Growing Into Herself: Chapter 2
“Honey, I thought we were going to restrict reckless driving to highways and vehicular homicide.”
Her mother’s deadpan humor ushered her back into consciousness. Her whole body felt numb and her head, understandably, was throbbing. Looking around, she recognized the surroundings of a hospital room. She could see an IV in her arm, and she had the numb feeling of painkillers cruising through her veins. That was probably the only thing keeping her from freaking out at the moment. Caitlin groaned as her mother, a slight woman with graying brown hair rubbed her hand.
“Don’t try to move dear. Just relax. You hit your head pretty hard and you’ve got a few bruises, but nothing too serious.”
“My car?” Caitlin weakly.
“We’ll talk about that later. In the meantime, get some rest.”
Caitlin laid back just as her father came in, he was visibly worried. He looked at Caitlin, then at her mother.
“Road rage?” Her mother nodded in reply.
Her father sighed. “First the garage, then Mrs. Pepper’s dog, then a newsstand. I swear, honey, you need to stop venting your frustration on the road. Don’t they have tae bo classes at that school of yours?”
Caitlin smiled. In an odd contrast to her fiery temper, her parents were the most even-tempered people she knew. Her father was head editor of a nature magazine and her mother taught middle school. Caitlin’s older sister Tegan had been away at college for the past two years, following in her father’s footsteps as a journalist and taking summer internships. Caitlin, unfortunately, had yet to choose a direction and her parents didn’t pester her about it. Mr. & Mrs. Landry had, as of late, been rather concerned for their daughter’s growing tendency to vent her frustrations on the road. In the meantime, however, their main concerns were for Caitlin's safety , so an exasperated Mr. Landry kissed his daughter’s forehead and slipped out. Caitlin swore she overheard the words “anger management” under his breath.
Caitlin was put out by her father’s comments, but was soon distracted by the fact that she was starving. It had probably been hours since she had a meal. As if on cue, a nurse came in with a small tray of food. Caitlin didn’t bother inspecting her turkey sandwich and soup, just digging into her meal. Before she knew it, her plate was empty and she was, to her surprise, still a little hungry. It seemed to take forever for the nurse to return. In her most pathetic sick-person voice, Caitlin politely requested another meal, the nurse smiled and returned her another tray. She ate with a bit more restraint this time through, but ended up finishing the food still quicker than she planned. The nurse was walking by and noticed her empty tray. With raised eyebrows, the nurse came to retrieve her tray.
“Hungry?”
Caitlin was a bit flustered and muttered a soft affirmative. She still felt a bit hungry, but didn’t give it much thought as fatigue set in faster than she would have expected and drifted off.
- - -
“What’d you hit this time?”
She recognized Maureen immediately and blinked her way into consciousness. She felt like she’d slept for half a day but the clock indicated it had only been a couple hours. “Bitch.” She said, smiling. “I’m feeling well, thanks.”
Maureen set down a small pot of flowers on the table next to her bed. “Here. It’s pretty plain in here. This’ll spice things up a bit.” She gestured across the room. “Along with those.” She suddenly noticed a bouquet of nearly a dozen oddly colored balloons adorned with messages ranging from “Happy Birthday” and “Happy Anniversary” to “Mazeltov!” and “Good luck” which bore Alexis’ calling card.
“Hm. It’s nice to be thought of.” Caitlin said.
Maureen sighed. “Yeah, you’d think she’d be able to at least find one with ‘get well’ on it. She’d be here, but I think she has cheer or something.”
The very idea of Alexis bounding into the room made Caitlin queasy, a fact not lost on Maureen.
“Don’t worry, I doubt she’ll be in today. Speaking of which. How long you gonna’ be in here?”
Caitlin shrugged. “Dunno. I don’t think it’s anything serious. I think dad wants me in anger management classes.”
Maureen couldn’t help but smirk. “Truth be told Cait…”
“Hey, don’t even start with me now.” Caitlin glared. “I’ve had a rough day.”
“Yeah? Well, relax. That’s all you can do at this point. That and not think about it.”
Caitlin grumbled and tried to make herself comfortable. She still felt a bit off kilter from the accident, but nothing she felt a few aspirin couldn’t fix. “I actually think I’m going home tomorrow. The doctor’s got a few x-rays to look at and I’m supposed to get as much rest as possible.”
“I think that’d do you good. Take a couple days off, do a few finals, and it’s going to be beaches, bathing suits, and baking in the sun for the next couple months.”
Caitlin half-grinned. “Yeah, well this is the most relaxed I’ve been in months.”
