Fabulous Five 011 - Hit and Run (6 page)

"My friends are going to throw up when they see my
face," Jana grumbled the next afternoon as she plopped down on the sofa to
wait for The Fabulous Five to arrive.

"They've already seen it," her mother reminded
her. "They came to visit you in the hospital. Remember?"

"But they haven't seen it since the bruises turned
yellow," said Jana. The scrapes had almost disappeared from her hands and
the knot on her forehead had gone down, but the bruises that had been angry and
purple right after the accident had now turned a sickly yellowish color. Jana
had spent twenty minutes trying to cover them up with her mother's liquid makeup
before giving up in disgust. "And my hair looks like something a cat
coughed up," she added in a pouty voice.

Pink looked at her from over the top of his newspaper. "Hey,
come on, Jana. Don't be so down on yourself."

Jana sighed loudly. "I'm just depressed," she
conceded. "This is Sunday, and the accident happened on Thursday, and the
doctors haven't done anything to get Randy to wake up. How long is it going to
take?"

"I'm sure the doctors are doing everything they can,
sweetheart," said her mother.

Jana jumped up and began pacing the floor. Another canned
answer. That was all she ever got from anybody, she thought angrily. It was so
frustrating. Her mother kept assuring her that everyone was doing all they
could. The lady who gave out patient information at the hospital kept saying
that Randy's condition hadn't changed. But nobody could explain what was really
happening or when he was going to get better. She was beginning to think that
she couldn't stand it any longer. "There has to be
something
to do,
but I can't think of anything that will help," she said, stopping in front
of her mother and looking at her imploringly.

Her mother gave her a helpless shrug. "I know,
sweetheart, but you just have to face the fact that all you can do for the
moment is wait. The doctors
are
doing all they can. You just have to be
patient and keep your hopes up."

Jana frowned at her mother. Of course she was keeping her
hopes up. Why did parents always say things like that? But before she could
think of an appropriate response the doorbell rang. "I'll get it. It's
probably my friends," she mumbled, and scurried to the door, glad to have
the conversation at an end.

Katie, Christie, Beth, and Melanie were clustered in the hallway
outside her apartment. They were all smiles when she opened the door.

"I'm so glad you're home from the hospital," cried
Beth, rushing forward and hugging her.

"Ooooh. I'll bet that still hurts," said Melanie,
wrinkling her nose and gently touching Jana's forehead with a finger.

"I still can't believe it happened," said Katie,
shaking her head in amazement. "I mean, you read about these kind of
accidents in the paper, but you never think they'll happen to anyone you know."

The girls crowded into the apartment and said hi to Pink and
Jana's mother as they headed for Jana's room. She was just about to close the
door when she heard Pink call her name.

"What?" she called back, sticking her head out.

"Need a mop?" asked Pink.

"A mop?" she asked. "Why would I need a mop?"

"You said your friends would throw up," he teased.

Jana couldn't help laughing. Pink loved to tease her, and he
could usually make her see the funny side of a bad situation. She tossed him a
grateful smile and pulled her head back into the room, but when she turned to
her friends, her black mood was back again. It didn't improve when she told
them about the hit-and-run driver, even though she knew deep down that it hadn't
really been the girl's fault.

"Have you checked on Randy's condition today?"
asked Melanie, who had sprawled across Jana's bed while the others had arranged
themselves in various spots on the floor.

Jana nodded. "A little while ago. It's the same old
story. No change. I could just scream. That woman sounds like a broken record."

"I'm sure the doctors are doing everything they can,"
offered Christie.

Jana bristled. "You sound just like my mother."
Making a face, she mocked her mother's voice: "You have to be patient and
keep your hopes up." Then she let out a sigh of exasperation and said, "How
can I be patient and keep my hopes up when as far as I can tell nobody is
doing
anything? Why doesn't the hospital call in a specialist or something? There has
to be
somebody
who knows what to do!"

Her friends looked embarrassed, and no one said anything.
Tears of frustration welled in Jana's eyes, and she looked pleadingly at her
friends and said, "Mom says that since there's no way to make things like
they were before and nobody to blame, I can only try to find a way to make
things better. But how?"

No one had an answer for that.

"If only they would let me in to see him," said
Jana.

"What good would that do?" asked Beth, putting a
sympathetic arm around Jana. "Let's face it. If the doctors can't wake him
up, how could you? He's just lying there, sleeping."

