Chapter 13
A Miracle
No one expected it to happen so soon—not the doctors, nurses, family, or friends. And when it did happen, it occurred in a most surprising way; some would say it could not have been more disconcerting, more indicative of just how far they had to go before things were normal again, as if they ever would be.
By then, Jessie had called Janie, the girlfriend in Texas who was Robert’s motivation to go there in the first place, to let her know about the accident. Dora, Janie’s mother, Alex, her dad, and Janie herself had driven the three or so hours from Bedford, Texas, to be at Robert’s bedside, at least for a few days.
When Robert’s awakening occurred, the Monday morning following the accident at approximately 10:30 A.M., Jessie, Nancy, Janie, and her parents were in the room, quietly reflecting on Robert’s life up to the accident. Janie had barely stopped crying since she and her parents had arrived just an hour before. Her parents were just standing in the back of the room near the bathroom, letting Janie vent her emotions and giving her a periodic pat on her shoulder or a hug. As for Jessie and Nancy, they still weren’t quite sure why Janie was there at all; they barely knew her and thought that such a time should be reserved for true family, not someone whose contact with their boy was mostly limited to long-distance phone calls and a couple of weeks in church camp. But now was not the time for such negativity. It was clear she cared for Robert, maybe even loved him.
Regrettably, Charles, Nolan, and Max were back in Darkwell, camped out at the sheriff’s department investigations division, with Max and Nolan providing backup to Charles’s initially cooperative but increasingly combative attitude as even he, the seasoned veteran of criminal investigations and legal defense, kept getting brushed off by Darkwell’s finest. So they weren’t in the room when the moment happened.
As Jessie, Nancy, and Janie comforted one another, Dora and Alex simultaneously thought that they could be of better service elsewhere. “You want to get everyone some coffee?” Dora whispered to Alex.
“I was thinking the same thing,” he replied as quietly, then turned toward the mom, grandma, and girlfriend. “You three want something to drink?”
“Yes, thanks. Coffee, black with two sugars,” Jessie grinned and said.
“Same here,” Nancy replied.
Janie shook her head no, fearful that anything she’d say would elicit more tears than she was already crying. Dora and Alex left the room and made their way to the cafeteria, while the others continued their bedside vigil. Janie remained silent as a church mouse; Jessie and Nancy were engaged in idle and very quiet chitchat, as if waking Robert would be a bad thing.
Suddenly and without warning, Robert sat up in his bed, ramrod straight, and almost yelled, “When’s the game! I’m gonna be late!”
Startled, Jessie jerked her head toward him, at first unsure how to react. The first words shouldn’t have surprised anyone. Sports had been everything to him, that and serving God (Janie was a recent addition). After the initial shock, Mom rushed to his side and threw her arms around his shoulders, hugging him tightly, though not so tight as to elicit pain in his severely injured right arm and shoulder.
“Thank God,” she gushed as the fear of her baby never opening his eyes again washed away from her mind and spirit. “I love you so much.”
Because he had been in a coma, he had not received the normal dose of painkillers that most conscious patients would have received under similar circumstances. Hence, the moment Jessie made him aware that things were amiss, his unconscious dream of being late to the state baseball championship was replaced by the absolute awareness that his throwing arm felt like it had been run over and crushed by the full weight of a semi-truck, an analogy not far from the truth. He winced and pushed Jessie away with his one healthy arm.
“Ouch!” he yelled, as he moved the hand of his good left arm to his shoulder in a vain attempt to comfort himself against the pain after his attempt to move the injured one sent shivers of pain up and down his spine. “What happened?” he begged, almost crying from the pain.
His head was also pounding, so his face was contorted to resemble that of an old man. His eyes squinted mostly shut as he winced from the pain, but they were open just enough to allow the tears caused by the pain to dribble out the corners of his eyes.
Jessie turned to Nancy and said, “Get the nurse and tell her to give him something for the pain.” She was too elated at the moment to cry. It was time to be Mom, the one who springs to action first to help her baby, and only allowing tears to flow unabated after the immediate threat to her child is conquered.
Nancy did as she was told as she dabbed a tissue to her tear-dampened cheeks and pulled open the door with her other hand.
Robert, still wincing and grasping his bad shoulder, asked, “Where am I?”
“In the hospital,” Jessie replied, still too happy for the gravity of the situation and the likely uphill battle to full recovery to let her give in to the urge to cry. Instead, she was smiling profusely, and pumped up with so much adrenaline that any feeling other than pure, unadulterated joy was simply impossible for her to feel. In the back of her thoughts she still feared brain damage or some other condition that would take her brilliant boy from the heights of intellectual and athletic achievement to that of a mental and physical invalid necessitating parental or institutional care for the rest of his cursed life. But for now, he talked as he always had, at least when the obvious intense pain was factored out of his words.
Robert couldn’t remember the accident, or much else leading up to it.
“Why?” he said in response to Jessie’s statement that he was in the hospital. He glanced back and forth to Nancy and Janie and then let his eyes linger on Janie, as he barely sensed a very vague recollection, a familiarity that he could not quite put his finger on. The look on his face said something much different; it was a totally puzzled, spacey look that expressed to those who saw it that he had no idea who he was looking at. To confirm the confusion, he said to her, “Who are you?”
Janie felt a stab in her heart. Instead of staying to help him work through what appeared to be head-trauma-induced amnesia, she momentarily broke down into tears and stormed out of the room, hoping to find her parents. Jessie paused for a moment or two after Janie’s flight, her elation being replaced by fear and trepidation. The uphill battle was now manifest in her thoughts. She gently patted Robert’s thigh and replied, “She’s your girlfriend; the reason you were going to Texas.”
Texas? Robert thought. Why in the world would I go to Texas? I hate the Longhorns.
He gazed down at Jessie’s hand, which was still patting him with a mother’s caress. He knew who she was, and even Nancy, his grandmother, but neither Texas nor Janie rang a bell. All he could think of was how the team would fare in tomorrow’s state championship game, which had actually been played and won two weeks and two days before.
Why did this have to happen? Jessie thought.
What’s going on? Robert thought, as if in direct response to his mom’s thought.
Both had no idea what to do next, or when their questions would be answered.