"Eleanor, I need you to stay away from me." He says as he holds tight onto my hand. I look up at him in confusion and hurt. No hint of anger is in his eyes.
"What, why?" I ask, voice breaking.
"I just need you to trust me okay? I don't want you to g...
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That night around 9pm I was sitting at the kitchen table with a plate full of take-out pizza that I had no interest in eating. My dad was sat across from me, but didn't have a similar loss of appetite after a long day of work. It was a first day of school tradition to have pizza for dinner, but I felt way too shaken to eat anything.
"They should have taken all of you kids to the hospital." My dad says after putting down his slice, eyes on the bandaids on my arms and forehead.
"They had a medic come in with the Sheriff's office," I argued, "And no one was scratched up enough to really need more than that."
"And what if those birds had rabies?" He asked.
"You know birds can't get rabies Dad! Which one of us is the doctor again?" I joke, "But seriously, I've never seen anything like that in my life. You should have seen the classroom after they finally flew away. The desks were all over the place and it was like the whole room was snowing black feathers. When did Hitchcock start directing my life?"
"I don't know but if he doesn't stop I'm going to get gray hair soon," He says while running his hand through his dark red hair.
"You and me both," I agree and take a tentative bite of pizza, feeling my stomach ease up slightly from the laughter.
"Not that I want to add any more craziness to your day El, but do you want to know happened today at the hospital?" He asked
"Sure. Honestly I would like the distraction. As long as it has nothing to do with birds."
"No, it has nothing to do with birds," He starts, "It does have to do with Isaac. He wasn't at school today was he?"
I put my slice of pizza down, swallowing hard. I would be lying if I said I didn't notice his absence today at school, or that it hadn't disappointed me, but I truthfully hadn't been thinking about him since the bird attack.
"I didn't see him, no." I answered.
"Well I heard from one of my colleagues that he was scheduled for surgery. Apparently he had a nasty injury on his side, or at least that is what his chart said. He was wheeled into the operating room, under anesthesia and everything, but when Doctor Hilliard went to start operating they didn't see a scratch on him." My dad said, looking over at me with wide eyes.
"Is this some kind of joke Dad?" I ask, not amused.
"You tell me Eleanor. This really happened. Hilliard was pissed, said it pushed his schedule back hours and wasted everyone's time. Did you know anything about this?"
"You think that after having not spoken to Isaac for basically years he would come to me and tell me his plans on how to, what, disrupt the surgery schedule?" I ask
"No, no you're right, I'm sorry." He says putting his hands up, "I forget sometimes just how long it has been since you two were friends. I was completely stunned when I heard. I still remember the two of you being attached at the hip, it just really threw me hearing that he would try and pull something like that."
