The Coma Patient

Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

            In my room large bright orange flames licked at my walls, my furniture, my things.  I gasped for a breath but instead was assaulted by a mouthful of smoke. I coughed and sputtered before the situation finally set in. There was a fire in my room. What are you supposed to do during a fire? My mind was racing with thoughts but none of them were the least bit helpful in this situation. I pulled out my cellphone and found that it was dead, of course it was. I dashed down the stairs and grabbed the house phone off its charger and dialed 9-1-1.

            “Nine-one-one operator, what is your emergency?”

            “Help! Help! There’s a—a fire in my house!” I yelled into the receiver once the woman on the other end picked up. “Hurry! I don’t know what to do!”

            “This call is coming from 382 Brisbane Drive, correct?”

            “Yes.”

            “Okay, what is your name?”

            “Chastity,” I replied. Does it really matter what my name is?! My house is on fire!

            “Are you still in the house, Chastity?”

            “Y-yes,” of course I was.

            “Okay Chastity, you need to get out of the house. Help is on the way.”

            “T-thank you,” I stuttered. I hung up the phone and things from the fire safety class I went through in middle school began to surface. I needed to get out of the house. I needed to get to the sidewalk. I felt a bit dizzy. Why would I feel dizzy? What’s happening? My mind was flooded with incoherent thoughts and I felt myself hit the ground. Why wasn’t my body working?  Out of the corner of my eyes I could see orange flickers. There was a burning in my throat and I couldn’t hold back a coughing fit.

            My eyes flicked up as two arms slid under my body, pulling me off the floor. He was tall, and strong. “What have you gotten yourself into, Chastity?” How did he know my name? His purple and grey eyes made my heart sputter as they met mine. How did I know him? We were moving, I could feel my body swinging with his as he walked. When the door opened my eyes began to burn. I shielded my eyes from the brightness and looked back up at the one carrying me.

            When we reached the sidewalk he set me down. It was like everything was in slow motion except for the two of us. My mind raced as I tried to figure out who he was and what was going on. What was wrong with my brain?

            His hand cupped my cheek. “Be more careful, Chastity. I’ll be watching out for you, but I can only do so much.”

            “Are you leaving me again?” I asked suddenly. I don’t know where the question came from. It was like I was no longer in control, or maybe just another part of me was. The part that remembered him.

            He kissed my forehead and that only caused more confusion. “I have to.”

            “Don’t go,” I said. “I need you.”

            “I’m sorry.”

            My body went slack with those words and he caught me before I could hit the ground. His pained eyes were the last thing I saw before my eyes shut.

***

            I heard sirens around me. Someone was moving me. My throat burned and I let out a cough. “Chastity?” a voice asked.

            My eyes opened slowly, trying to flutter closed again as I forced them open. A woman was leaning over me. I was lying on a gurney? The woman’s eyes were determined and her mouth was set sternly. “Wh-what happened?”

            “Your house was on fire. You called nine-one-one. You inhaled so much smoke that you passed out. Luckily you’d gotten out to the sidewalk before doing so.”

            “Is—is it okay? Is the fire out?” I asked. I attempted to sit up but she pushed me down.

            “We’re almost done. You need to stay down until we are.” She placed something over my mouth and nose. Oxygen poured into my lungs when I breathed in. My mind got clearer with each breath.

            Something clicked in my mind. “You said I was on the sidewalk?” I asked. She nodded. I thought I’d passed out on the living room carpet. Then I remembered. Christian. Oh Christian. He carried me out. He really did. A warm feeling worked its way through me.

            “Chastity?! What the hell is going on?!” my mother’s voice was clearly heard above all the chaos. “What happened?!”

            “Ma’am, you need to stay back—“

            “Stay back?! Stay back?! This is my house! That’s my daughter!” so she could see me. She was beside me only a moment later. “Chastity, what happened? Are you okay?” She looked up at the medic. “What happened here?”

            “A fire.”

            “A fire?! D-do you know how it started? Chastity, did you start it?”

            I shrugged. “I don’t know how it happened. My room was on fire when I came home.”

            “They’ll let you know how it started as soon as they find out,” the medic assured my mom.

            “I just can’t believe this happened.” My mother put her hand to her cheek as she looked up at the house.

            Neither can I, Mom. Neither can I.

*

            It had been a week since the fire and my room was still in the process of being fixed therefore I was sleeping in the guest room. My mom was more panicked than I was about it. It surely didn’t help that they had no idea how it started. There didn’t seem to be any particular point of beginning.

            I was more interested in figuring out how to see Christian again. Sitting in my little hideout that was in the woods behind my house probably wasn’t the best way of finding him but I needed my space. My mother was driving me insane. I understood why, though. She hadn’t exactly had an easy ride with me. She was worried. I’d been through a lot recently and it hadn’t just hurt me. It had to be hard for her to watch me go through it and know that she was unable to do anything about it.

            Sitting on a tree stump in the middle of this clearing felt good for me. I was surrounded by tall trees and the sounds of nature. It was a great escape. I would come here to sketch almost every day. I’d almost forgotten about this place since everything happened. I’d been so preoccupied with Christian that it slipped my mind. Sitting here now I couldn’t figure out how.

            I looked down at the clean white page that the pencil in my hand was waiting to glide across. And suddenly it was. Smooth curves of lead worked their way over the page. At first I wasn’t quite sure what my hand was drawing. It didn’t take me long to figure it out. My heart swelled as the drawing took shape and life. My breathing stopped as I finished. My eyes slowly took in what was on the page in front of me.

            “You’re good at that.”