Awake

“She’s awake! She’s awake!” they yelled together in ecstasy,” It’s a miracle! Doctor! Doctor!”

Rather the nurse came rushing through the door.

“What is it?” she asked, obviously freaked out at the outcry.

“It’s my b-baby…she’s awake!” the patient’s mother spoke, tears of joy filling her eyes.

“Jesus! Keep her calm while I get Doctor Hanson,” she replied exiting twice as fast as she entered.

An aura of joy diffused all through out the room. Even the flowers in the vase seemed to be blooming. Each alphabet on the Get-well-soon cards seemed to have leaped. The tears overflowed and the smiles lingered. The cries of “Thank you God!” echoed in the ears of the awakened patient. She stirred, swept the room with a squint and smiled at them. Her mother, her younger sister, her father and then finally the one she wanted to see the most. He was here, just as she’d expected.

“Hi baby,” her mother sobbed out.

“Hi mum …. dad …. Kelly …. D-”

“-Now there’s our survivor?” The doctor burst through the door, stethoscope around his neck and wearing a wide smile. He shook his head a couple of times in disbelief. He checked the IV, scribbled on his notepad and proceeded to check her pulse.

“Your have one helluva of a strong daughter Mr. and Mrs. Peterson, she’s a fighter!” he said, “I hope you understand that we still have to run a couple of tests before we can say anything solid?”

Both parents nodded, “Do all you must doctor. No one will get in your way.”

“For now though, you can get your hopes sky high … Er, one more thing … I know how much you want to be around her but she really needs to rest” he added and waited for the response.

“Sure thing, doctor, we understand … just give us a minute,” Mr. Peterson pleaded.

“Er-Doctor … Can I at least have one of them stay with me till I fall asleep, please?”

Doctor Hanson sighed, “Okay, but make sure you rest Barbara”

“Thanks doctor.”

For the next two minutes, everybody just showered her with their joy. They’d been warned days before not to specifically tell her she’d been in a coma. Needless to say, she already knew she had definitely been in a serious condition. She hadn’t seen her dad smile this wide in a long time.

“Honey, you want me to stay?” Barbara’s mother asked.

They probably knew this beforehand, she thought. Everyone besides her mother had picked up their coats, ready to leave. She cast her eyes at him. He hadn’t said anything all this while. All he did was smile along with everyone else. Wasn’t he happy to see her? Surely, He had to be. He just had to.

“Danny?” She said.

“Y-yeah,” he stuttered, shocked that he’d been noticed.

“Will you stay with me?” she said, “please?”

The effect was as expected. Everybody froze for a moment. She could swear either her mother or father would’ve challenged if she wasn’t in such a situation. Instead, they seemed to realize she’d noticed their furrowed brows of surprise and immediately faked smiles. Danny, in turn was pleasantly surprised. He’d least expected this request than any of them.

“You sure you don’t want me to stay, honey……I-” her mother started, assuming her situation had turned her a bit gaga.

“-I’m sure mummy,”she interjected feebly, not wanting to sound rude, “Will you, Danny?”

“If you want me to…..I’ll stay,” he replied, struggling to remain calm.

“Thanks……………….see you soon Mum, Dad……Kelly”

There was a moment’s hesitation before the replies came.

“All right honey…take care of yourself. Make sure she gets some rest Danny,” Mr. Peterson added, hiding his confusion almost perfectly.

“See you soon sis….your Dior shoes are itching to be worn!” Kelly said happily, ignoring the seemingly disapproving look from her mother.

They each planted pecks on her cheek and headed out of the room, not hesitating to cast quick looks at Danny before doing so. The door shut behind them.

Barbara chuckled, “I thought they liked you? You pissed them off in my absence?”

“Your absence? You’ve always been here, just uh….sleeping, right?” Danny replied.

“If you say so,” she smiled.

“And no, I haven’t done anything to piss them off, I’m sure. They’re probably just as confused as I am right now. Your daughter asks for a non-relative to stay with her right after she’s awoken from a coma?” he said, only realizing his blight seconds after.

“I’m s-so sorry Barbara. You weren’t supposed to know just yet. Sorry. Don’t tell anyone I told you…please?” Danny pleaded.

