Acrophilia

XVI: awakening

        That night Jaebeom barely sleeps, alert at all times to keep an eye on his mother. She wakes up at times, but she never reacts for more than a few seconds and then she falls asleep again. It's by the break of dawn that she seems to finally wake up, aware of her surroundings and actually looking in Jaebeom's direction when he calls for her. He knows for certain now that she's awake so he hurries to press the button to call for someone, holding his mother's hand and never breaking eye contact. Jaebeom's aunt is there as well, by his side —it was impossible to send her away when she knew her sister was waking up.

The doctor arrives almost immediately, as if she had been waiting for this call. She smiles, it's not warm but polite.

"Patient, can you hear me?" The doctor asks, Jaebeom's mother's eyes are focused on her as she nods slowly. "Perfect. Now, do you know where you are? What kind of place this is?" She continues inquiring and Jaebeom's mother's eyes scan her surroundings before nodding again. "Can you recognise this young man?"

Jaebeom's mother turns to her other side, to him that's watching her intently. Their eyes meet and he doesn't need to hear the answer to know, his mother recognises him. It's evident in the way her eyes soften, her expression trembles and how she tries to open her mouth as if to say something. Jaebeom feels his own eyes pooling with tears, just like his mother's, and his smile hurts like his throat because he's about to burst out crying, just out of relief.

Slowly, painfully, Jaebeom's mother nods her head and he squeezes her hand in reply.

"Wonderful," the doctor speaks again. "Do you remember why you're here?" Her brow furrows as she tries to recollect the events, turning to look at the doctor again. This time she shakes her head.

"That's okay, it's normal. Are you hurting anywhere?" His mother shakes her head again. "Even better. Can you lift your left hand?" The doctor requests and Jaebeom watches his mother struggle to follow the command, he also witnesses how she fails. "It's okay, don't force yourself. What about your right hand? Can you squeeze your son's hand?" Jaebeom pays extra attention to even the slightest difference and he exhales in relief when he feels his mother squeezing back. He nods his head to the doctor. "Wonderful. What about your feet?"

The doctor lifts the cover to watch carefully as his mother struggles to follow this new command. Jaebeom sees only the right toes twitching ever so lightly.

The doctor nods in appreciation then covers the feet again, still smiling at his mother when she looks at her again.

"Okay, one last thing and you can rest: Can you tell me your name, patient?"

Jaebeom's mother closes her eyes, taking a deep breath before parting her lips to speak. "K-k-ka-an-an-g," she begins, struggling enormously to just let out her surname. "J-j-ji-ji-i-in," she continues, not giving up even if it's more than evident speaking is really hard, her voice hoarse and slow, unarticulated as if she had never spoken in her life. "S-s-se-seo-eok," she finally finishes, practically deflating as if that had been the hardest task. It probably was, and for that reason, Jaebeom squeezes her hand encouragingly, smiling brightly and whispering soft praises.

"You did wonderful, Kang Jinseok-ssi," the doctor smiles, patting the other hand of his mother. Then the doctor straights up and turns her attention to Jaebeom. "After the three months in comma your mother is physically recovered. The lesions and bone fractures are healed, now we need to explore the extent of the brain damage."

"I understand," Jaebeom replies, nodding obediently.

"She'll need therapy to strengthen her muscles, but I do predict some percentage of paralysis. She'll probably need speech therapy as well, as it seems her speech was affected. It seems promising she remembers her name and recognises you, and it's not particularly worrisome that she doesn't recall the accident, so don't worry about that."