There was never a morning when the alarm didn’t seem to be too early, and no alarm ever sounded nice. They were always screeching, high pitched, and annoying. Perhaps if they were anything else they wouldn’t work. Or maybe there were better alarms out there that only a lucky few knew about. Whatever the case may be, Charlie groaned as his alarm began to sound, waking him up from his sleep. He’d been dreaming about flying, soaring above clouds and oceans, over mountains and valleys, though cities and forests. He loved those dreams and hated his alarm all the more for interrupting him.

For a few breaths he kept his eyes shut so he could savor the dream just that much longer. Experience had taught him that as soon as he opened his eyes his dreams would begin to fade rapidly from his memory. The last part of his dream he’d been speeding down a cliff face, ready to pull out of the dive and skim above the treeline of some imagined forest. Or, perhaps he would have dove beneath the canopy and weaved his way between the trees. Both were exciting thoughts.

At last, unfortunately, he had to open his eyes and get up. The alarm was still blaring and disturbing the otherwise peaceful morning. Light was playing on the far wall from the sun that was just beginning to peak over the horizon outside. That was a welcome sight since it meant the darkness of winter was well and truly gone and Spring had arrived in full.

As Charlie made to get up, something happened that he’d never experienced before. He was acutely aware of the signal sent from his brain to move his body and having it rejected almost immediately. It was as though something stood in his way, preventing him from communicating with his body. He could feel everything normally, but nothing would move below his neck.

“Hello?” he managed to croak out. It was difficult, and his voice was quiet, but it was a relief to him that he could at least still do that. “Can anyone…hear me?”

As if in answer to him, he heard his older sister shout out from the living room, “Turn off your alarm already!”

“I can’t move,” he said even though he knew he was far too quiet to be heard.

Charlie tried to move again with the same results as before. Now he was beginning to panic. He’d slept funny on his arms before and had woken up with them limp but they always came back within a short while, and besides, that felt entirely different. He felt no pins and needles, no numbness, but he still couldn’t move.

There was a knock on his door.

“Charlie,” his mother said from the other side, “you need to get up.”

There was a pause.

“Charlie?”

“Come in,” Charlie managed to say.

“Charlie, are you awake?”

Another pause.

“I’m coming in.”

The door to his room opened and she peaked in and their eyes met.

“I can’t move,” Charlie said, though he wasn’t sure if she could hear him over the alarm.

“What’s wrong,” his mom asked as worry crossed her face.

She strode over to him and turned off the alarm at last, feeling his forehead.

“I can’t move,” Charlie repeated. “I can barely…talk.”

He couldn’t regulate his breathing so he had to speak between breaths. His mom’s worry deepened and she knelt beside his bed.

“Can you feel anything?”

“I feel fine,” he assured her, “just can’t move.”

She tossed his blanket back and picked up his right arm, lifted it a few inches, and let it drop. It flopped like a dead fish and Charlie cocked an eyebrow.

“Your face seems to be working just fine,” she said.

“Below my neck…doesn’t move.”

“Does this hurt?” she asked and pinched his arm.

It wasn’t a hard pinch but he felt it just fine.

“Yes.”

“How about this?”

She pinched harder and Charlie instinctively tried to pull away from her but, as before, his body rejected the signal to move.

“Yes, ow.”

She increased pressure until Charlie thought she was going to pinch a hole through his skin.

“Ow ow ow…stop.”

“You really can’t move,” she said in a whisper.

“You thought I…was lying?”

“Don’t you have midterms today?”

“I’m a better…liar…than that.”

She cracked a grin for just a moment and then turned towards the open door.

“Cathy, I’m going to need your help with Charlie.”

A moment later, his older sister Cathy appeared in the doorway

“What’s wrong with him?” she asked, leaning against the door frame.

“Your brother’s paralyzed.”

Cathy scoffed and gave them both a smile that said she didn’t believe her.

“I’m serious, Cathy.”

