“Okay. I guess I can wait for a little while.” Bonnie’s long, dark, curled at the ends, brown hair flopped over at the bangs to reveal her beautiful, big, brown eyes. She backhanded the curl with her half-tucked right hand. The ink pen she had been jotting down Brody’s information with was held comfortably through the swipe. After quickly thinking the question over, in the same motion, she extended the pen to the off button on the baby monitor and silenced it so no one could hear their conversation.
“So, it is almost midnight? You guys keep it so bright in here. What is that thing up above my head?” He pointed up at the big triangle-shaped lamp with three, what looked like cooking bulbs, on each corner inside.
“That is what I just got done using to get you to come back to reality. I had tried it on you several times before, but all it did was make you get a discerning look on your face like you weren’t enjoying it at all. I don’t know why I tried it this last time, but something was telling me it would work. A lot of times, we will put people who are aware under this to test them for epilepsy. Don’t worry. You don’t have it. You would have gone into convulsions when I had it turned on if you were epileptic.”
“What is that thing in your ear? And that microbyte looking piece of tape on your throat?”
“This is my Interpret-ear. A lot of my patients are foreign and don’t speak any English. So many foreigners have fled to the state of Wyoming after the last election. It is the only state that the population of people has finally surpassed that of cattle, after having lost to the grazer’s populace for so many years in the past. This is the first time in Wyoming’s history that has been true. The state has become the only safe refuge from our nearly-extinct government’s ways. Anyway, since all borders have been opened, in order to communicate with the foreigners, the state has furnished these hearing devices that translate any language into your native tongue. I am fluent in two languages, my native Latvian, and English, so it translates what is coming into the earpiece and sends it to the voice box tape where the same language that is heard comes back out, enabling me to communicate with anyone. This thing is the best invention I have ever seen—not too cheap, though. They do cost the state a pretty penny, but they’re well worth it. It has already helped me save three lives.”
“That is awesome!” Brody blurted out, having full knowledge of the Interpret-ear and how it functions. He wondered how they stole his idea. Nevertheless, he still had the dream machine to turn in to the patent office as soon as he was healed. Hopefully they hadn’t infiltrated his mind and taken that idea already.
Brody wearily asked, “How long have I been asleep?”
“You have been out for seven years. Take it easy, though. Don’t try to get up or anything. Your body has to readjust before you can even think about moving. It might be several days, weeks, or even months before we can get you mobile. You might even have to learn how to walk, all over again.”
“What am I wearing?”
“Eel skin. It is devised to ensure that coma patients don’t get bedsores from laying for long periods of time. They also help when we put you in the jelly tubs for your relaxation therapy sessions.”
“What? I can’t hear you very well. Can you speak up?”
“You can’t hear very well because you are deaf in your right ear. The blood never did drain from your inner ear canal like the audiologist suspected. That was after the first week since your accident. I was saying that it might be days, weeks, or even months before we can get you up and out of this bed. We put you in jelly baths for your biofeedback sessions.”
“Did I ever have a nurse named Sinthea look after me?”
“Yes, Cynthia was a candy striper. She quit a while back. There were a lot of people who have come and gone since you’ve been out. I have been with you for about— let’s see… next Thursday will be our four-year anniversary. I am graduating from Casper College this year and will more than likely be moving to St. Paul, Minnesota to open my own little clinic. I will take what I have learned from observing you with me so, in a way, thank you for helping me.”
“So, that is where I am? All the distance I have gone in life is Casper, Wyoming?”
“Yes, you have been here ever since the wreck. They had to life flight you by helicopter from Thermopolis. The doctors were thinking about sending you back to the Rehab Center there in Thermop, but your mom retired and left the state, so they kept you here.
“Oh, and you’re welcome, I guess? Glad I could be of help.” He snickered, thinking about the why of how he was able to help her academically. “But really, I need to thank you, Bonnie. I am so glad you are different than I had envisioned you while I was out. By the way, is it normal for people in a coma to see things in their mind?” Brody was searching for answers to his seven-year dream.
“Yes, when people go into a coma they are still aware mentally. Usually, like in your case, their body has withstood so much sudden trauma that their mind shuts the body off, saying to it, I can’t fix this big of a mess. You were a twitcher, though. There were numerous times when we thought you were going to be coming back sooner than you did. This last time gave me the most hope, though. I somehow knew you were going to be waking up. It was apparent when you started rocking and, uh-hum, you got an erection. Must have been a good dream, huh?”
“Yeah, it was something else.” He looked down, thankful that his faucet still worked. “Where did everyone go? My mom? My dad? My friends? Did a girl by the name of Abigail, sorry, I mean um… Abby, come in a time, or two?”
“Yeah, I was told she had come in a couple times in the beginning, but she stopped coming not long after everyone thought you weren’t going to make it. She ended up marrying your friend Tanner Cox, and they had a little girl. If it had been up to her, you would have gotten your life support plug pulled. She didn’t have nice things to say about you. Actually, from what I remember being told, she was a bit rude, but I was told that there was this other girl who kept coming by, up until about six years ago. She was a beauty. I think her name was Lexie, or something…”
“And?”