Jana didn't answer for a moment. She was staring out into
space and thinking over Beth's words about how Randy was just lying there
sleeping. She could visualize him lying on a beautiful canopy bed. He was
sleeping so peacefully, and he looked so handsome that her eyes filled with
tears. The vision widened, and she could see that the beautiful canopy bed was
in a forest. Sunbeams crisscrossed the air, and all around him birds sang and
woodland creatures stopped to look-at him.

Suddenly Jana recognized the scene. She had seen it in her
mind hundreds of times before, and a crazy idea popped into her head. It was so
crazy that she was almost afraid to say it out loud. Her friends would think
she had completely flipped out, but maybe this was it—the something that she
could do to make Randy better.

"Do you remember the story of Sleeping Beauty?"
she asked.

Everyone nodded.

"Well, don't you see? Randy is like Sleeping Beauty!"
she said as excitement rose in her voice. "Everybody always thought that
was just a silly fairy tale, but it wasn't. It can come true for Randy. I know
it can."

"Sure, sure, only he's Sleeping Handsome. Is that it?"
said Katie, making a face. "Don't tell me you're the beautiful princess,
and all you have to do is kiss him and he'll wake up. Come on, Jana. Get real!
The day you do that, I'll go kiss a frog."

"I didn't mean kiss him, silly. I'll talk to him and
tell him how much I want him to wake up. I've read that people in comas can
sometimes hear what other people say to them. If I tell him how much I care
about him, and how sorry I am about the accident, maybe he'll hear me and want
to wake up so badly that he will. And then I'll kiss him," she added,
blushing.

"Oh, Jana!" Melanie groaned ecstatically. "That's
the most romantic thing I ever heard!"

"Hmmm," mused Katie, slowly nodding her head. "I
read that somewhere, too. You know, I hate to admit it, but it just might work.
In fact," she added, with a sly grin, "I may have to kiss a frog,
after all."

"Do you think you can get in to see him?" asked
Christie.

"I don't know," admitted Jana. "When I went
to the intensive care unit before, the nurse threatened to call security if I
didn't leave. I'll have to think of another way."

"Maybe if you called Randy's parents and asked them,
they would give you permission," offered Katie.

"It's worth a try," said Jana. She went to the
phone and dialed the Kirwans' number, half afraid that no one would answer. His
parents were probably at the hospital.

"Hello," said a woman's voice. It was Mrs. Kirwan.

"Hi, Mrs. Kirwan. This is Jana." Suddenly she didn't
know what to say next. Sleeping Beauty? Sleeping Handsome? It wouldn't be an
easy thing to explain.

"Yes, Jana?" said Mrs. Kirwan. Her voice sounded
tired.

"I'm sorry to bother you, but I was wondering if you
could give me permission to visit Randy at the hospital. You see, I have this
idea . . ." she paused, searching for the right words. "Well, it's
sort of like Sleeping Beauty. You know. The prince kissed her and woke her up.
Well, I was thinking that if Randy could hear me when I talked to him, maybe I
could convince him to wake up, too." Jana screwed up her face in
frustration. "Does that make any sense?"

"Yes, Jana," said Mrs. Kirwan, sounding pleasantly
surprised. "That makes a lot of sense, and I think it's a beautiful idea.
Of course you can see Randy. In fact, I'll take you with me when I go back to
the hospital to relieve Mr. Kirwan. We're taking turns so that someone can be
with Randy all the time. I'll drive by and get you in about an hour."

"Oh, thank you, Mrs. Kirwan. Thank you
so
much,"
Jana murmured. "I'll be watching for you."

As she hung up the phone, she whispered to herself, "Oh,
please, I want so badly to do something to help. Please let this work!"

The ride to the hospital was made in silence. After greeting
Jana and saying how glad she was that Jana was coming along, Mrs. Kirwan lapsed
into thoughts of her own as she drove through the dark streets. Jana sat beside
her in the front seat and tried not to fidget, but the closer they got to the
hospital, the more nervous she became. Had it been a crazy idea, after all? If
the doctors couldn't wake Randy with all their medical skill, how could she
possibly hope to do it by acting out a fairy tale?

When they reached the intensive care unit on the second
floor, Jana was relieved to see that the red-haired nurse who had sent her away
before was not on duty tonight. Instead, a pleasant-looking gray-haired woman
looked up from her desk in the nurses' station and gave them a smile.

"Any change?" Mrs. Kirwan asked hopefully.

"I'm afraid not," said the nurse. Then looking at
Jana, she said, "Hello, dear. Are you Randy's sister?"

Jana shook her head. "I'm a friend," she murmured,
thinking how shocked the nurse would be if she added that she was the princess
who was going into the enchanted forest to awaken Sleeping Handsome. The
thought made her more jittery than ever.

