Cemetery Tours (31 page)

“Please, tell us she’s alright, doctor,” Terri pleaded.

“She’s stable.  It was touch and go for a while, but her heart beat is strong and she’s breathing on her own.”

“Thank God,” Terri began to cry.
  Gavin felt weak, yet almost giddy, with relief.  

“When can we see her?
  Has she asked for us?” Rex asked.

“Mr. Avery, your daughter suffered a severe brain injury.
  Now her vital signs are normal, but it will take an indefinite amount of time for her to recover from that trauma.”

“What are you trying to tell us, doctor?” Rex asked.
 

The doctor’s answer was direct and to the point.
  “She’s in a coma.”     

~*~

She wasn’t brain dead.  That was the good news.  Brain dead meant the body wouldn’t survive without a machine to keep it alive.  A coma, the doctor explained, was a natural part of the recovery process.  The body remained unconscious while the brain healed itself.  That meant there was a good chance that she would wake up.  They just didn’t know how long it would take.  Even the doctors couldn’t accurately predict it.    

For the next few days, they all took shifts sitting next to Kate’s bedside.
  They wanted to make sure that she was never alone.  The doctors told them to talk to her, that there was a good chance that she could hear them.  One day, Gavin brought in her favorite book,
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
, and read to her.

Although Kate remained stable and the doctors were optimistic about her recovery, the rest of Gavin’s life was crumbling around him.
  His boss wasn’t very understanding about Gavin missing so much work, and although he wasn’t fired yet, he had been given his warnings.  On top of that, Tiffany was beginning to get on his nerves.  At first, she’d been a source of comfort and strength for Gavin.  But after a few days, life at the hospital began to bore her.  Gavin guessed he couldn’t blame her.  She was young and energetic and she wanted to spend her evenings out and enjoying herself.  Since they hadn’t been dating long enough for him to expect any real dedication from her, he told her to go out and have fun.  But Tiffany seemed to think she had some sort of obligation to be there, and she made her displeasure at being holed up in a hospital room only too known.  

On the last morning of their relationship, she threw a fit because Gavin told her that instead of spending his afternoon with her, he was going to stay with Kate while their parents paid their respects at Trevor’s funeral.
  Gavin had volunteered to stay behind.  He didn’t want to face the hundreds of people who’d loved the man his sister was supposed to marry.  

The man who’d still be alive if only he’d remembered to call.
 

In spite of his father’s constant assurance that it wasn’t his fault, Gavin was haunted by Trevor’s memory and a terribly guilty conscience.
  How could he face any of Trevor’s friends again?  Many of them his own friends?  And Kate... what was he supposed to say to her when she woke up and learned that her fiancé, whom she loved more than life itself, was dead and it was all because of him?  He didn’t want to think about it.  

“Baby, come on.
  You need some time away from this hospital,” Tiffany insisted.

“I don’t care.
  I’m not going to leave her.”

“Why not?
  It’s not like she knows you’re here.”  Her words stung.

“You don’t know that.”

“Gavin, she’s in a
coma. 
I don’t think two hours will matter much to her.”

“What if she wakes up?
  What if she wakes up and no one’s here?”

“I seriously doubt that’s going to happen.”
 

“Well then, I guess I’ll just spend a few more hours of my life in a hospital.”
 

Truth be told, Gavin really wasn’t too sad to see things end with Tiffany.
  Sure, she was beautiful and fun to be around, but Gavin needed someone a little more grounded in his life.  After she stormed out, Gavin glanced down at Kate.  She had labeled Tiffany as a “dingbat” from the start, but she’d tolerated her for Gavin’s sake.  Now, looking down at his sister’s peaceful form, Gavin couldn’t help but smile a little.  

“You were right, Sis,” he told her.
  “She was kind of crazy.”

January 30

Three weeks and a few days later, life at the hospital had become almost routine.  Gavin didn’t like that at all.  He didn’t want it to become his new normal.  He’d done some research on brain trauma and comas.  Apparently, it could take as long as several months for a brain to recover, and since no two brain injuries were alike, it was almost impossible to predict how long a coma would last.  That was the discouraging part.  

Although the doctors assured them that Kate was healing, the fear still lingered that she might never wake up.
  The thought of his sweet, crazy, beautiful sister never opening her eyes again was excruciating and to be honest, Gavin wasn’t sure how much longer he could handle not knowing.  

Then, just like that, the nightmare ended.

It was around one in the afternoon.  Gavin and Rex sat reading in Kate’s room while Terri ran down to the cafeteria for a quick lunch.  She hated being away from Kate for too long and more often than not, Gavin and Rex had to remind her that she needed to eat.  

Gavin noticed the movement first.
  A slight twitch of Kate’s fingers.  At first he thought he’d imagined it, but then it happened again.  

He tried not to get too excited.
  Her fingers had twitched on occasion before and nothing had happened.  But there was something different this time.  He found himself holding his breath as the fingers on her left hand slowly bent, like she was trying to make a fist.  