“I’ll let you relax then. Will we see you tomorrow?”
“Probably.” Caitlin replied, but she was suddenly distracted by sudden pangs of hunger which nagged at her belly. “I…uh…I’ve been feeling better.”
Maureen looked at her quizzically. “I dunno. You look kinda pale to me. You eaten today?”
“Yeah…just not much. I guess I should probably eat.” Caitlin’s hunger pangs were really starting to get to her. “Can you get the nurse?” She asked Maureen before she had a chance to think.
“No prob. Honestly, you’d think they’d be treating you better.” Maureen stepped out. Caitlin’s hunger pangs were really getting to her and she couldn’t understand why. After what seemed like an eternity, the nurse came back in with a tray of food, which Caitlin dug into heartily. She hadn’t even noticed Maureen still hovering in the doorway.
“Wow, are they going to bleed you after they starve you?”
Caitlin’s attention was divided between the need to satisfy her hunger and listen to her friend. She swallowed a large gulp of food in her mouth. She wished she could agree, but this was her third meal in three hours. While the hospital meals were paltry, but she knew that she would never typically have eaten that much in such a short amount of time. In less than a couple minutes she had cleaned off her plate, much to the surprise of her friend. Caitlin was a bit embarrassed, but felt great following her meal. In fact, even her headache had eased up a bit, but had be replaced with an overwhelming tiredness. She waved at Maureen, and Maureen smiled and returned her wave. A warm comfort spread over her body as she, again, drifted off into a peaceful slumber.
- - -
“I’ve never seen such a miraculous recovery.” The doctor continued. “Your injuries were far from serious, but you’ve recovered from them much faster than I would have expected. All the tests came back negative. If I hadn’t known better, I’d say you haven’t even been in an accident.”
Caitlin certainly felt great, but the doctor’s explanation’s was boring her already. He’d been talking continuously for about ten minutes, just enough time for Caitlin to call her mom to come pick her up, and she looked forward to getting away from the hospital as soon as possible.
“…the bruises, the internal injuries, it’s all completely gone. I’ve simply…”
“…never seen such a miraculous recovery.” Caitlin finished. “I’m glad to be the high point of your career.” She said, digging through her purse for a hairbrush.
“You don’t understand, this is totally unprecedented, I’ve never seen anything like it. I really think it’d be in your best interests to stay here longer.”
“I’m not staying here any longer than I have to. You said it yourself, I’m fine.”
“…but we really should…“
“Thanks for the help.” Caitlin sped out of her waiting room as fast as possible, not wanting to hear the doctor’s voice any more, though she could hear his audible sigh from down the hallway. She set to work checking her messages, and sure enough there were at four from Alexis asking if Caitlin had received her balloons. She smiled at her friend’s concern, but deleted the messages without listening to anything past ‘Hey Cait! Guess what Ben said to me today!’” She was still a bit stiff from laying down so long, and her body felt awkward with the sudden amount of movement. She rotated her shoulders and stretched her arms, only to have the similar awkward feeling continue to nag at her. She couldn’t quite place exactly what she was feeling, but she definitely felt uncomfortable. Her first impression was to inspect her body, but everything seemed normal enough. Her mom was waiting for her in the hospital waiting room.
“You’re looking better.” Her mother smiled. “I guess you just needed a car accident to clear your head.”
Her mom launched into a lecture about reducing stress and constructive ways of dealing with anger, but Caitlin was hardly in the mood for it. As they settled into the car, she let the seat back some so she could either sleep or make it look like she was sleep so her mother would stop talking. It was only a couple minutes to her house, but she figured she pass it off as fatigue from the hospital. Regardless…her mother continued.
“Your father was thrilled you were coming home this weekend. I was surprised with your speedy recovery, but he chalked it up to his ‘good ‘ol Landry genes.’ I swear the next thing you know he’ll be taking credit for your painting. I swear that man couldn’t draw a stick figure. Do you think it came from your Aunt Becky? She was quite the artist, and quite the lesbian. And she wonders why she doesn’t have children…”
Caitlin’s mother was unusually chipper and talkative, and in her lethargic state it annoyed her. Her body felt odd. She couldn’t quite describe it, as she had never had this particular feeling before.
Seemingly noticing her daughter’s unresponsiveness, her mother chimed in, “Need anything honey?”
Caitlin was about to decline when something stopped her. She did need something. “I’m hungry.” She said.
“How hungry?” her mother replied. Caitlin thought about it and replied. “Pretty hungry.”