For about a minute, the hospital room fell silent. Barbara soaked in what she’d just heard. The angel was right. He’d said she wasn’t dead yet and it was true

“Danny?”

“Yes?”

“Help me sit up. There’s something I’ve got to tell you.”

“O-Kay?” he asked, not hiding his surprise from her.

He adjusted the bed so she could sit up. What was this all about? He thought. First, she chose him to stay behind. Now she had something to tell him! What the hell was going on?

“Thanks….move your chair closer,” she said softly, noticing the awe on his face. Hopefully she’d get a better reaction after telling him.

She waited for him to draw closer before starting,” How long have I been like this?”

“One week since the accident if you leave out today,” He replied.

Ah yes! How could she have forgotten about the accident? She couldn’t remember how long since, but it was an afternoon. Her dad had just brought home new chandeliers and lamps. She’d dared to fix the chandeliers all by herself. She remembered the yells for her to descend the ladder. The screams following her fall re-echoed through her ears. She quickly regained focus.

“You’ve been here often?”

“Every single day since. I would’ve stayed nights but your mum insisted she could handle it.”

“Tell me, what’s the doctor been saying?”

“I don’t know details cause I’m not family. But they claimed you had slim chances of recovering. Listen, Barbara….I’m supposed to make you rest, can you j-“

“-All right….no more questions.”

A ten-second moment of silence prevailed in the room before Danny spoke.

“You wanted to tell me something?”

Barbara nodded, Took in a deep breath and began.

“Now Danny I know I haven’t been exactly nice to you. I know it was five years ago but ever since that day you and your parents had dinner at our place; I’ve had a grudge against you without reason. Hated my parents for trying to get us to be friends. I know I made it quite obvious anytime you said “hi” and I only nodded,” she paused to catch a glimpse of his expression. He was straight-faced, impassive, paying rapt attention to what she was saying.

“I’m really sorry for treating you like that Danny, I really am. I kept on teaching myself to not like you. All you wanted was to be a good friend and I acted as if you were some kinda demon. I’m really sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it Barbara. I never felt treated badly. You still gave me the keys to your garage anytime I borrowed your lawn-mower, didn’t you?” he said

“That was nothing, Danny. I didn’t like you but I wasn’t totally heartless!”

“Good…so stop apologizing then.”

She smiled at him and received a warmer one in return.

“I had a dream Danny……I dunno what to even call it. It felt too real to be a dream. I’ll just tell you either way. I was climbing a golden stairway with an angel. I’ve always held a very faint belief that these things exist: Angels, Ghosts……..you know. Somehow though, I just knew he was. Plus he had wings too, same kind we see in movies. He held my hand, walking me up a flight of stairs. I couldn’t see where we were headed because what was supposed to be the topmost landing, was a blinding light. It was just too bright for me to see anything. In no time, we’d already reached the top and when I looked down to the bottom landing, it was just as bright as the top had previously been. The angel noticed my confusion and spoke. “Don’t worry about that Barbara. Your real worries lie here.” I turned to see him pointing at a large round mirror about five feet away from us. It was so huge it must’ve taken a dozen people to move it. I struggled to fathom how the mirror was of relevance to me. I started to ask a question but the angel raised a finger to keep me silent. “Now, here lies the mirror of second chances. Not many people get to see it before their afterlife,” he told me. I nearly fainted at what he’d said. ‘AFTERLIFE?’…..Danny, I began to harbor the thought of being dead already. By some form of telepathy, the angel spoke again, “No Barbara….not yet….I’ve seen your span. It doesn’t end at twenty and that’s why we’re here in front of this mirror. This mirror will reveal all the people in your life by order of those who love you from the highest to the lowest.

We drew closer to the mirror and about a foot away, he asked me to place my right palm on the surface. I leaned forward and did as he’d said and together we watched faces that seemed to be smiling at me, emerging out of nowhere and arranging themselves in vertical order in the mirror. I saw relatives. My grandparents, close aunties and uncles as well as cousins, some lower down the list than I’d expected. Only four friends from school and I wasn’t surprised. I pretty much wasn’t the friendly type in school. There was a blank space at the top and I wondered why. I turned to the angel. “Barbara dear, you know God loves you more than anyone else don’t you?” he said, disappointed that I couldn’t even guess who occupied that space.

