~~It was all very bright, the lights, the sounds, the pain.  The phone stopped making dialing noises, “Hello?”
 She smiled, closing her eyes against the harsh lights.  “Daniel?” 
 “Who is this?”
 “Mia.” 
 Daniel frowns on the other side of the phone, “I don’t know a Mia.” 
 “Carmen?” 
 “No.”  She paused slightly, frowning.  She furrowed her brow but it hurt, so she stopped thinking so hard. 
 “It must be Kara then.” 
 “Why didn’t you just say that?”  She yawned on the other end of the phone
 “I couldn’t remember for a bit.  I’m very tired.” 
 “Maybe you should go to sleep then.”  She paused again for several long seconds. 
 “No, there was something I called to tell you.” 
 “Okay, what was it?”
 “There was a crash.”  She sounded very tired.
 “That’s terrible.”  He said, glancing across his room at his book bag where he knew his homework was, still undone.
 “I was in it, Daniel.”  He sucked in a sharp, almost painful breath.
 “Did you call the police?”  She yawned,
 “No, don’t be silly.  My phone was shut off.”
 “So this isn’t your phone?”  He glanced at the number, it accrued to him a second to late that he didn’t have her number in the first place. 
 “No, I turned it on.”
 “Then why didn’t you call the police.”  He stood up and stared pacing, he could hear noise in the background.  A lot of noise, and it made him nervous. 
 “Someone else did, I’m sure.  It’s a busy rode, lots of houses you know.  Someone saw, someone called the police I’m sure.”  He held his breath for what seemed like a long time. 
 “Miss?”  He heard someone say in the background. 
 “Sh, I’m on the phone.  You really mustn’t speak so loud.  You’ll worry him.”
 “Kara, you aught to listen to the nice man, maybe you should hang up.”   He said softly, he was worried.  She yawned again, so very fretfully tired.  Even the damp cement of the road seemed comfortable to her now. 
 “But Daniel,”  She said, suddenly wide awake.  She was suddenly acutely afraid of this, to be left without him.  “I’m afraid.”
 “Don’t worry, you’ll be alright.”  He lied quietly, he hopped deeply she would be. 
 “Promise?”  She whispered sleepily.  Slipping back into sleep once again.
 He hesitated a second to long, but she didn’t notice.  “I promise.” 
 “Okay.  I love you Daniel,”  she murmured groggily, struggling to keep her eyes open as they helped her onto a gurney.  “Bye.” 
 “I love you too,”  He whispered, running a feverish hand through his hair.  “Bye.”  Then the line died, silently he added the number to his contacts list.  Trying to convince himself he would need it. 

---
 White, white walls in a white, white building filled with white, white furniture and white, white people.  She wasn’t sure where her phone was, she was pretty sure that she’d dropped it after ending her call with Daniel.  She wasn’t sure if she had actually called him, she had the strange feeling she’d made him up.  When the nurse came in she asked about Daniel, she gave her a confused look and said no one named Daniel had come to see her.  So she asked about her phone, the nurse said someone had grabbed it off the ground when she dropped it. 
 “Can you find him?”  She mumbled, sleepy again.  “I need to make sure he’s not someone I imagined.”  She slurred slightly in her drowsy, medicated state.  She didn’t hear what the nurse said to that, her mind was muddled with fog and half finished thoughts. 
 “Your brothers here.”  I didn’t tell her that I wasn’t her brother, she wouldn’t have  let me in otherwise.  Kara opened one eye, then smiled.
 “Are you real?”  She reached out her hand, I took a couple of steps forward and her fingers brushed against my hoodie.  Relief flooded her face and I wondered if she really wasn’t sure if I really was imaginary. 
 “Did you have work today?”  She asked sleepily. 
 “Yeah,”  She wiggled around uncomfortably.
 “What happened?”  She closed her eyes while I talked.  Her breathing softened, she pulled her knees up to her chest and muttered softly about how cold it was.  I left after thirty minutes of listening to her sleep, deciding that she was going to be alright.  Hoping she was going to be alright, the road was dark and I was unusually afraid of getting in a wreck.