January 12th, 2000 at 9:04 PM

joshua was in amotorcycle accident this is what the woman says who calls me at 12:15 am this morning while I am lying on a futon listening to ethereal music coming out of speakers near my head, and the woman's voice sounds to friendly and too optimistic, and i could hear the hospital in the background you always can, the hustling and bustling.  is he okay, i ask, surprisingly (unconcerned i think to myself, and) she says he will be fine he's talking and were going to take some xrays please dome down its lincoln hospital at 2nd and east dunlap so i hop in the car and drive down then sit around the waiting room by the walk in office for an hour or so watching divorce court and judge joe brown and then i buy a cherry coke and a milky (way because what the fuck, i'm hungry everybody gets hungry, so) there i am and i taker a moment to give the guy at the counter some information and that woman with the annoying voice appears, and yup she looks annoying the way i thought she would.  i strut on back past a janitor and past a woman on a bed who's clearly in a considerable amount of pain, and past some orderlies who are laughing about something (because sure, life goes on) and i strut straight through munching the candybar like i own the damn hospital (my jeans are dirty, and) there's joshua all right, talking to a couple of police officers able only to look straight up because there's a neckbrace around his neck and his neck attached to his back via a fractured thoracic vertebrae and his back basically bound against a board and the board level atop the bed, wheels on linoleum (white white) white and the cops are asking him questions and i say geez man i leave you for six hours and you go swerving into things. he says he will be okay the cops give me all of his stuff, his belt his shoes his dirty backpack.  they tell me a bit about the scene, there was no other car, he just went off the road (joshua remembers very little he woke up suddenly after being unconscious for so long apparently and not memory why silly curb palm tree i) and hit his head, helmet coated as it was thank his brain.  i completely consumed my candy bar and stood there and held on to his belongings, then joshua informed me that doc said he had to stay overnight he was in a considerable amount of pain, he said, in his left shoulder mostly, so wont you please come back and get me at 8 am (bring fresh clothes, they cut mine up) sharp and i said of course and (we exchanged i love yous) back out the way I came. i went home slept woke showered gathered clothing returned searched and finally found him on the fifth floor where he was in a normal old hospital room with another guy who liked motorcycles named charles if i remeber right, (as i walk in joshua is trying to sit up straight in bed and hes having a very difficult time of it, the shoulder pain and sore muscles killing him even though theres still pain killers in his body.  Finally he leans back down and we sit and wait for the neurosurgeon to show up but he doesn't show up for a long long time.  we watch tv and josh eats a meal and i hit the hospital cafe twice and he sleeps and i read people magazine (the view from the fifth floor is great) and he wakes up and the nurse gives him tylenol, horribly inadequate pain relief and finally the brain doctor comes at three o'clock (he makes josh move is arms like a game) and we call mom and give insurance info leave at 4 in the afternoon, 16 hours after admittance and he takes a shower here in the apartment and i help him get dressed and he goes to class in my car.  fractured vertebrae and harsh left shoulder pain, arm in a sling i made from a tee shirt, he goes to motorcycle school.