My mum was second from the top, my dad followed and then my sister. I expected to see perhaps another cousin or some aunt or uncle but there was a smiling face of someone. Someone, I’d least expected to see. I turned to look at the angel and he only nodded with a grin. I looked back into the mirror Danny, thinking the face would disappear but it still smiled back at me. I couldn’t believe it Danny, the face belonged to you.”

Barbara couldn’t tell whether he was as shocked as she had been. She had been looking straight ahead at the dark screen of the television-set meters away all along. She turned to look at him and a slight smile, like a knife mark in fresh dough, parted his lips. She smiled back and went on.

“At first I thought it was some kind of error or perhaps it was just a dream so anything out of the ordinary was possible, but that feeling of reality still existed. I just knew it was real….I just knew it was. The greater shock came minutes later. The angel let me know that for me to return to earth finally, it was time to reveal which of the people in the mirror wanted to see me back the most. He said further that though some people loved me, they had little faith in my recovery and such began to welcome the idea of me not awakening. There was no reason for me to be disappointed in them. “No human possessed spotless love to be able to detest people whose are stained” he said and I understood. All I had to do was place my palm back on the mirror. This time around, it was a two-sided outcome only. After my hand had touched the mirror, two things might happen. A face might appear, with a transparent goblet next to it. This goblet would be filled with a shiny, white liquid. If the goblet next to the face was more than half-full, it meant whoever appeared had enough desire to awaken me. Anything less than half meant it was over. It indicated a time to let go and let die. There would have been no use for this except that God wasn’t going to appear this time. Only the people I knew back on earth were. My fate lay in their hands.

Barbara shook her head and looked Danny right in the eyes. The empathy was right there on his cornea. She went on.

“I was scared, Danny. He told me to take my time, no rush .With heavy steps I walked forward for like forever and placed my palm on the mirror. I turned around facing the opposite direction with bated breath. I didn’t wanna look. I feared what might happen. It was no use, a force of which source I didn’t know spun my body around till I was face to face with the mirror. I couldn’t feel my heart beat in my chest, didn’t feel my lungs inhale air. The longest second I’d ever experienced .Then a silhouette appeared. More like a sketch of a face. I couldn’t make out who it was. The goblet shone brightly on its right. The liquid, just above the half level of the goblet shimmered in the mirror sending gushes of relief through my body. I was safe. The face became clearer every second and my focus was now on the one person who’d saved me. Danny I stared right into the smiling, handsome face that belongs to you.”

Danny sank in the chair. He opened his mouth but words wouldn’t come out. His pupils ignited with emotion. He opened his mouth to speak but the words only followed a minute later.

“Barbara, I…..I….I dunno what to say. I-I-“

“Just say it was more than a dream. Say it was real. That your face appeared in that mirror because it was supposed to. Say that you love me right after my mum, dad and sis do. Say that it’s because of you I’m awake. Say you forgive me for how I’ve treated you in the past and that you’ll be by me tomorrow and for the rest of my life” she said, with tears running down her cheeks in a steady stream.

A tear slid out of his eye as he heard her pour her emotions out. He stood up and made no attempt to wipe it off. He leaned on the bed and did what only dreams had ever allowed him to do. He kissed her with love that was overflowing its banks. The first real kiss they’d ever have. She opened her eyes and for a split second saw a familiar smiling angel on the seat where Danny had sat. She blinked and he was gone.

“I love you….I love you right after your mum, dad and sis, if you say so”, he chuckled with her, “and I’ll be by you tomorrow, the day after and everyday for the rest of your life. I promise”

He kissed her once more, turned around and slowly walked out of the hospital room a new man. A man who’d bumped into what he’d been looking for all his life. A treasure that had eluded him but still found him before he’d found it. His feet seemed to soar out of the hospital, carrying him into a new place.

She watched him leave through the door and thought of the boy she’d hated five years ago. Now, the man she wanted to spend the rest of her life with. At that moment she didn’t feel scared to close her eyes again. She closed them and slept deeply. Slept deeper than snow white ever had, knowing that no matter what, her prince would be the reason she’d awake.