The nurse smiled knowingly. "I'll bet you're a special
friend. Go right on in."

Jana's heart was pounding when she stepped into Randy's
room. Her eyes were immediately drawn to the electronic monitors and dials on
the wall above the bed. Blips on a long, thin line recorded his heartbeat.
Other machines hummed and dials moved as the big machines kept track of Randy's
vital signs.

Mr. Kirwan met them just inside the door. He looked tired,
but he smiled when he saw her. "Hello, Jana," he said. "What a
pleasant surprise."

Jana could only nod because as her eyes adjusted to the dim
light she could see Randy lying on a bed behind a screen with the covers pulled
up around him. He lay very still with his eyes closed, but he didn't look
anything at all like the Sleeping Handsome of her dreams. The top of his head
was wound with bandages like a mummy, and an intravenous drip bottle hung
upside down on a stand beside the bed and was connected to his arm by a long,
thin tube.

Behind her, Jana could hear Mrs. Kirwan explaining to Randy's
father why she was there. She couldn't join in the conversation. She could only
stare at Randy and say a silent prayer that she could help.

"There's a chair beside the bed. Go ahead. Sit down,"
Mr. Kirwan urged.

Mrs. Kirwan nodded. "We'll leave the room for a few
minutes so that you can have some privacy," she said. Then, seeing Jana's
hesitation, she added, "We'll be right outside if you need us."

When they had gone, Jana turned back to Randy. She felt as
if her heart would break. The still, sleeping form looked so different from the
lively, smiling Randy she knew so well that she wanted to shout, "That's
not him!" and run out of the room. Instead, she took a deep breath and
tiptoed closer.

"Randy," she whispered. "It's Jana. Can you
hear me?"

There was no response. He didn't move even so much as a
fraction of an inch, and although she bent closer to listen, he didn't make a
sound, either.

She eased into the chair. The monitors hung overhead like
vultures as she struggled to regain her courage. It was like being in the
middle of a nightmare. I have to go through with this, she thought desperately.
I have to at least
try.

"Randy," she said again. This time her voice was a
little stronger. "I got permission to visit you because I read somewhere
that some people who are in a . . . who are asleep . . . can hear what other
people say to them. I hope you can hear me because I want to tell you some
things."

Leaning back, she sighed deeply before she went on. This
wasn't so hard, after all. All she had to do was talk to him the way she would
if he were awake.

"First, I want to tell you that I'm sorry I didn't
trust you. I know now that I was mistaken about Laura McCall. I should have
known that you would try to help her if she needed it. I wish I could go back
to that day and start all over. I wouldn't listen in on her conversation with
Tammy, much less jump to conclusions about what she said. Also, I wouldn't get
mad when I saw you talking to her at Bumpers, and I definitely would not run
away from you and straight into the path of a car. Oh, Randy, you were such a
hero to save me, but I'd much rather have you awake again."

She paused. There was so much more she wanted to say, but
would he really be able to hear?

"Second, I wish I hadn't tried so hard to find someone
to take the blame for the accident. Especially Erica Fleming, the girl who was
driving the car. It wasn't fair. She couldn't stop, and she was just as scared
as I was. Maybe more.

"Most of all, I just want you to know how much I love
you. Please don't die. If you can hear me, please wake up so that things can be
the way they were before."

Still Randy slept. Jana's eyes filled with tears of defeat
as she sat watching him. Why didn't he open his eyes? Or at least move one
finger? Or make a tiny sound? Or do something to let her know that he had heard
her?

She sat there for a few more minutes, watching and waiting
and hoping, but nothing changed. The lines on the monitors continued their
quick movements across the screens, and the needles in the dials registered
their numbers. Her hope was rapidly fading away. Finally, she looked at him
sadly and said, "I guess I'd better go now so that your parents can come
back in."

Standing up, Jana started to turn away, but something
stopped her. She knew down deep that there was one more thing she had to do.
Bending over Randy, she kissed him gently on the cheek and said softly, "Wake
up, Sleeping Handsome."

To her astonishment his eyelids fluttered. Jana gasped and
stepped back, catching her balance on the chair.
"He heard me,"
she whispered incredulously. Was he waking up? Had the fairy tale worked?

But slowly his eyes stopped fluttering, and he went on
sleeping as peacefully as before. Jana stared at him for an instant and then
shook her head defiantly.

"He heard me," she said out loud for a second 
time. Her heart pounded inside her chest like a trapped bird.
"He isn't
awake yet
,
but he HEARD ME!"

Spinning around, she raced out of the room to find Randy's
parents.