WAVE

Chapter 6

The tightening of one's throat is pretty simple. When you feel it, you already know what's about to happen. Vomiting is something everyone has done at some point in their life. It's a whole new concept when the bile is red.

The bucket of the person's bed across from me is in my hands, and I'm staring down at blood...a flood of it. And not only that. Bark. Leaves. Garbage. The thought that comes to mind brings scalding tears to my eyes.

The tightening returns in an instant, burning.

***

Where am I?

My eyelids crack open one by one, realizing I'm on a bed. I lift my head from the pillow, searching my surroundings, noticing that I'm in a different room of the hospital. This one is less crowded. I touch my throat, wincing as I remember. The vomiting.

Did I black out?

"You're awake." A woman arrives, handing me water before I can ask for it. She has a thick accent. "You've been out an entire day."

My heart plummets. "Wait, no. No, no, no." I cough, trying to sit up. "My friend...I have someone. He was in surgery. Where is he?"

"Don't move. Calm down. What is his name? I'll see if I can find him."

"Tristan Maddox."

She leaves to speak with someone on a laptop in the corner of the room. They're surrounded by paperwork and aren't native.

Please, please let him be okay.

I've managed to sit up, terrified, when she comes back, looking way more uneasy than when she left. "Tristan Maddox...he was transported yesterday."

My breathing quickens, my lips quivering with fear. "Transported where?"

"Home. He's been transported to the United States. Were you supposed to be with him?"

Tears come rushing. This can't be happening. "No, no. I just met him at our resort... Was he okay? Do you know?"

She shakes her head, frowning apologetically. "How are your ribs?"

"I'm fine." The weight of the disaster around me finally begins to settle. "I-I need to go. I need to contact my family, the embassy. I lost my passport, everything."

She doesn't have enough beds here to fight me on leaving. "There is a tent you can go to set up just outside the front doors. There are also food tents out there." She reaches into a bin beside the bed. I wipe my wet face as she sets clothing onto the cot. "Put these on."

Smelling the vomit on myself, on the clothes I'm wearing, she tells me where the bathroom is. Once she's gone, I feel I can only stare at the brown sweatpants she's just offered me.

I'm alone again.

I found him, and now he's gone... Did he even ask for me?

Suppressing the ridiculously betrayed feeling that itches at me, knowing I have no right to feel it, I head to the bathroom. The line is long, but I manage to get inside and clean my face and body as best I can at a sink before changing.

I'm walking into the lobby when images on the television stop me in my tracks. Airborne footage of the wave hitting the shoreline plays in the far-left corner while the newscaster speaks. English subtitles chug along the bottom of the screen.

The tsunami, a 64-foot wave, has left unprecedented damage along the coastline, particularly in Phuket. The losses are now expected in the thousands and repairs from the 7.9 earthquake will be exponential. Volunteers are arriving from all over the world to bring aid to the injured and help rebuild. The effects of this disaster will linger for a very long time.