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Chapter 8




Without family, you’re incomplete.




Brian, Nick, and Howie went into Kevin’s room.


Brian ran over to Kevin’s bed and hugged him. He said, “ thank god you’re alive, Kevin.”


Kevin laughed and hugged him back. Nick and Howie stayed by the door to let Brian and Kevin have time together.


Kevin asked Brian, “ How’s Anna doing? The doctor wouldn’t tell me anything. They brought me in here and left me in the dark.”


“ Um… she’s worse than you are. We don’t know exactly how bad she is, but she’s in a coma. They don’t know if she’ll ever wake up.” Brian said.


“ God, why did it have to happen to her? She just got her life back on track again. It’s not fair, god dammit.”


“ Kev, you gotta stay calm. We know it’s not fair. We know. We’ve been thinking the worst about her for the last 4 hours. They wouldn’t tell us anything. We knew nothing. Then, when the doctor came, we thought she was dead, Kev. It was awful.” Brian said almost in tears.


“ Come here, Bri.” Kevin said as he enveloped him in a hug.


“ It’s gonna be alright bri. I can feel it.” Said Kevin.


“ I hope so.” Said Brian.


The doctor walked in and introduced himself to Kevin. Dr. Davies said, “ Okay. I have news on both of you, but I’ll give you your condition first. You have severely broken your left leg. You also have a nasty cut on your forehead that may leave a mark. If it does, we can get plastic surgery down here to give you your options if you like. Um… you also have a couple fractured ribs, so be careful. I don’t think you’ll be dancing for a while. You’ll have to stay off your feet for a couple days and then I’ll give you some crutches and you’ll be free to go. Now, Anna is worse than you. Much worse. Let me tell you how the accident happened, and then you’ll be able to realize how lucky you both were. While you were going through the intersection, a semi ran a red light and hit you. He hit on Anna’s side of the car, so therefore she was the worst. After the truck hit you, you rolled 6 maybe 7 times down an embankment. The firefighters told me that she was unconscious when they took her out of the car.”


“ No, she was awake for a couple minutes. She talked to me.” Kevin said.


“ Okay. Thanks. I’ll take note of that. Anyway, she came in and never regained consciousness. We did all we could for her, and we set her to her room. As of right now, she is in a coma. We don’t know when she will wake up. It could be tomorrow, it could be next week. It could be never. We don’t know. What we do know is that she did sustain some brain damage. We won’t know the extent of that until she wakes up. Some outcomes could be amnesia: permanent or not we don’t know. Others could include paralysis, she may not be able to talk or walk ever again. Of course, those are in the extreme cases. In her case, I think she will have amnesia at the most. Nothing more serious than that.”


“ But amnesia is really serious. What’s worse than not being able to recognize your family and friends?” said Nick.


“ Nick, knock it off. She could have died.” Said Kevin.


“ Mr. Carter is right, though. Amnesia is very serious and it gets really frustrating. You all will need a lot of patience with her until she regains her memory. Answer all of her questions, whether they are about fights, or dead family members. Oftentimes, that will be the first thing amnesia patients remember. They remember the things that have impacted their lives in the harshest way. Many families make the mistake of lying to them. The family members don’t want them to remember the bad things that have happened. They want to remind them of the good things that happened. The family members don’t realize that they are hurting them. The patients often get confused when they aren’t told the entire truth.


“ Back to her injuries. She also has several broken ribs, a broken left arm, cuts, bruises and scrapes. For a little while, she will look like she was beaten. The cuts and bruises will fade. If any outstanding scars are left, there is always that option of plastic surgery. Seeing as you both have public images, I assume you will be needing plastic surgery.”


“ Doctor, how back will the scar be?” asked Kevin.


“ I don’t think they will be very bad. Some of them might be darker than the others.”


‘ Okay. How about if we get back to you on that.”


“ No problem. I’ll be back in the morning. If anything changes with your sister I will inform you. I want you to stay in bed and don’t stay up too late okay, Mr. Richardson?”


“ Okay.” Kevin said.


Just as the doctor was about to leave the room, Kevin said, “ hey, doc? Thanks for everything.”


“ No problem.” He said as he walked out the door.


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~** Anna’s room the next morning**~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~


AJ had fallen asleep on the side of her bed. He had his head resting next to her hand. Anna opened her eyes slowly and looked around. Her eyes feel on AJ’s sleeping form. She stroked his cheek with her hand. He woke up and sat up.


He smiled and said, “ Hey, you’re awake. How are you feeling?”


She looked at him and asked, “ Do I know you?”