“Aw, crybaby!” Jimmy called, his face beet-red. “She’s just a crybaby.”
Rob felt anger surge through him. Suddenly he wanted to punch Jimmy in the mouth. “Get out of here!” he commanded. “Just go away and don’t come back! You’re a crummy friend. Get lost!” Jimmy retreated, and Rob soothed his sister.
She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and said, “Rob. Dawn loves Rob.”
He led her to their porch steps and sat with her until she stopped crying.
“Dawn!” Rob repeated his sister’s name over and over in her ear. “Listen to me! Wake up! Please wake up, Dawn!” The words poured out. Where was she? Could she hear him? “You can’t leave, Dawn. Do you hear me? You cannot leave!”
A doctor shouted, “We’ve got a heartbeat!” The green line staggered on the monitor, rising and falling in uneven peaks.
“I’ve got a pulse and a blood pressure.” Sighs could be heard all over the room. “That was close.”
Perspiration poured off Rob’s face. His knuckles were white from gripping the sides of Dawn’s bed. He heard her moan, and he sagged, feeling his knees give way. An arm went around his shoulders. Katie said, “We got her back. She heard you, Rob, and she came back.”
His brain refused to comprehend Katie’s message. “From where?”
“From death,” she whispered.
* * * * *
“What happened to me?” Dawn asked. More than a day had passed since Dawn’s brush with death. Finally, she was alert, fever-free, and eager to talk about what had happened to her. The heart monitor etched green electronic peaks and valleys across its screen. Katie adjusted valves on the various IVs attached to Dawn’s arm while Rob held her frail hand. Dawn saw dark circles under his eyes.
“You had no vital signs,” Katie explained.
“Was I—” Dawn struggled to get the word out. “Dead?”
“Yes, clinically. But with such sophisticated technology, with the machines we have today, the line between life and death is sometimes blurred.”
Rob asked, “But she had no heartbeat. No pulse. I saw her die.”
“You saw her body cease to function. But death doesn’t happen instantaneously. It takes time for all of the body systems to shut down. And it can sometimes be reversed if we act quickly enough.”
“What did you do?”
Dawn’s question caused Katie to study her intently. Finally she explained, “It’s important that we keep the brain supplied with oxygen in order to avoid brain damage. So we work fast to restart the heart and get the patient breathing again. You have a young heart, Dawn, and an incredible will to live.”
“That’s important?”
“Sometimes that’s everything. You can’t revive someone who doesn’t want to live.”
“Someone kept calling my name.”
“I didn’t know you could hear me,” Rob confessed.
“I heard you. At first I just wanted to sleep, but you kept calling to me. I felt like I was a long way off, but I wanted to answer.”
Katie added, “Medically, once these patients’ vital signs return, they’re alive again. We have no explanations as to what has happened to them. Or of where they’ve been.”
“I—I don’t know either, but I’m glad the machines were able to help. I’m glad I’m still alive.”
For a few hushed moments, no one in the room spoke. It was Rob who finally broke the moment. “And now that you are alive, you’ve got to think about getting well and staying around.”
“The bone marrow reports are good.” Katie’s smile was filled with promise. “Your white count is up to fifty-eight hundred, platelets at fifty-five thousand, and hemoglobin at thirteen point eight. Those are excellent numbers.”
Dawn let out a long sigh. It wasn’t over for her yet. She still had to recover completely before she could think the magic word—cured. “I hope I don’t get another infection.”
Rob patted her shoulder. “You won’t.”
Dawn allowed her eyes to search his tired face, and another set of questions came to her—questions she already knew the answers to, but felt she had to hear him confirm. “There’s not going to be any wedding is there?”
Rob puckered his brow and exhaled. “No, Dawn. Darcy and I are through.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It isn’t your fault, and don’t you dare take the blame. It isn’t anybody’s fault really. It’s just the way things are.
Dawn saw Katie from the corner of her eye, pretending not to overhear their private conversation. “I’m still sorry.”
Rob’s eyes twinkled above his mask. “What’s the matter? You afraid I won’t be able to talk another girl into marrying me?”
“Right. Who would be interested in you?” She jabbed at him playfully with her forefinger. “What do you think, Katie? Think we can find any takers?” Dawn noticed color creep up Katie’s cheeks.
“I’ll have to continue this deep discussion some other time,” Katie said. “I’ll see you two later.”
She left and Dawn puzzled, “Did I say something to scare her off?”
Rob stared at the door for a few thoughtful moments. “No. I think she needed to go take care of sick people, not people who need to rest and recover.” He added, “And I need to go home and sack out for a while. Mom and Dad are waiting in the other room.”
Dawn knew that her hospital room was too small for very many to crowd in at one time. She nodded at her brother. “Come see me tomorrow.”
“I will.”
“And Rob—if you think of it, could you bring Mr. Ruggers?”
“You mean you’ve changed your mind about tossing him out? He’s mine, remember? You gave him to me.”
Dawn blushed. “Just stick him in a paper sack and hold him up to the window at the door. And don’t give me a hard time.”
Rob laced his fingers through his sister’s. “Just a quick peek,” he told her. “Then I’ll take him home and tuck him in to wait for you.”
Dawn let Rob leave, closed her eyes, and took a few deep breaths. The air felt wonderful flowing into her lungs. She was alive! She’d been through a miracle, and she was alive!
For the first time in a long time Dawn began to think of the future. Of going to school, of seeing Rhonda and Kim and— maybe even some day—Jake. Then there was camp and Mike and Dr. Ben. Dawn began to count the months to her fifteenth birthday.
Look for the next book about
Dawn Rochelle
Lurlene McDaniel’s
SO MUCH TO LIVE FOR
Dawn Rochelle’s leukemia is in remission again, and she’s feeling great. She’s working as a counselor at a camp for kids with cancer—the same camp she once attended with Sandy. Dawn knows the kids at the camp need her, and she feels good being able to help them. But the camp also brings back many painful memories. Dawn feels she has so much to live for now. Wouldn’t it be better to just forget about cancer and everything connected with it?
I Want to Live Page 8