“Dad,” Gavin said.
  They both watched with anxious anticipation as Kate moaned softly and moved her head from one side to another.  As she did, Terri walked into the room to find Gavin and Rex hovering over her daughter’s bed.

“What’s going
on?  Is she okay?” she asked.

“Just come here,” Rex urged her.
  As she approached the bed, Kate’s face scrunched up in a grimace.  Terri gasped.  “Kate?” Rex whispered gently.  “Pumpkin?”  Slowly, Kate opened her eyes.  Terri began to cry.  Rex heaved a happy sigh of relief.  As for Gavin, he’d never felt more thankful for anything in his life.   

For a brief moment, Kate looked completely lost, like she had no idea what was going on.
  Then, her eyes focused in on the faces of her family, and although it took her a moment to recognize them, she smiled.  

“Hey,” she whispered, her voice raspy.

“Hi, Baby,” Terri whispered tearfully.    

“What happened?”
 

“You were in a car accident.
  You hit your head.  But you’re going to be just fine.”  Kate looked confused, like she had no idea what her mother was talking about.  “Do you remember the accident?”  Kate shook her head.  “That’s probably for the best.”  

Slowly, Kate’s eyes drifted from Gavin to Terri before finally settling on Rex.
  “Daddy,” she whispered.

“Yeah, Pumpkin?”

“What happened to your hair?”  She sounded almost amused.

“My hair?” he asked.
  She nodded.

“It’s all gone.”
 

It was then that Gavin knew that something wasn’t right.
  Their dad had started losing his light blond hair the summer before her senior year of college.  He’d finally accepted it and shaved it off the following April.

“I shaved it, Sweetheart, remember?
  Right before your graduation.”

“What?”

“I wanted to look nice for your graduation.  So I shaved it.”

“What graduation?”
  By now, Kate was visibly distraught.  Terri saw it too.  

“Your college graduation.
  From SMU.”  Kate’s eyes widened as it became apparent that she remembered no such event.  Before anything else could be said, Dr. Singh appeared, looking cheerful.

“Well, look who’s awake,” he grinned.
 

“Doctor, something’s wrong,” Terri announced frantically.
  Gavin wanted to shake her.  Didn’t she know that kind of tone was only going to upset Kate more?  “She can’t remember anything.”

“Oh, I’m sure that’s not entirely the case.”
  He walked over to Kate’s bed and shone a flashlight into her eyes.  “Can you tell me your name?”

“Katherine Elaine Avery.”
   

“When’s your birthday?”

“
February 3
.”

“What are your parents
’ names?”

“Rex and Terri.”

“And your brother’s name?”

“Gavin.”
 

“Tell me, Kate, what is the last thing that you remember?”
  Kate thought about it.

“I was getting my books from the school bookstore.
  A lot of them weren’t in, so I had to order them online,” she answered hesitantly.  Terri began to sob all over again.  

“Mrs. Avery, perhaps you should wait outside while I talk to your daughter,” Dr. Singh suggested.
  Gavin knew his mother didn’t want to leave Kate, but she cooperated and left the room.

“Gavin,” Rex said.
  “Go with her.”  

Together, Gavin and his mother watched through the window on the door while Dr. Singh sat on the edge of Kate’s bed and talked to her.
  Rex stood at the foot of the bed, arms crossed, listening intently to what the doctor was saying.  

About ten minutes later, Rex joined Terri and Gavin outside Kate’s room.
 

“The doctor’s still with her,” he explained needlessly.
 

“What did he say?” Terri asked.
 

“He thinks Kate has some retrograde amnesia... estimates she lost about twenty seven months.
  He says it’s fairly common after her kind of injury.  But he doesn’t know whether she’ll ever get those memories back.”

“Oh, my baby,” Terri moaned.
 

“How is she taking it?” Gavin asked.

“Better than your mother,” Rex answered matter-of-factly as the door to Kate’s room swung open and Dr. Singh appeared.

“You can go back in now.
  I’m going to order some follow-up tests for the next few days, but for now, I think it would be best for you to spend time with her and talk to her about what’s happened.  She’s going to have a lot of questions.” 

“Wait a minute,” Terri grasped her son and husband as the doctor disappeared down the hall.
  “I think we need to talk about this.”

“About what?” Gavin asked.
 

After a long pause, Terri answered, “I don’t think we should tell her about Trevor.”
 

“What?” Gavin asked.

“Ter, we have to - ”

“Why?” Terri cut Rex off.
  “Why do we have to tell her?  If she lost that much memory, then she probably doesn’t remember him.  Why should we tell her something that’s only going to upset her?  That might even hinder her recovery?”

“Because she loved him,” Gavin said.

“How could she love someone she doesn’t even remember?”

“How can we keep someone who was such a huge part of her life a secret?” Gavin countered.
  With all the various online social networks, it seemed a near impossible task to permanently erase a person from someone else’s life.  Wouldn’t she see all the pictures that were tagged of them?  And what about her friends?  How would they react?  Knowing that group of gossip mongers she’d met in college, someone was bound to say something to her.