Arcadia's Gift(11)

“Do you know where you are?”
“H-H-Hospital?” My voice came out all hoarse and shaky.
“Good. Can you tell me your name?”
“Arcadia Marie Day. Cady.”
“Very good, Cady. Now, can you tell me what year this is?”
“2012. How long have I been here?” I asked, tilting the cup to my lips for more ice chips. I knew he was just checking my mental status, but his questions annoyed me.
“Three and a half days,” Dr. Gibler answered. “You were admitted on Saturday night and it is now shortly before noon on Wednesday.”
“Wow….” It was strange and confusing to think that I had lost three days of my life.
“Are you in any pain?” Dr. Gibler asked.
I ran through my body parts mentally. “Um…headache. Not bad though. I think it’s just from that constant beeping.”
The doctor’s brow wrinkled in confusion before he recalled the heart monitor. He reached up and flipped the volume off.
I tried a weak smile, “Thanks.”
“Cady, do you remember what happened before you lost consciousness?”
I concentrated hard. I remembered having a vivid nightmare about getting run over by a train, but I couldn’t remember being in any kind of accident.
“Tell me what you’re thinking,” Dr. Gibler inquired. “What do you remember?”
“A dream. I remember having a dream. It was weird.”
“Tell me about it.”
“It was so real! I got hit by a train. Only it wasn’t me really. I was my sister…or maybe I was inside my sister’s body. I could feel every pain and sensation as if it were really happening to me. I could taste the blood in my mouth… Seriously, I’ve never felt so much pain in my life. I didn’t know dreams could do that.”
An odd expression clouded over Dr. Gibler’s face, a mixture of confusion and sorrow. “You felt it? Like physically?”
I pressed my eyes closed and tried to block out the horrifying images from my dream. “Yes, I felt it. I felt legs being severed by the wheels of a train. I felt my temperature drop as my blood drained from my body.” I shook my head to clear away the images. My belly roiled with nausea. “I can remember every detail of the dream, but I can’t remember the accident that landed me in here.”
“Accident?” the doctor asked, casting a glance at Jenny. “Cady, you weren’t in an accident. In fact, there’s not a scratch on you.” He turned to the nurse. “Page her parents, please.”
Jenny draped her stethoscope around her neck and stepped out of the room.
“What’s happened?” I asked. “Am I dying?”
“No, you’re going to be fine.” The doctor fiddled with my chart, staring at it, but not really reading it. Stalling.
“Tell me. What happened?” I pleaded.
“Let’s wait for your parents. Your father is just down in the cafeteria.”
“No,” I insisted. “Tell me now!” I attempted to sit up, but my head spun and I slumped back down.
“Okay, Cady,” he said as he pulled a chair alongside the bed and leaned with his forearms balanced on the metal guardrail. “I have some rather disturbing news.” He took a deep breath before continuing. “It’s your sister, Avalon. She was in an accident. She was struck by a train and killed Saturday night. I’m so sorry.”
The doctor paused to gauge my reaction. My face remained frozen, but my mind wheeled about in a dozen different directions.
“What you remember was not a dream. In fact, you’ve been in a coma, which means you were so deeply unconscious that your brain did not go through the normal sleep cycles. You couldn’t have had any dreams.”
Spontaneous tears welled in my eyes, but I blinked them away. He must be wrong. Lony can’t be gone. I wanted to argue with him, to tell him he must be wrong. “W-w-w…?” I sputtered.
“Your father is downstairs in the cafeteria. Nurse Jenny just went to get him, and she’ll phone your mother. Your parents have been taking turns staying at the hospital with you.”
“But…what about me?” I asked, still confused. “What happened to me? Why am I…you know…here?”
The doctor pursed his lips as if in deep thought. “Honestly, we’re not quite sure what happened to you. We were hoping you could fill us in. When you were first brought to the ER, we assumed you had been hit also, but there were no injuries. Then, we figured you passed out from the emotional shock of it all, but then your blood pressure dropped dangerously low and your breathing became irregular. It was clear that this was no ordinary swoon.”