(Un)Fortunate

Chapter 16

His face is ashen white. It blends in to the pale white walls. When I come in, I hardly even see Caleb. Just a bunch of machines and monitors.

I cup my hands around my face. Brandon walks over to him, and takes his hand in his. A few I.V. cords loop around each hand, and one is in his mouth, making him breathe. A tear escapes my eye, and rolls silently my cheek.

Brandon lets out a silent sob. It pushes me over the edge. I start bawling, my mother wraps her fragile arms around my shoulders and my father hands me a tissue. Brandon hugs me, and I hug him back. Squeezing him tight. 

The heart monitor beeps steadily. The one in his mouth makes a whooshing noise as air is pumped in and out of his lungs for him. My hysterical sobbing fit goes on for another few minutes before I can calm down enough.

I look over my brother. His face is barely visible, tucked under the bed sheet. I curse at myself in my head, for not being a better sister.

Brandon lets go of me, and I can see he has been crying to .

"We are going to give you guys a minute," My mom says, grabbing my fathers hand and pulling him out.

I nod and turn back to Caleb. His limp body looks like another person. Caleb is skinny, and his face is scratched up, with a large cut on his cheek. His hand, which is above the covers, has a bandage on it and his other hand has a few stitches. I go over to him, and my hand hovers over his chest.

I wait a moment, as if asking permission, then set my hand down.

His skin is warm. That alone, fills me with a certain happiness. I can't quite explain it, but whatever feeling I have, I like it and hate it at the same time. It makes me feel like he has at least one shred of life left to cling to.

The doctors say he will wake up. They don't know when, they just know he will. When he wakes up though, he could have several complications that could be permanent.

The doctors say he could have a very temporary case of memory loss.

"He can hear everything," Brandon says, shoving his hands in his pockets.

"What?"

"He can hear everything we are saying. I read it in a news article. It said people in a comatose state are sometimes able to hear things around them."

"Sometimes, so not all the time?" I say, turning towards him.

"It is definitely a possibility. What if we say something to him now, and then ask him about it later?" He smiles.

"Okay," I smile back.

Brandon joins me at his side.

"Hey bro. Just want you to know that I love you. Also, I hope you can hear me because Ellie really needs you to wake up. She needs you to  be the awesome twin brother you are. So, please do us a favor and wake up soon! Oh, and by the way, green grapes tickle purple ones."

"What the heck?" I say, smiling and holding back a laugh.

"Yeah, so we can say it later and he can be all like: deja vu, I think someone said that before!"

"Oh, okay then. Uh, hey there Caleb. How is your day? You see, mine was really weird. Jessica Werner came up to me and started talking to me about my arm. The weirdest part was that she only mentioned you once. I know, weird right! Anyways, Broccoli secretly has a crush on carrots," I add, Brandon gives me a thumbs up. I chuckle a little and he smiles at my end part.

"Good, now all we have to do is repeat those every time we see him. Then, when he wakes up, we ask him about it."

"Okay, sounds easy enough, but I am probably going to forget it! I say, taking out my phone so I can write it on my notes,"