The Coma Patient

Chapter 15

Chapter Fifteen

My eyes opened slowly and I looked around my bedroom. My head pounded painfully and there was a horrific ringing in my ears. I sat up and the room wobbled back and forth making me feel as though I was on a boat.

I stumbled out of my room and down the stairs. Into the kitchen. My mom was at the stove, cooking dinner. "Hi honey, how's your homework coming?" she asked. "Did your headache get any better?"

Homework? I couldn't remember what homework I was meant to be doing. "I fell asleep. My head feels like a jackhammer is going at my temples. Why the heck is it so bright in here?" My voice was low and almost slurred. I don't know how she understood me.

She reached up into the cabinet by her head and pulled out a bottle of pills. "Take two of these and then go lie down. You can do your homework after this kicks in. Dinner will be ready in about thirty minutes."

I nodded weakly and did as she said. In my head I went through my day. This morning I met Belle outside and we went to our classes. At lunch I sat with my friends, Ralph threw a peanut at Kelly, earning him a slap over the head. Josh told us about Anna, who I now felt okay about. We went to the rest of our classes and met up afterwards. Belle drove me home. I had an English assignment due. And some math problems to finish. Nothing too major.

When my head hit the pillow I let out a long breath. It felt like I was forgetting something but I couldn't figure out what. I let myself relax. "If it's important I'll remember it at some point," I told myself.

***

Two months later

I felt the wind rushing around as I thumbed through my recently filled sketchbook. It was summertime now and the trees in my secret hideaway were gorgeous, fully filled with deep green leaves coming from the rich brown trunks. The last bit of the school year and graduation was the perfect ending to my time in high school. I'd been able to relax and really focus on me.

The wind turned a few pages. To a drawing of a guy I didn't know. I didn't remember drawing this but I knew I must have. No one else used my sketchbooks. I shrugged it off with ease. It wasn't like I'd never made up a character to draw before. The surprise at my detail is what caught me off guard. This character was so unbelievably real. The emotion I'd given him through his expression was undeniably fitting.

I closed my book and tossed it into my messenger bag before standing up and shrugging the bag onto my shoulder. This place felt odd to me now. Like I was haunted by a memory...one that wasn't mine.

"How was your walk, sweetie?" my mom asked delicately.

"Good," I replied as we took our seats at the dining table. My mom made lasagna for dinner tonight, one of my favorites.

"Are you missing school yet?" my dad asked. "Miss College Freshman."

I let out a laugh. Belle and I had applied to University of North Carolina Wilmington together and gotten in. We were moving out there in a month and I couldn't be more excited to get away. "I miss the people, not so much the boring classes and dreary homework."

"I bet you're excited to move to the beach," my mom commented.

"Of course I am," I said. "It's going to be great."

"I'm so proud of you, Chastity," my mom said. "You've had a hard year. I'm glad things are looking up for you...for all of us."

"Me too, Mom." I couldn't be more honest about that. The accident and the trauma from that was an awful time for us indeed.

After dinner I went upstairs and looked at the photographs on my walls. Of me and my friends, my family, the places I'd travelled to in the past. Pictures of prom. Pictures from my first day of school. I felt like a completely different person now. I was no longer the adorable girl getting ready to leave for her first day of kindergarten. Her hair in curly pigtails and a front tooth missing from the giant smile she directed towards the person behind the camera. Dressed in a pink sundress and white cardigan with little light-up pink sneakers. Full of confidence and excitement to meet new people and experience a centimeter of life on "her own".

My cold hands held one more picture. It was a framed picture of me and Belle from graduation day. Our arms were linked together and our blue gowns were opened enough to show our dresses underneath. I was wearing a simple white high-low dress. Belle was wearing the same dress only hers was a sky blue. Our hair was styled the same, curled with a bit from each side of the front twisted and pinned back with our dark blue caps on top. We were grinning at the camera and our eyes said the same thing "we did it".

I smiled down at the picture before placing it neatly on my desk, which sat below the collage. My throat grew thick as I sat on the foot of my bed. I was now about to go and be an adult. A real adult. The fear within me mixed with the excitement, making me nauseous. It felt weird to be scared of being on my own, I'd never been that way before. I could remember always being eager for it. Making my own rules seemed like the best thing ever. I didn't have to ask anyone's permission for anything. I'd get to decide for myself.

Now that was a horrifying thought.

A knock at my door made me come out of my thoughts. I couldn't be more thankful for my mother in that moment as she peeked her head into my room. "I found something you might like to see," she said as she took a step in. In her hands was a picture. "I was going through my hope chest and found this." She handed it to me. It was of a little me with two little boys. On my right was a taller boy—the one two years older than me—with his dark hair and bright eyes. His smile was devious and proud. On my other side was his younger brother. He was only a tiny bit taller than me and his hair was to his shoulders, dark and wavy. His eyes were looking slightly up—at the person taking the picture—instead of at the camera itself. He was smiling brightly, like his world was perfect.

I racked my brain trying to remember their names but I came up blank. I remembered that we lived next to them on Porter Street. They had a baby sister. And I remembered that they all died in a fire. But I couldn't remember anything else.

"Do you remember their names?" I asked, looking at my mom.

She shook her head. "No, I'm sorry sweetie. I can't think of them. I think their last name was Wright or something like that."

I gave her a half-hearted smile. "Thanks for the picture."

She stood up and left the room quietly. Smiling back at me as she left. My eyes dropped to the picture again and I felt a sharp pain in my chest. My throat tightened and my nose stung. A tear raced down my cheek. I didn't know why I was crying but I let it out anyway.

"I'm just scared for the future," I told myself. "It's got nothing to do with these boys." Even though that felt like a lie I forced myself to believe it.