Chapter
49
Jackie quietly
walked down the hall, a million thoughts running through her head. As hard as
she tried to come up with a reason, she couldn’t explain why the tabloid had
printed that article full of lies. The article that only brought her and her
family more grief and caused a young man to blame himself for something that
wasn’t even his fault. She came to a stop in front of the door to Nick’s
hospital room, which was slightly open and peeked inside. She seen a figure
tangled up in blankets in the middle of the bed, which she had assumed was
Nick. She took a quick glance at the chart on the door to verify that he indeed
was an occupant of the room and quietly stepped inside. She took a seat by
Nick’s bed and waited a few moments, not having the heart to wake him up and
have him face the world just yet. It was then that she noticed that Nick was
hooked up to a heart monitor. I guess to make sure he doesn’t hyperventilate
again and cause his heart rate to go up too much she told herself. Jackie
then spotted a magazine on the bedside table and reached for it, settling in to
wait for Nick to come back to consciousness.
***
“What does she
mean, Uncle Harold?” Kevin asked as he swallowed hard, trying to force the lump
of fear in his throat to disappear.
His uncle
looked up at him with blue eyes, much like the eyes of his sons that Kevin had
become accustomed to over the years. He watched anxiously as his uncle cleared
his throat and began to speak.
“They don’t
know if Brian is going to make it”, he whispered sadly.
“W..w..What??
How?” Kevin stuttered as the news he had just heard registered. How can this
be happening? Hasn’t this family been through enough grief to last a lifetime?,
he asked himself as he, and his band mates, waited patiently for him to
continue.
“His mother
and I were in his room waiting for him to wake up” he started to explain “First
20 minutes went by, then 30, then finally 45 minutes went by and we called the
nurse who called Dr. Adele to Brian’s room. Dr. Adele asked us to leave the
room so he could run some tests on Brian and he came back awhile later telling
us Brian was in a coma and might not wake up.”
“What do they
think caused him to fall into a coma?” Howie questioned.
“Dr. Adele
said it was probably from what happened in surgery and his pneumonia could also
be at fault, basically there is nothing they can do for him. We all just have
to wait for his pneumonia to get better and for him to wake up, the rest is up
to him and his will to live” Brian’s father finished explaining.
“He is going
to fight this.” Kevin said with determination apparent in his voice. “I know he
will. I will not give up on him and neither should any of you. Just think about
it, he is now 25 years old, and he wasn’t expected to live to see his sixth
birthday. Can’t you guys see? He has a will to live that is too strong to be
broken, am I the only one that sees this??”
“Kevin, I have
never given up on my son and I never plan to. I can’t get my hopes up and just
have them crash down if anything else should happen to him. Deep inside the
hope that he will somehow over come this still lingers but after hearing Dr.
Adele’s prognosis, it is slowly diminishing. I know his will to live is strong
and he is a miracle. I will fight with him until the very end, until he fights
this. But I know if for some reason he doesn’t win this battle, that Harry will
take good care of him in Heaven. But like you Kevin, I’m hoping and praying he
will get better. He is the only child I have left now.”
Kevin looked
up into his uncle’s saddened blue eyes and immediately felt ashamed of what he
had said. “I’m so sorry Uncle Harold, I had no right to say that. I know that
as hard as it is for me to except that I may have lost both my cousins, it is
even more difficult for you and Aunt Jackie. I’m really sorry about what I
said.” Kevin explained sheepishly.
“It is alright
Kevin, I know you didn’t mean it. All of our emotions are running high today so
we sometimes say things we really don’t mean.”
“Did the
Doctor say when we may visit him?” Tim, who had entered the room moments
earlier with his brother and mother unnoticed by the others, asked suddenly.
“No, but
hopefully it will be soon. All we can do is wait.”
Everyone in
the waiting room sat in the chairs and stared at the floor, the walls, and
magazines, anything but each other so they wouldn’t have to see the pained
expressions of the people around them. Suddenly all of their attention focused
on one person who had just burst into the room. Fear clenched the hearts of all
in that room at that moment as they looked up at the doctor with pleading eyes,
waiting for him to speak, but never expecting the words that came out of his
mouth.
“Mr. Littrell,
we have a problem.”