach out to her and no voice to be heard. “Mom it me Taylor, Mommy! Please God let her hear me. I love you and I am so sorry.” His vision was blurred and he wasn’t sure if it had been from her tears or his own. His mother turned at the sound of a voice that they both heard. The words were starting to make since, he knew his last name “Connell” “bad news” but the rest was gibberish. Mom had walked over to Big T, he had looked tired and run down. Big T looked as though the world had beaten him down, something that he had seen in his father and it broke his heart because he knew that was his fault to. The two held each other as they listened to the Doctor. As the doctor spoke word began to click, words that he wished wouldn’t make since. The words were “sever trauma to the spinal cord” “never regain consciousness” “damage to the optical nerves which will result in blindness”. His heart sank as anger rose within him. “You’re a fucking liar! I just hit my head, I’m in a coma you fucking quack!!!” He had wanted to jump up and strangle that stupid doctor. “Take it back you bastard, tell them that you made a bad joke, please tell them that it was just a bad joke.” He wanted to be heard, he poured every once of his being into trying to make his mother speak the words that he had wanted to scream. Why couldn’t she feel him, he was her baby once and still was. He had to make a connection with her so that she would know that the doctor was lying. He began to feel a sensation of feeling on his mothers face and he saw her wipe her face and he felt the touch. She had pulled her hand away from her face and looked at her hand and he saw that it had been covered in blood. Looking down at her chest the front of her shirt was covered in blood that had poured from her nose. The buzzing was returning to his head and by the sound the bees were very angry. Before the lights went out he was cursed with the final vision of his mother falling to the floor and from her unblinking eyes he could see that she fallen and laid in a pool of her own blood.
Taylor cried but produced on tears, were the events that just happened real? Did he kill his mother? He sobbed and longed for the times that he had nightmares as a child, he would run into the safety of his mothers arm and she would hold him and assure him that everything would be OK. He prayed to a God that he didn’t believe in, “Please let me wake up. I’ll be good from now on, please let this be a bad dream. Don’t let my mommy be dead, I’m so sorry. Please God don’t let his be real!” As he cried his busy little bees seemed to fly away. Turning as if to see were they went in the darkness of his mind he sees himself standing in Gus’s parent’s bathroom looking out at the people surrounding the pool as the band “Nine Inch Nails” roared pool side. In the mirror he sees Jessica laying nude in Gus’s parent’s bed. He popped the “Exisity” pill that Shawn had given him and chased it with a swallow of So-Co. “NO! Stop! Please stop, you don’t have to do this” he yelled to himself. He watches and screams to himself to stop and he walks to the spiral stair case that leads to Gus’s dad’s second floor office. T takes another swig from the bottle as he climbs the stairs, and he continues to plead to himself to stop. T opens the siding glass door and walks to the balcony and looks out into the night’s sky. “Listen you selfish prick your going to break you neck and your mother is going to die.” For a moment he thought he had broken though, but the moment he breathed a sigh of relief T climbed over the rail and was walking along the peak of the roof. Soon he stood on the edge, leaning his head back T stared at the stars in the sky. Taylor watched, he screamed warnings but they had fallen on deaf ears. Would he have really listened? No, he would have been more resolute in his quest if someone were to try to change his course and just like in a movie that you’ve seen the event play out the same. He watches T through the empty bottle into the neighbor’s yard and watches as he prepares to dive. Taylor stands next to himself pleading for him to stop just go back inside. He focuses everything bit of energy he had to make himself stop. As he prepared to jump T’s right foot slips and he almost falls, regaining his balance he jumps but as he over corrected from the slip and from the amount of alcohol he had drank Taylor watched what he had hope to be a perfect dive fall short of nothing more then suicide. He watch himself fall off balance towards the water. Most of his body made a splash, while his head and left shoulder made contact with the concrete deck around the pool. It sickened him at the amount of blood that was left behind from the brief time it was there. Within seconds he would submerged as his heart pumped blood into the pool. He watched as everyone stood motionless, it was as if someone had finally paused the horror movie that was his life. Seconds later that seemed like hours rescue finally came when a young woman jumped in to pull him to the surface. “Be careful with me! I have neck trauma!” No wonder he was paralyzed that bitch broke my god damn neck. He watched as the drunks at the party manhandled his broken body. They were to blame, if they had been careful things would have been different and his mother would be alive. How could anyone be so stupid? They had damned him to a life of hell because they were in such a hurry to be heroes. Rage poured from his soul as he watched helplessly as the stupid bitch bent his neck back then giving him mouth to mouth. When she bends his head back everyone could hear bone on bone scraping together, “Don’t worry honey that was only my spinal column. They just grow me a new one once they approve stem cells!” Taylor didn’t even know her name but he swore that he would find her had kill her. This was her fault alone and she would pay for what she did to him. Everything would have been fine if she would have just minded her own business.