25. Sharp

People went back to their houses completely aware of the big effort The Protector made in his last battle; through the media, all of them were able to see most of the fight and how The Protector destroyed the ships without giving them a second to rest, at least what they could watch from the recordings made by the watch towers. There was no one who could take off their eyes from the screen, all cheering and praying for him; all of them too excited when the victory was announced.

However all that happiness was a bit overshadowed when they couldn’t see their protector’s beautiful and collected smile while going back to his home, they couldn’t hear his tired but joyful voice. All they were showed was how the tired boy, soaking with dark clothes, fall in the arms of his trainer, so all of them were worried.

He didn’t wake up the next day, neither the next after that. His room was set up with all the medical equipment required to keep him alive in his comma state. His wounds were healing slowly but faster than any normal human, he looked more like if he were sleeping, as his mother told to the media when they asked, so the rest of the islanders could be at peace.

When the second week was about to end, the protector woke up.

His mother was in the room, reading by his side when she heard the boy moving, so she left his book and saw the moment her son opened his eyes. “Hey, dear, you’re back.”

Teshal noticed how watery her eyes became, how deep dark circles colored her eyes. “Are… are all of you well?” He felt more dizzy than scared, he couldn´t understand why his mother looked so tired, but his mind didn’t panic.

“Baby, we’re ok, but you were asleep...” with a giggle that made her tears fell down, she stroked her son’s hair with tenderness and love, what he couldn’t see was how happy and relieved she was. “You slept for thirty days, dear.” With that, all the weakness and dizziness had a reason.

Without wanting to leave her son’s side, she asked to his other son to call for the doctor and the trainers to give the notice that he was finally awake, just after being a bit sure that Teshal didn’t want to go back to sleep yet.

After a quick check up and some words, they let him rest for a little more time. When they were gone, his brother, aunt and mother stayed in his room to eat with him, they talked about the days he was asleep, about their normal lives and how they received flowers and balloons and so many get-better gifts outside the house.

As any other days, other talk, he was his usual quiet self with some chuckles and short comments or jokes, although looking somewhat tired, he thought he wasn’t acting any different than before. Even so, her mother proved him wrong.

Once the meal was over, when his aunt and brother finished clearing up the room, his mother came close to him to rearrange his bed clothes and close the curtains. After leaning to kiss him in the forehead, she whispered “We’re are here with you, we’ll always be, baby. Talk to me if you need it.”

“Thanks mom, I will.” He only said and she left without saying nothing more than a “Rest”.

His mother has never been too sharp when it comes to his feelings, or she never demonstrated it as openly as now. When he was a teenager, they had so many fights that ended with “if only you had told me” or “don’t bottle up everything, let me help you”,  but those solely happened when he let his emotions explode after bottling up too many for far too long. He knew I was not healthy, but there was no way to turn back.

And now, he knew what he should have felt, but he just didn’t feel it. When his brother and aunt were joking about some news or stuff that happened in their jobs, he laughed with them, but he didn’t feel that laugh came from his heart. When they came with the gifts they bought for him, he knew he should feel excited and happy because those were the shoes he had been wanting since some months ago and the book he had been waiting to be released since a year ago; those were things that made him happy, but now he was just there, feeling his smile forced and with no idea of what to say besides thanks. He was happy but couldn’t express it truthfully.

Even when his trainers were joking with him, earlier, he answered as before but didn’t feel the joy as before. He wasn’t feeling anything but numbness, and that didn’t scare or make him happy.