Fabulous Five 011 - Hit and Run (8 page)

For the next couple of days, Jana went straight to the
hospital after school to visit Lisa, playing games, reading to her, and rolling
her up and down the hall in the wheelchair. Then her mother and Pink would pick
her up on their way home from work so that she could do her homework and eat
supper before one of the Kirwans dropped by to take her with them to see Randy.

Each evening when she tiptoed into his room she hoped to see
him sitting up, eyes open and laughing, as he waited for her to come in. But
instead, he remained asleep. The only thing that seemed to change was where she
would find Gorgeous when she got there. Sometimes he would be in the chair
beside Randy's bed. Other times he would be sitting high on Randy's pillow or
on the foot of the bed. But always his sweet smile made her spirits lift a
little bit. Gorgeous wouldn't let her down. He had always been there when she
needed a friend, and each time she left the intensive care unit she snuggled
him up beside Randy again.

Sometimes before she went to sleep at night she would think
about the accident and all the things that had happened since then, feeling
just as confused as ever. First, I was trying to find someone to blame, she
thought. But there really isn't anyone to blame for an accident. And I've been
trying to find something to do to help. Anything that will make things better,
but that hasn't worked, either. Then she would finally fall into a fitful
sleep.

On Friday afternoon, when Jana reached the hospital, she was
looking forward to seeing Lisa. The little girl had become one of the brightest
parts of her day, and Jana knew that she would miss her when she went home.
Mrs. Foss had said that it would be soon because Mr. and Mrs. Pratt were
getting stronger every day.

Sometimes Lisa's smile made Jana think of Ashley, the baby
Taffy Sinclair and she had found on the steps of Mark Twain Elementary last
year in sixth grade. Baby Ashley had been so sweet that she had captured
everybody's heart, and Jana was beginning to realize that Lisa was just as
sweet now that she was giving the little girl a chance.

To her surprise, Lisa was already sitting in her wheelchair
when Jana got to her room.

"Jana! Jana! You get to take me to visit my mommy and
daddy!" shouted Lisa.

"That's right," said Mrs. Foss, who was smoothing
the covers on Lisa's bed. "She went up for a little while this morning,
and I thought maybe you'd like to take her up to see them this afternoon."

Jana blinked at the nurse. "Me?" she said in a
surprised voice. She knew that Lisa had been visiting them, but she had never
expected to be asked to take the little girl to see them herself.

"Sure. You can handle Lisa as well as any of the
nurses. Besides, you're her special friend. I think she'd like for you to meet
her parents."

"Please," begged Lisa, grabbing Jana's hand and
holding on for dear life.

"Well . . . okay," said Jana. "Fifth floor?"

"That's right," said Mrs. Foss. "Room five oh
seven."

Lisa chattered nonstop all the way up to the fifth floor. "And
my daddy's going to buy me a bicycle as soon as my leg is well and . . ."
she was saying as Jana knocked on the door to Room 507.

A man's voice called to them to come in, and Jana propped
open the door and wheeled Lisa inside, wondering if it wouldn't be best to say
a quick hello and duck out so that the family could be alone together.

"Mommy, Daddy, this is Jana!" Lisa shouted the
instant she was inside the room.

"Hello, Jana," said the woman in the bed nearest
the door. One of her legs was suspended in traction and there was a large
bandage on an arm.

"We've been hearing a lot about you," said the man
in the second bed. One of his eyes was bandaged and both arms were in casts. "In
fact, you and Gorgeous are just about all Lisa can talk about. We can't thank
you enough for your kindness and for being so unselfish with your bear. I don't
know what Lisa would have done without Gorgeous to love and hold on to while
she was alone."

Jana stared at the floor, unable to say anything. How could
she tell them that she hadn't wanted Lisa to have Gorgeous and that she had
tried every way she could think of to get him back?

Finally she sighed deeply and said, "Actually Lisa is
the unselfish one. She's loaned Gorgeous to my friend who is in the intensive
care unit on the second floor. He's in a coma."

