Moments with Michael

Waking up part 2

I'm laying down. I can feel a soft fabric against my skin, and the strong smell of hospital in my nose.

A hand is holding mine, a warm, soft hand. Somehow I know that hand. I want to open my eyes, to see who it belongs to, but my eyelids are so heavy! Finally I succeed, and what I see instantly convinces me, that I am not any more sane now, than I was before.

Michael is sitting there. Holding my hand, looking at me with a sadness, that instantly turns to an almost unbelieving happiness, when I open my eyes.

"Gry!" He exclaims loudly. "You're awake!"

I just look at him with confused eyes. I'm hallucinating. I must be.

I hear the nearby sound of running feet, and two new people comes to stand at the end, of what I now recognize as a hospital bed. They must be nurses.

A third person comes now, pushing his way through, and begins checking a hundred different things on some machinery beside me. I turn my eyes to look at Michael again.

"Is this real?" I manage to get out, and my voice sounds like I haven't used it in years. "Am I just dreaming or hallucinating or going insane? Or all three?"

"It's real" He just says, and I see tears forming in his eyes. One of them starts falling down his cheek, and he does nothing to stop it. I try to sit up in the bed, and soon discovers that I'm weak as never before. I can barely sit myself up! One of the nurses sees what I'm trying to do, and presses a button so the bed raises me to a sitting position.

I look around me, and I see a white hospital room, with an open door leading out to a busy corridor. A vase with flowers are standing on the night stand beside me, and their colors lights up the room. They are bright red, yellow and blue, and not in any way transparent.

Smiling, I once again turn my eyes back at Michael. I can see more tears falling from his eyes, and a smile of true happiness shines on his lips, lighting up the room even more than the flowers. I reach out with a shaking hand, and dries the tears from his cheeks the best I can. He just grabs my hand, holding it like his life depended on it. Or maybe more like my life depended on it.

My smile widens even more, when he brings my hand to his lips to leave a soft kiss on it.

The doctor seemingly finishes checking whatever it was he was checking, and starts talking:

"Seems like you're at good health, Mrs. Jackson" He says, and the words Mrs. Jackson almost drains the air from my lungs. I'm married to him?

And then it all comes back to me. My life here, in this world. How I grew up with my mom and dad, how I met Michael, and all our happy days together. The day he proposed, and the day we said "I do" I the church. I remember our first anniversary, and I remember... I don't remember much after that. Somewhere, a black mist just fills everything. That, and a burning pain on the back of my head.

I suddenly realize, that the doctor is still talking, and I snap out of my thoughts to hear what he's saying:

"... and I don't think there should be anything in the way for that you can go home tomorrow" He finishes

"Thank you" I say, with my still untrained voice. "But may I ask... what happened?"

"You don't remember?" He exclaims.

"No. Should I?"

"Well, it just seems that you remember so much else..." He lets his sentence trail of, before starting a new:

"Well, but what happened was, that you were hit by a car, when crossing the road in a hurry. You got a bad wound at the back of your head, and many were concerned that you wouldn't live." I feel Michael squeezing my hand even tighter at these words. "You have been in a coma for 18 months now" The doctor finishes.