a little hard to hear. You’re fading away. You must be coming out of the coma,” her mother said with a hint of sorrow filling her voice.
“No wait, I’m not ready yet. I have so many more questions for you to answer.”
“Sweetie, you will be just fine. I’m sure you will find the answers as you go along. That is how most of life is anyway. You learn as you go. Just remember that I believe in you. You can do anything you set your mind to. Strive to be the best person you can be. Be your best self. Lily, I love you so much!”
“I love you too, mom. I miss you so much sometimes.” Lily’s sadness was growing beyond what she thought she could handle. She was losing her mother all over again, and there wasn’t anything she could do about it.
“You won’t see me, but I’ll be with you many times throughout the rest of your life. Remember I will always love you no matter what. Goodbye my sweet Lily.”
“Goodbye Mom. Love you.”
“I can barely hear you, so you’ll be gone any minute,” she heard her father say distantly. “I really am sorry about all of this. I wish I could go back in time and change what I did.”
“I know dad.”
“I’ll look after you too if you want.”
“No thanks, I think mom will have that department covered.”
Good thing too. Lily didn’t think she could tolerate being “looked after” by her father.
“I love you Lily.” His words were even more distant than before. It sounded like he was on the opposite end of a football field. She could hardly hear him.
“I love you too dad.”
Even though he was far away, Lily could feel his love for her radiating in her direction. For the first time since she entered this blackened state, she truly loved him back regardless of his actions.
“Dad?”
“Yes?”
“I forgive you.”
Chapter 7
Lily could hear the gentle patter of rain drops. She thought she could also hear the hum of an air conditioning unit close by, but it could have easily been something else. About every half hour the nurses poked their noses in her room to check on her. They talked to her as if she would respond, but she couldn’t. She had tried, but for some reason it was like she was encased in stone. Lily was a statue, and a pathetic one at that. No one wanted to see such a pitiful sculpture. No one had come to see her. Not even Malaya. At least not since her thoughts came back to the real world.
“They must have come when I first had my accident,” she thought to herself for the hundredth time. “How long ago was that anyway? I wish I knew the date and time.” With all the blabbering the nurses were doing you would think they would at least fill her in on what day it was. She knew it was daytime and that she must be facing the window with the curtains open. The inside of her eyelids were that grey-red color when she sat outside on a cloudy day to think. She had liked to close her eyes and imagine. With her eyes closed, she could imagine anyone with her. She could be anywhere or anyone. When her eyes were closed, her possibilities opened. Now with her eyes shut indefinitely, she wished more than anything to be able to open them. Even if she couldn’t talk, if she could just open her eyes to show everyone that she was going to come out of this, and that she would get better. At least she would be able to see the clock. It might be the middle of a school day. That would explain why no one was there. Maybe someone would come in a few hours when school let out.
“I guess it’s not like I would be much company anyway. It would just be nice to know someone cared.”
An hour later the heavy door to her room creaked open. The nurse was back for a quick chat. She would check her vital signs and then leave as briskly as she came. The room’s newest occupant slowly shuffled into the room, but in the opposite direction a nurse would have gone. It wasn’t a nurse. It couldn’t be. Then the footsteps stopped. A chair squeaked as the mystery guest sat down. Lily knew it wasn’t her aunt or Malaya because the walk was all wrong. Her aunt Jenny walked with a