"And he won't wake up for the doctors, so Gorgeous is
going to tell him secrets and tickle his ear," Lisa announced gleefully.

Jana couldn't help but smile, and she was pleased to see
that Mr. and Mrs. Pratt were smiling, too. But suddenly her attention was drawn
to a voice coming over the hospital intercom.

"Jana Morgan. If Jana Morgan is in the hospital, will
you please come to the intensive care unit on the second floor at once? Jana
Morgan to the intensive care unit on the second floor."

"Oh, my gosh," she shouted. "That's me! It
must be Randy!" She spun around, looking first at the door and then at
Lisa in her panic. "I have to go there! But I can't! I mean, what about
Lisa?"

"It's okay," said Mr. Pratt. "We'll call a
nurse to take Lisa back to her room. You go ahead."

Jana murmured a quick thank-you and dashed for the elevator.
Her heart was pounding as she waited for the doors to open slowly. Riding down
to the second floor, she didn't dare wonder why her name had been called. The
Kirwans knew that she came to the hospital every afternoon to see Lisa, so if
there had been a change in Randy's condition . . . But what kind of change
could it be?

The elevator took forever to reach the second floor,
stopping at every floor to let people on and off. No one else seemed in a
hurry, and Jana wanted to shout at the top of her lungs that she had to get to
the intensive care unit fast. That it was
an emergency.

Finally the elevator stopped at her floor, and Jana got out,
breaking into a run as soon as the doors closed behind her.

"I'm here. I'm here," she called as she slid
around the corner and caught sight of the nurses' station outside Randy's room.

The red-haired nurse was there again, the one who had sent
her away the first time she had tried to see Randy, but this time she looked up
and smiled. "Are you Jana Morgan?"

Jana nodded anxiously, feeling as if her heart was going to
jump right out of her body.

"You may go right on in," said the nurse.

The door seemed a mile away as Jana headed toward it, but as
she pulled it open and looked inside, she couldn't believe her eyes. Randy and
Gorgeous were sitting up in bed side by side, both smiling at her and both
looking as if they were waiting for a hug.

Jana sat in the fourth-floor lounge holding Gorgeous and
waiting for her turn to see Randy again. Now that he was awake and getting
better, he had been moved to a room across the hall from the room she had
shared with Lisa, and tons of aunts and uncles and cousins had turned up to
visit him. She tapped her foot and frowned at the door, wishing they would
hurry up. She could hardly wait to talk to him in private.

The doctors had made all sorts of scientific explanations
for why Randy had awakened. They had credited medical skill and dedicated
doctors with bringing him out of his coma. Jana bounced Gorgeous on her knee
and said confidentially, "That's all they know. We know the real reason he
woke up. Don't we?"

Gorgeous gave her a conspiratorial smile.

"We did everything we could to make things better,"
she assured, returning his smile. "You and I
both.
"

Her smile faded as she looked at Gorgeous with his shiny
black eyes and his sweet, heart-shaped smile. She had the feeling he was trying
to tell her something, remind her of something she had forgotten.

"I know. Lisa helped, too," said Jana. "I
didn't mean to forget. She let me take you to Randy to make him feel better."

Gorgeous's smile seemed to grow brighter. "And I
suppose you've been thinking about how lonely she'll be when she gets home and
can't go out to play because of that cast, haven't you?"

Jana thought she saw Gorgeous nod. "And that maybe you'd
like to go home with her and be her friend?"

This time she was certain that he nodded.

"I know Randy wouldn't mind," she added. "He's
a kind and sensitive person, just like you, and he'd be proud of you for
helping a little girl."

Sighing, Jana gave Gorgeous one last hug and hurried to Lisa's
room.

"I still think it was Gorgeous tickling your ear that
woke you up," teased Jana. It was later that afternoon and she was finally
sitting beside Randy and talking to him in private.