“And, what?”
“And what happened to her?” Brody’s heart monitor started racing. He was ecstatic to want to know the answer.
“I’m sorry Brody; she left a note for you. Your mom has it now, but it said that she was going to the East. Massachusetts or Connecticut, I think? She said that she would always love you, but she couldn’t wait any longer with her life being put on hold and all. She wanted you to be the one who she would share the rest of her life with, but she didn’t know how much longer it would be, or if it would ever be, before you would be able to share it back. She was going to find her Brody in the East, and hopefully she could find someone as gifted and caring as you out there. Last I heard, from your friend Treble, she had a little boy now and has been married for five years to a wonderful man named, Ben. She still thinks about you all the time, but more in a, I wonder how he is doing, sense. You inspired her, along with her life’s happenings, to become a counselor. She graduated from UMass and got her psychology degree. I remember her telling Treble one time, after she caught Abby—wink wink—with him, that she was going to save herself for you, but only if you came out of the coma soon enough. She didn’t wait, Brody. Friend-wise, Treble is the only one who has waited for you.”
“Well, it wouldn’t be fair for me to expect her to wait. I wish nothing but happiness for her. She deserves that and a lot more. She had lost both of her parents to cancer before I got in my wreck, and I was pretty much the only person who cared. She did have some awesome foster parents who knew her parents well. They had a last name that sounded like a duck—oh yeah, the Mallards. One was a dentist, and I can’t remember what she did. Maybe she helped him. Nevertheless, they were doing a fine job of protecting her. I remember, one time, coming to her window and getting shooed off in the middle of the night by Dentist Mallard.
That was just nights before the wreck.” Brody thought about his wreck, trying to remember how it happened. A pain in his head came about; the thoughts were causing his monitor to beep faster again.
“Your mom saved a scrapbook for you. She brought it by numerous times. She used to sit and read it to you. It was part of your therapy. It had newspaper clippings from when the accident happened and your high school classmates honor roll status as well as the football team’s third championship in a row. The last one was the most exciting to hear about—the who’s who and where did they go? Did they get married? How long did it last? Who died? Who became millionaires? Who turned to drugs and crime? Who turned gay? You know lots of things she has been collecting for you over the years.”
“Where is she now?”
“She had to leave, Brody. She moved on with her life, too. She retired and moved back home to Washington state—Pateros or somewhere. That was about a year ago. She took the album with her. Your father died of emphysema ten years ago, long before your wreck. Your mom told me about it when I started my internship with you. He had it so bad that his body was cremated. That was odd; your mother only talked to you about it once.” She thought back to that, wondering if he really needed to hear that part.
Bonnie continued, “The state of Wyoming has been financing your stay here after your parents’ individual insurances cut you off. Instead of pulling the plug, your mom wrote an appeal to the governor who found you some grant money two years after you were admitted. The governor responded that we interns were going to take care of you for academic purposes, so it all worked out. It is kind of like taking a personal vehicle into the high school mechanic shop class and letting them fix it for their grade; both sides win, and it doesn’t cost the owner anything.”
“Did you just compare me to a broken car?” He laughed, and so did Bonnie.
“I see you still have a sense of humor. That is a good sign.” She chuckled and smiled.
“If only you knew what I was dreaming about for the last seven years. You would need a sense of humor to understand. I’ve got to find a way to let everyone know.”
Bonnie pulled out a laptop the state had furnished the department and told him, “Here, take good care of it. It’s yours. I will write it off as broken so you can take it with you when you go, whenever that is.”
“Hey, Bonnie?” Brody whispered.
“Yeah, Brody?” She leaned in closer to hear.
“Do you think I lost all of my friends because of how I treated them before I got in the wreck? I hope they know that I feel terrible about how I treated a lot of them. Do we have to tell anyone that I am awake?”
“I think they have a problem with their own forgiveness if they can’t forgive you. I won’t tell anyone you are awake. Not unless you tell me to.”
“Let’s just keep it our little secret until I am ready. I trust you. Who was the last person that has come by?”
“Treble has been coming by for the last seven years. He has been with you the most. Why?”
“Because he is going to help me write a book. I need to get out what I have seen for the last seven years. This story will be epic. I have already thought up a title. I am going to call it Second Chance.”
“That has a nice ring to it. What is it going to be about?”
“Oh, you’ll find out. The name says it all. Do you think you can do me a favor?”
“Why, most certainly. I would love to. What is it?”
“Can you get Treble in here for me in the morning?”
“Sure thing, Brody. I will be leaving at seven. He has been coming in lately at that time, just before he goes to work. I will give him a call for you.”
“That would be super. Thanks! Don’t tell him anything about me being awake, though. I want to surprise him.” He stared up into the light and thought up a thousand more questions. Several unopened presents encircled his bed. He had been getting them for the last seven years. Kreen had placed them anywhere she could find a place: under the bed, in nooks and crannies, even on top of the wall mounted Cryogenics, flat screen, 48 1/8 inch broad-view portrait set. She made everyone start bringing in plastic flowers, not knowing how long her precious son was going to be asleep.