“Well there’s a Subway right over here. One turkey sub coming up!” Her mother’s energy continued.
Her mother pulled into the parking lot and as they exited the car she noticed her hunger was a bit stronger than she initially assessed. She was tempted to almost run into the Subway, but she kept her cool and tried to stay composed as she slowly began to realize that at that moment she wanted a six inch turkey sub more than anything else in the world. The couple minutes it took to take their order seemed like an eternity, and fortunately her mom opted to eat in. It was extremely strange. She was used to cutting the turkey sub in half, but after eating her usual amount, she didn’t feel full, and continued to eat the whole thing. It was only six inches, but she was surprised at her appetite. Her mother had noticed her daughter’s larger than normal appetite, but said nothing. “Feeling full?”
“Oh yeah.” Caitlin replied, but in actuality she was lying. She was still hungry, if not more so than she had been before she ate. She felt odd about asking for more food though and did her best to hide her hunger. “I’m actually feeling a lot better mom. I was thinking about stopping by Alex’s on the way home so I can just walk from here.”
Her mom seemed surprised. “Are you sure dear? That appointment seemed to really take it out of you.”
Alex’s hunger was beginning to bite at her and she was anxious to send her mother on her way. “Yeah mom. I really could use some fresh air. After all, it’s the first sunny day of the summer.” Despite some reservation Alex’s mother left, reminding her not to stay out too late. Alex went to the bathroom in order to hide the fact that she hadn’t left Subway, but in fact she was pacing trying her best to handle the unusual hunger pains.
After no longer than a minute, she exited the bathroom and after a quick glance to the window to see if her mother was still around, she got back in line. She ordered a footlong steak & cheese sub, knowing she couldn’t possibly eat it all and she could always just take some of it home. As she said this she waited impatiently for her sandwich to be made. As the employee asked her about toppings she found herself growing increasingly impatient and hungry and she was thankful to have cash. Though she had planned not to stay and let the employees assume the sandwich was for her, she quickly sat down and tore into the sandwich. She couldn’t recall the last time a sandwich, or even food period, had tasted this good. Much to her surprise, she completed not only half the sandwich, but the whole thing in less then five minutes. Even more to her surprise, she was still hungry!
“Oh my god.” She said quietly to herself. “What’s wrong with me?” She remembered what she had learned a year ago in health class about the body taking some time to realize it is full and she left the subway waiting for that knowledge to kick in.
Unfortunately it never happened and not even two blocks from the Subway she found herself in a Burger King eyeing the value menu. She figured if she ordered enough, the employee would assume she was ordering for her family. She had a ten dollar bill in her pocket and she figured that she would buy more than she needed just to be sure. She ended up ordering four cheeseburgers, two orders of chicken nuggets, two small fry orders, and two apple pies.
After receiving the order she immediately began snacking on fries, and decided to take the back way home so that no one she knew would see her, Caitlin Landry, walking down the street pigging out on a large bag of Burger King. In the privacy of the back road, she stopped and opened up a cheeseburger, digging into it ravenously. Four large bites and a big gulp later she was working on the second burger. She had quickened her pace in an attempt to get home but could only move so fast while still scarfing down fast food. In the back of her head she was still wondering, “What the hell is wrong with me?”
Eight minutes, an apple pie, three burgers, and seven chicken nuggets later she was making her way up the back balcony as quietly as she could. The last thing she wanted to have to do was explain the extra-large Burger King bag to her mother. She slipped in the back door and headed up to her room where she shut her door and began finishing her meal. She finished the rest of the fries and the last burger before she finally began to feel full-ish. She had never felt so grateful to feel full, but at the same time she looked at the leftover wreckage from her meal and wondered to herself how she could have possibly eaten over four pounds of food in a half hour.
She suddenly felt extremely tired, and she eyed the clock. It was around four in the afternoon, and her need of a nap didn’t strike her as unusual, especially considering her recent food binge. She went to recline on her bed but couldn’t get comfortable. Her jeans were constricting her a bit more than normal. She groaned, imagining the damage she’d probably done to her figure. There was no doubt about it, her pants were choking her legs and they’d have to come off. After some effort she managed to peel her jeans off of her legs. She examined her legs for excess cellulite or dimples, but, to her surprise found her legs to be just as firm as she remembered. “Odd,” she thought to herself. While bending over and examining her legs she even felt the fabric bunching a bit under her armpits, but at this point she was way too tired to be even thinking straight. She considered the tautness in her shirt, but decided to lie down anyways. Despite her mild discomfort, she was asleep in seconds.
