The Coma Patient

Epilogue

Epilogue

Christian

December 25th Twelve Years Later

            I watched from the shadows of the trees outside as her family gathered together around the table for a Christmas Lunch Feast prepared by her and Belle. The two of them with their parents and husbands and children made thirteen. They'd gotten up hours earlier and the children opened their presents from Santa whilst the parents drank their coffee, took pictures, and enjoyed the moment. Belle and Chastity started working on preparing the food after that had ended, giving the children time to play with their new toys.

            She was helping her children get their food. Her dirty blonde hair was long and curled. She was thirty now but you could never tell. She looked twenty-five at most. Her smile was wide as her husband said something that made everyone laugh. His broad shoulders shook as she gave him a sarcastic retort. Their three kids looked more like her than him in my eyes. Their twin eight year old boys had her hair and big eyes. Their youngest, their only girl, had her father's blue eyes and pale blonde locks but she would, in time, be the spitting image of her mother. Even now she looked exactly like Chastity had at six.

            She and Henry met in college. In their photography class. She was nineteen and he was twenty-one. He was a baseball player with a knack for photography and she was caught up in the arts, particularly creative writing and photography. They went out for coffee a few times before he asked her to dinner. They got married two years later. The wedding was beautiful—not that I expected any different from her. She looked like a Goddess as she walked down the aisle. Dressed in a long white gown that was tight around her waist and then smoothed down from her hips. I stood beside Henry—unknown to him or anyone else in the room—and pretended it was me she was walking to. She had her two boys the year after that, in February. Their names were Alexander and Pilot. Their daughter was born two years after the boys in May. She was named Krista. She was now an author and her husband was a photographer. She was happier than I could've ever imagined her being.

            She and Belle were like sisters, even more so now than when they were in high school—which I didn't think was possible. They still did most everything together and their children, being around the same ages, were always playing together.

            Watching her live was what kept me sane in my hellish limbo. I did feel rude watching them like this. But I couldn't help myself. I had nothing else to do—nothing else I really could do but watch others live. I found myself wishing to be alive again, to be a part of their world once more. But I wouldn't be. Not ever.

            "Krista where are you going?" I heard her ask after they'd finished eating. Her voice was soft but the concern was clear.

            "Outside, Mama, I want to play outside," Krista replied sweetly from the sliding back door.

            "Put on your coat and boys you go with her," Chastity commanded of her children.

            The boys jumped up excited to play with their toy guns. Belle's children didn't waste any time in joining in, leaving the adults to clean up. There were enough toy guns for all the children to have one. The girls were happy to join in, quickly making an alliance.

            As Krista ran from Alexander her eyes flashed in my direction and she came to a quick halt. Alexander rammed into her not even a second later. "Ouch Krista! You can't just stop like that!" Then he ran off to shoot at his brother.

            Krista took a few steps towards me, her head tilting to the side. I squinted my eyes in return. Could she see me? "Hello," she said in a whisper. "Are you hiding out here because you're afraid?" she asked. I shook my head. "Do you know my parents?" I hesitated a moment before nodding. "What's your name?"

            I hesitated with that too. "Christian," I said after a moment.

            "Well why don't you come inside?" she asked.

            I was about to answer—with what I didn't know—when her brother Pilot came running over, his eyes scanning the trees. "What are you doing, Kris?" he asked.

            "Talking to Christian," she replied simply.

            "Who? Is that your new imaginary friend?" he asked, his eyes gazing right through me.

            "No," she sounded annoyed. "Him." She pointed at me. "Can't you see him?" She looked at her brother questioningly.

            "No," he replied. "Anyway, it doesn't matter. You're not supposed to be this close to the trees, Krista, you know that. Come back closer to the house."

            "But, Pilot, he's out here all alone." She turned to me again, her eyes widening. She stomped her foot against the dried up grass. "And you're not even wearing a coat. Are you trying to freeze to death?" She'd heard her mother say that before. "Come on inside, sir, and warm up."

            I shook my head. "I've got to get going now. I don't think your mom would appreciate you bring me inside."

            "You said you know her though didn't you?" she asked, her head tilting to the side again.

            "I did," I nodded. "Even so, I've got to get home. It was nice meeting you, Krista."

            She allowed her brother to pull her away. "Guys, let's go back inside. Krista's going nuts out here." The others let out mixtures of laughs and groans before following Pilot inside.

            I backed further into the trees as Krista ran to her mother. "Mommy!" she shouted. Chastity lifted her onto her hip. "There was a man out there who says he knows you! His name was Christian."

            "I didn't see anyone," said Pilot. The other's chorused in agreement.

            Chastity walked out of the door, onto the back deck. She peered in my direction before shaking her head and going back inside. "I suppose he's gone now," she said to Krista. She thought I was nothing more than a lie that her daughter made up. Her eyes looked in my direction once more through the window before going back to the festivities of the holiday.

***

January 3rd sixty years later

            Chastity lifted her head as I walked into the room. Her half-closed eyes met mine and widened slightly. "You..." her voice was frail and weak. She was lying in a bed at the nursing home her children put her in, them being much too busy with their own children to take proper care of their mother. Henry died four years previous. "I remember you..." she whispered. "...Christian..." To me she hadn't aged a day. But to the rest of the world she was small, wrinkled, and weak. A tear rolled down my cheek as I realized what this day was. I'd visited her every day. Yet this was the only day she could see me. This was her last day as one of the living. "You're still as handsome as ever," she said smiling softly. Her eyes closed again, the smile still on her face. "I'm so tired these days."  I didn't speak. Instead I took ahold of her cold hand—something I hadn't been able to do before now—and stayed with her. She didn't say another thing.

Her last breath left her lips not even a full hour later. It looked like she was just sleeping but I knew that wasn't the case. Even those in the after-life breathed in their sleep—more so out of habit than necessity.

I let myself out, into the cold air, after that and started walking. To where I wasn't sure. I had plenty of time left to figure that out.