Treble came in the next day, not at all aware that Brody was awake. Earlier, Brody had Bonnie wake him so he could surprise Treble. He asked her to make it look like Treble was the reason he had come back to, kind of like his own present back to Treble for being there for him through and through. Since everyone else had given up on him, he thought it would be right to reward his one true friend in this world.
“Is he doing any better?” Brody could hear Treble’s voice echoing down the hall.
“He is still the same. I am glad you made it on his seven year anniversary.” Bonnie said to Treble.
“I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. I was there waiting at Drake’s house the day he got in the wreck. We were going to do some teenage things, but he never made it—well, you know that.” As he walked in, he felt a difference about Brody. Some new form of life, and he didn’t know why. He sat a double-folded, Thermopolis Bobcat team-signed shirt on the foot of his bed as Brody’s foot twitched. All of a sudden, Brody sat up in bed with the biggest smile on his face that Treble has ever seen.
“Treble, thank you for saving my life! I have missed you, man.”
Tears welled in Treble’s eyes and more were already streaming down Brody’s face. “You have been by my side the whole time?”
“Yes, my friend, I have never left you. There has been a whole lot that has happened since you’ve been gone. So much we need to talk about.”
“Good. I want to hear it all. Something tells me that I have heard a lot of it already.”
“What do you mean?”
“I was alert the entire time I was out. I could hear everyone and everything they said. Some, I would like to take a rope and string it around their neck for the conversations they had. It was crazy; I thought I was living another life, one that was so real to me. I thought I was five different people and a voice in one head. You saved my life with a mirror.”
“With a mirror?”
“Just trust me. It gets weirder.” Brody let out a little uncertain
cackle.
Could he be healed? Has God restored him? Treble thought.
Treble chimed back, “That’s crazy, but I am glad to see that you are back. Gosh, I thought you would never return.”
“It seems like only yesterday that I was playing tackle football in the grass at the state park with you and everyone else. What happened, Treble? Was Drake the cause of this?”
“I don’t know. I wasn’t there. He didn’t seem to be too sorry after the fact. He took your truck four-by-ing and got it stuck in the river where the waters wed. Your mom had to come have it pulled out. He left it there and said someone else took it. You make the call.”
Brody looked to the ceiling, still uneasy about trying to get up. It was the next day and everything seemed so bright and new. He was unaware of anything in the world but this room.
Bonnie came around to say good-bye for the day; her shift was through. She wished Brody a speedy recovery and told him that she wouldn’t tell anyone about his awakening, yet.
“Why wouldn’t she tell anyone about you waking up?”
“I wanted it to be a surprise for you so I could scare and surprise you for all that you have done for me.”
“Dude, you’ve so got a full beard. Nothing can be any more scary than that. Do you want me to shave you?” Treble grabbed a razor and a mirror from the sink. He set the mirror down on the nightstand and proceeded to shave Brody’s face. Afterward, he grabbed the mirror and asked Brody if he was ready to see what he had been missing for the last seven years. Brody looked down at the ground, not certain if he really wanted to see or if it was even
safe to look at his own reflection. Just as Treble was getting ready to show him his reflection in the mirror, the phone rang, causing Treble to drop the mirror as it shattered into a million pieces.
“Oops, I guess that is going to be seven more years of bad luck for you?”
“That’s just wrong, dude.” Brody looked to the floor, cautious not to let his image reflect on any of the fragments of mirror.
Brody could hear the next shift intern shuffling his or her feet down the hall. He spoke, “Quick, don’t let the intern know that I am awake. Let me play it off. Just act like you have every other time when I was really asleep.”
“Okay, quick, close your eyes.”
The female intern entered Brody’s room, and she asked, “Who are you talking to?”
Treble replied, “Hey Chastity! Oh, I was… talking to this magazine. Stupid National Enquirer, talking about how Brittany Spears went on a partying binge again. She did the hair patch thing again on the left side of her head and shaved the rest of it. Dumb floozy eloped with another paparazzi. Then, on her thirtieth birthday bash, Lindsay Lohan found God while she was in rehab for the eighth time, and all these rabbis and European monks were at her party. The magazine showed pictures of them drinking and carrying on like there was no tomorrow. I can’t stand her. Mary Kate and Ashley were seen trying out for the Biggest Loser Celebrity. Each had quit drugs and gained two hundred and ten pounds after receiving endorsements from McDonald’s and Dunkin Donuts. Now it’s saying they weigh two hundred and twenty pounds, each. What a laugh.”
“That’s funny. No, I don’t like any of them. How is my man doing today? I see someone has shaved his face.” She reached out her soft hand and slid it across his high cheekbone, then swept his silky blond bangs away from his unblemished forehead.
“That would be me.” Treble raised his hand like he wanted to get the teacher’s attention in class.
“Such a handsome, glowing young man you are, Mr. Brodyum
Bienemy.”
Good and Evil : Freeland - Part Two (9781628547375) Page 21