The tone of their mother’s voice made Cathy stand up straight and look at Charlie with some concern.

“Wait, really? Did he break his neck in his sleep?”

“I don’t know but I need you to help me get him into the car.”

“Should we move him?” Cathy asked. “In health class they said neck and spine injuries should be left alone if you don’t know what you’re doing since you could make it worse.”

That gave their mother pause.

“Alright,” she said after a few moments of thought and she pulled out her cell phone.

After dialing and waiting for another few seconds she began to speak again. She relayed all the information she had and then waved for Cathy’s attention.

“Go stand out in the driveway,” she muttered, “the ambulance will be here soon.”

“I’m going to miss my bus, by the way,” Cathy said, still standing in the door way.

“I’ll drop you off later,” their mom hissed and waved for Cathy to go.

“She’s just…excited she might…miss midterms,” Charlie teased.

His mom gave him a weary look and turned her attention back to the phone, answering the usual medical history questions. Charlie was generally a healthy guy, which was part of what worried him. There wasn’t anything to explain why he suddenly couldn’t move. He hadn’t been in any sort of accident. He didn’t even pop his neck like some of his friends did.

Before long, the light coming in through his windows began to strobe faintly red and he knew the ambulance had arrived. There were voices outside, too muffled through the walls and windows to be understood, and soon enough the paramedics were in his room. His mom stood back so they could take the space beside his bed.

There were three paramedics, a woman and two men. The woman seemed to be the one in charge and she took the spot his mother had just vacated.

“How you feeling?” she asked.

“Feel fine…just can’t…move.”

She poked and prodded, similar to what his mother had done, even pinching him with the same results.

“Alright,” she said at last, “we’re going to put a neck brace on you, just in case, and then we’re going to get you onto the gurney and take you for a ride to the hospital where they’ll be able to run some more tests. Sound good?”

“Not like I…could stop you.”

They laughed and got to work. Charlie doubted his neck was broken since he could still feel everything just fine, but he wasn’t an expert by any means. He’d also never heard of anyone breaking their neck in their sleep, but there had to be something going on in his neck to be paralyzing him like this.

“We’ll meet you at the hospital,” his mom said as she and Cathy got into the car.

“If you just want to follow us,” the paramedic said as Charlie was loaded into the back.”

“Alright.”

“What about dropping me off at school?” Cathy asked.

“I’ll do that once we get Charlie settled in the hospital.”

Cathy sighed and rolled her eyes, as though this were an extraordinary request for her to be patient.

“Fine, let’s just go, then,” she said as she climbed into the passenger seat.

The ride to the hospital and getting checked in was all rather uneventful. Charlie just lay on the bed in the hospital while doctors poked him some more, tested his reflexes, drew blood, ran him through a CT scanner and more or less told him to sit tight while they waited for the test results to come back. His mother left partway through the tests to drop Cathy off at school and returned around the same time that the tests were wrapping up.

“How are you?” she asked after sitting down in the seat beside his bed.

“Hungry.”

“That’s right, you’ve missed breakfast.”

She searched around for the button that would call the nurse, found it, and pressed it. A minute later the nurse arrived. She was a short Filipino woman in gray scrubs and a broad smile.

“Hi, how’re you doing?” she asked.

“Hungry,” Charlie repeated.

“Okay, let me check with the doctors really quickly and make sure you’re okay to eat.”

“Thank you,” Charlie’s mom said and the nurse left. “It’s chilly in here,” she added after a bit of waiting. “Are you warm enough?”

“Another blanket…would be nice.”

She nodded and got up, leaving him alone in the room while she searched for the cupboard where they stored the blankets. While he was alone, Charlie looked around his room for anything that might prove entertaining. There was a television on the wall but he couldn’t exactly operate a remote. Maybe there were remotes for people who were paralyzed, something they could work with their mouths or something. Although, the thought of that made him grimace. He didn’t want to be using his mouth for things like that. Maybe he could work it with his chin? A sort of joystick might work.

