Anything For A Home-made Breakfast

As I walked into my dorm room Tuesday night, Cory surprised me with a question. "How do you feel about eating a home-made breakfast tomorrow morning?" Not knowing where this was going I answered "Yeah, that sounds great". Turns out Cory was coaxing me into driving him home to Columbus to get his foot checked out. He had injured it during cage fighting practice, and could barely walk. I just so happened to catch Cory in the parking lot as I was on my way to the bank. I could tell he was in pain, and thought that he had done something serious this time.

As a faithful roommate I accepted the mission and took his car keys because his broken foot was also his led-foot. The plan was to have his mom, who's a nurse, check it out, go to a hospital if needed, and come back in the morning, where his mom would fix us breakfast. Because, I didn't have class till noon on Wednesdays, there was no scheduling conflict.

I headed ever so slowly down to the parking lot, as Cory gimped along. Columbus was a half hour drive, and I always get nervous when I'm driving someone else's car. The steering wheel bobbed up and down when I applied too much pressure, but it was a Grand Prix and had great acceleration. It could go 85 without me even noticing. Cory and I talked about girls on the way over, he's been in the dog house with his girlfriend Jessica because he is not "religious". I told him that religion is one of the easiest things to fake and if he wanted her back all he had to do was become a "Fistian" or Fake-Christian. But 'No Cory, believes in honesty, so I argued no further.

Cory's Mom, who lives alone now that her three children have grown up, had recently moved to Columbus from southern Brown County. It was 9:30 when we knocked on her door. She did not answer right-away, as we later found out she had fallen asleep. "What were you going to bed a 9 for" Cory asked as we made our way through the door. Cory explained his foot and then Ms. Mahon greeted me and thanked me for taking him home. Taking just one glance at the foot, she advised us to go to the hospital. Cory asked if she would make us breakfast in the morning. "That's kinda of how I got Sam to come". I tried to disprove this statement, but she told him that she had to be at work at 7:30 and wouldn't have time.

After momentarily being reunited with his Mother, Cory was ready to head off to the hospital. I was surprised that she did not come with us, I guess that's because I know my Mom would insist on making sure everything got taken care of. That's just how my Mom is and I love her for it, but Cory's mom just said "Bye" and that was it.

On entering the hospital, I spotted an aquarium in the waiting room. As soon as Cory finished signing in, I went to check it out. The first creature I spotted will haunt my dreams forever. At first I wasn't sure if it was a fish or rock, as it was lying still on the floor of the display. On closer inspection, I spotted gills. It was the most hideous fish I have ever seen. First it was grey and looked as if it had a fuzzy texture. Second, the gill was right there in your face, it opened and shut to give you clear shots of its insides. Third, its tail was thin in comparison to its fairly plump body, it curled gangly around its body. Fourth and worst of all was its face. Its black bulby eyes popped out from its head, it had spiky front teeth, and its skull did not look like that of a fish. It was more mammalian, like a monkey or a rat, very square and boney. The first sight of Frankenfish caused me to blurt out "Cory, this is one messed up looking fish". Unaware that there was a patient on the other side, I cured the momentary awkwardness by asking him what he thought of the fish.

Because it was late at night we did not wait long. Cory was ushered into the back and he told me to follow or suffer a boring wait by myself in the lobby with the Rat-Fish. So I followed. We were taken back to a room and told that a nurse would be in to check on us. There is so much waiting involved when going to the hospital, I realized that for the first time Tuesday night. Sure enough, Carl, showed up and asked what happened. Cory answered that he had hurt it while backyard wrestling. I really wished he would have warned me before he lied like that, because I am prone to blurting out "I thought you broke it during cage fighting practice". He later told me that he was worried that his insurance policy wouldn't cover cage-fighting.

Carl was a big man, around 300 pounds. He told Cory that he too was once a wrestler. In fact he had wrestled at IU in the 70's and was once a member of the national team. He threw out some names of coaches and wrestlers he had worked with, but I don't know the first thing about wrestling. Probably because in eight grade grade I fractured my elbow during my first year wrestling and gave the sport up. However, Cory knew who they were, and they began talking about high school wrestling and how the sport has changed over the years.

We waited in the room for about an hour. In the meantime Cory tried blowing up the sterile gloves. He told me that he would be shocked if his foot wasn't broken. This would be detrimental to his career as a cage fighter because it would remove him from the sport for at least three months. As of that Tuesday afternoon, Cory had three consecutive fights lined up. The longest streak he has ever had as a fighter. However, the possibility of not being able to participate in these fights did not phase him much. In fact he saw it as a blessing, the injury would give him some much needed time off and allow him to focus more on school.

At 2:30 in the morning we received the news that the x-rays had turned up negative and that no bones had broken. The pain had been triggered by a snapped tendon, however this would still keep him out of the ring for at least four weeks. Cory was astonished, he slipped on his protective boot which he had from a previous injury and we left, prescription in hand.

In the morning, Cory tried fulfilling his promise of a home cooked breakfast. I felt bad, seeing that he was injured and hobbled all over the kitchen. However, instead of baking pancakes, we filled the entire house with smoke. So, like most males attempting cooking, we gave up and went to McDonald's.