"No," said Randy, shaking his head stubbornly. "What
really did it was the dream. I remember it so clearly because you were in it."

"I was in it?" said Jana, screwing up her face in
disbelief. "What was I doing?"

"You wouldn't believe it," said Randy, looking
suddenly embarrassed. "You would think I'd totally flipped out if I told
you."

"Try me," challenged Jana.

Randy looked at her for a moment as if he were trying to get
up his nerve. "Okay. Here goes. I was in this forest, see. For some reason
I was lying in a huge canopy bed right in the middle of the woods, and there
were animals standing around looking at me and birds singing in the trees."

He paused, and Jana felt her eyes turn misty and little
prickles dance up her spine. "Go on," she whispered.

"Well, then you came up. You were wearing a long dress
and a crown, and you looked just like a princess."

"Then what?" urged Jana. She felt as if she were
going to explode.

Randy looked around to make sure no one else was listening
before he went on. "Then you kissed me on the cheek and whispered, 'Wake
up, Sleeping Handsome.' I know it sounds crazy, but that's really what I
dreamed."

Jana wanted to jump up and down and shout for joy, but
instead she managed to control her emotions and ask, "Have you told
anybody else about this dream?"

"Are you kidding? And you'd better not tell anyone
either. Especially Dr. Garza or my parents. Promise?"

Jana smiled slyly. Of course someday she would tell him that
it hadn't really been a dream, but not now. She didn't want to take the chance
that the doctors would be able to find a scientific explanation for this, too.
It was much too wonderful and romantic just the way it was. She doubted that
the Kirwans would say anything about her crazy scheme to wake Sleeping Handsome
with a kiss, and neither would The Fabulous Five if she asked them not to. So
for now, it would be her special secret—until the perfect moment came to tell
him the truth.

"Okay. If that's the way you want it," she said. "I
promise.
I'll never tell.
"

"I don't know, Katie," Tony said, shaking his head
slowly. "Why do you always want to stick your nose into other people's
business?"

"Stick my nose into other people's business?"
shrieked Katie. Giving her kickstand a vicious boot, she waited an instant
until the bike stood on its own and then put her hands on her hips and glared
at Tony. "What do you mean by that? She's my own mother, isn't she?"

Tony parked his bike beside Katie's and strolled up the sidewalk
to sit down on the Shannon's front steps before answering. "Sure, but
suppose she still misses your father and doesn't want to go out on dates? Had
you thought about that?"

Katie rolled her eyes heavenward and said patiently, "Of
course she still misses my father. But that's not the point. She's a writer,
and writers spend most of their time alone, staring at a blank computer screen.
I just think that if she had someone to go out and have some fun with, she'd be
a lot better off, that's all."

"So, who'd you have in mind?" asked Tony.

"I haven't decided yet," Katie answered matter-of-factly.
"But it has to be somebody really nice and a lot of fun. Don't worry. I'll
find someone. And I'll probably have to coach her since it's been so long since
she's been out on a date."

Tony shook his head again and gazed toward the ground. "There
she goes again, folks," he said to no one in particular. "Her Honor,
Katie Shannon, champion of the underdog, has picked a new role to play
—Dear
Abby
."

Katie made a face. "Don't be disgusting. I know exactly
what I'm doing."

But does Katie really know what she's doing? What will
happen when Katie tries to help her mother with romance? Find out in
The
Fabulous Five #12 Katie's Dating Tips.

Betsy Haynes, the daughter of a former newswoman, began
scribbling poetry and short stories as soon as she learned to write. A serious
writing career, however, had to wait until after her marriage and the arrival
of her two children. But that early practice must have paid off, for within
three months Mrs. Haynes had sold her first story. In addition to a number of
magazine short stories and the Taffy Sinclair series, Mrs. Haynes is also the
author of
The Great Mom Swap
and its sequel,
The Great Boyfriend
Trap.
She lives in Colleyville, Texas, with her husband, who is also an
author.