Code Red

Chapter 26: She Will Never Be Coming Back

Chapter 26: She Will Never Be Coming Back

It seemed as if the whole day went by as a blur as I sat on the airplane, my eyes closed, tired from all the crying I have been doing. My hand was rested in Dylan’s across the aisle as he kept unintentionally squeezing it from the all the pain he was feeling. Janie’s head was on my lap, her cheeks red and splotchy and Joe had in his earphones as he stared out at the window into the sunny day, the music blasting away, clouding over all his thoughts. Selena was behind us, reading a magazine, trying to get her mind in her order.

I sighed and closed my eyes, leaning my head back against the seat. My nose was stuffy as I kept trying to breathe in and out of my mouth, trying not to make noise. My head pounded, the freaking side effects of crying all day and my eye lids felt like a ton.

I felt like I was drowning in sorrow, and it was painful to think that Dylan must have it so much worse, as it was his mother… My heart felt like it was being squeezed with a hundred of hands as the day’s events flashed through my mind.

12 Hours Earlier (1:00 A.M.)

I was curled up in a waiting room seat as Dylan paced restlessly in front of him. My eyes followed him with every sharp turn he took, his hands balling into fists and then shaking free. Everyone was silent as we were waiting for the either great news that Elizabeth was fine or the horrible news that I would rather not go into detail about.

My heart sunk in my chest with every passing minute as I have been sitting here for the past couple of hours, meaning my heart was basically at my feet dreading the news we were about to receive. Bringing my nails up to my mouth, I started chewing on them again. This has never been a bad habit of mine, but I have taken a liking to it over the past night.

As Dylan walked by for about the trillionth time, he shot his hand out and knocked my fingers away from my mouth, leaving me looking longingly at my limp hand in my lap. He passed by once again shooting me a warning glare.

I chewed on my lip instead, the nerves creating a volcano in my stomach. I sighed as I rested my head on my hand, my knees tucked to my chest.

Please let her be okay. Please let her be okay.

10 Hours Earlier (3:00 A.M.)

It’s been another two hours of sitting here, expecting the worse but hoping for the best. I can’t even tell you how many times Dylan had to knock my hands out of my mouth from my obsessive biting, or how many times Dylan has walked past me, or how many pages Selena read of however many magazines, or however many times Janie and Joe annoyed the hell out of each other, or how many doctors came through the doors but were never for us.

A part of me wants the doctor to come tell us the news because I can’t sit here any longer, pretending everything is okay when of course it isn’t. But the other part of me doesn’t want the doctor to come through the doors because I am terrified of what he will have to say.

The doors swung open and my heart raced in my chest. Would this doctor finally be the one to bring us the news?

“Elizabeth Stone,” The man in the white lab coat called. He looked in his late thirties, with his brown hair flopped over his eye brows, the sweat rolling down his forehead. He looked skilled, but his eyes held a different aura. We raced towards him, Dylan’s hand squeezing my own. You could tell he was scared beyond his wits. As soon as we got close enough, one look at the defeated sigh and the way the doctor’s shoulders slumped answered all of our questions.

Elizabeth did not make it… My heart stopped and it felt as if the upcoming minutes went by in a blur. The way his mouth moved with the unfortunate news that they could not get her lungs to work again,  that she was suffering and will do much better in Heaven in peace, that they will help send the body back to New Jersey where Selena said they wanted to do the burial.