His mom returned with a small pile of pillows and blankets and began tucking them around him.

“That’s enough,” he said after the third blanket.

“Okay.”

She sat back down, looking at him with a worried smile on her face.

“Gonna be okay,” he assured her. “Could be a…pinched nerve…Easy fix.”

“Yeah,” she patted his hand and gave it a squeeze.

The nurse returned and she had a tray with a few bowls on it.

“Here we go,” she said as she set it down on the side table and swiveled it over his lap. “Let’s sit you up a little.”

She pushed a few buttons on the side of his bed and it pushed him up into a reclined sitting position. She stuffed a few pillows up on either side to keep him from flopping over.

“Doctors want to avoid foods that might be difficult to swallow for now so I’ve got some broth, jello, and a pudding for now. Go slow and let me know if you have any trouble swallowing.”

She held the straw in the bowl of broth up to his lips and Charlie took a few sips.

“How’s that?” she asked. “Any pressure in your chest, feeling like it’s getting stuck anywhere?”

“No.”

“Okay, let’s try some jello.”

She spooned a small bit into his mouth and after Charlie handled that just fine she gave him some pudding with similar success.

“Alright,” she said. “I can help you with this or if you prefer, your mom can feed you.”

“I can handle it,” his mom said and the nurse left. “Exciting breakfast,” she teased as she held the broth up for him and put the straw in his mouth.

“Hospital food,” Charlie said around the straw.

The rest of the morning was long and boring. His mom found the remote to the television but daytime TV was not exactly thrilling and she shut it off after only a few minutes of searching through the channels.

At last the doctor came in and pulled up a stool to sit beside Charlie.

“Well, how’s our mystery patient doing?”

“That doesn’t…sound good,” Charlie replied. “I guess you…haven’t figured out…what’s wrong?”

“So far we’ve ruled out a lot of things but haven’t found the culprit yet. We’re going to get you scheduled for an MRI and see if there’s something in or around your spine that the CT scan and X-rays couldn’t see. Either way, the MRI should give us a good look at all of those. If that doesn’t show anything, then there could be something neurological going on and we’ll see if we can pinpoint it with an FMRI. So a lot of fun in your near future,” the doctor teased and checked his notes. “Let’s see, you should be fine to begin eating regular food. Just be aware if you ever feel like food isn’t going down right, or if it’s taking a long time to slow down, take a break from eating. If it’s too uncomfortable let us know and we’ll help clear it for you.”

“How long…will I be here?” Charlie asked.

“That all depends on what we find,” the doctor said and his voice turned more serious. “We always hope that it’s an easy fix but sometimes these things take time, and sometimes it can take a while to get back to where you were before, and sometimes you have to adapt to how things are now.”

“What if I…stay like this?”

“A lot of people have long and happy lives as quadriplegics. There’s certainly things you’d need to adjust to, probably would need someone to help you throughout the day for getting dressed, eating, bathing. But you could still go to school, college, have a career, family.”

“What are the chances he doesn’t get better?” his mom asked.

“It’s hard to say without knowing fully what’s going on yet,” the doctor sighed, “but hopefully these next few tests will answer those questions.”

Charlie didn’t have any other questions to ask, though in his mind he wondered if he might have some sort of cancer or tumor. What else could it really be? People didn’t just stop being able to move for no reason.

“I have to get home to make dinner,” his mom said after a while and Charlie realized the doctor had already left. “We’ll come by this evening, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Can I bring you anything from home?”

“A book…and a stick.”

“What?” she looked at him confused.

“I put the stick…in my mouth…to turn…the pages.”

“Oh, I’ll see what I can find.”

“I was joking,” he sighed and smiled at her.

She gave him a worried grin back and then left. It seemed to Charlie that he had a long and boring few days to look forward to and he began counting the dots on the ceiling to pass the time.