Chapter Three

Liz opened her eyes and realized only a second had elapsed. She hadn’t thought about her childhood in years. It was usually too painful for her to recall the events of youth. Liz looked around, and realized she had missed the doctor’s name. It didn’t matter to Liz. She didn’t think the doctor would give her the news she wanted to hear – that Timmy was fine, it was all a cruel joke and that Timmy would be able to come home now. Liz glanced down at Timmy and saw all the connections, and knew that it wasn’t going to be good news. She tried to pay attention to what the doctor was saying, but she couldn’t concentrate on what was being said to her. She did catch a few words from the doctor, things such as, “…not good…” “…coma…” “…wait and see…” and Liz decided she would just hold Timmy’s hand and have Jack explain it all to her later.

The doctors and attendants all left, and Liz and Jack were left alone at Timmy’s side. Liz was standing, holding Timmy’s hand, with tears streaming down her face. She didn’t even realize she was crying. The tears were just turned out, like a water faucet, just running at a steady stream. Liz looked up at Jack, and saw the pain etched all over his face. She reached out to grab his hand, and he grabbed on to Liz, and held on tightly. When Liz looked again, she could see Jack was blinking back tears. They had their arms wrapped around each other, and were holding on tight.

Jack finally pulled away and said, “Liz, I need to make calls and let our family know what’s going on. I’ll call my parents first and get them to come on out. Once I talk to them, do you want to call your Mom, or do you want me to do it?” Liz was silent for a few moments. Then she looked up at Jack and said, “You call, please. I just can’t right now.” “Sure, baby. I’ll call. I’ll be back in a few minutes. Will you be OK here?” “Yes, I’ll be fine.”

Jack gave Liz a quick kiss, and then walked out to the waiting area to make his calls. Liz looked around and found some chairs, and pulled one over close to Timmy’s bed. Liz just kept looking at Timmy, wondering what she could do, right now, to fix this. “What can I do, Timmy? What can I do?” Liz started whispering, over and over again. Without realizing it, Liz was rocking slowly, gently, back and forth in her chair, holding Timmy’s hand, whispering. After what felts like hours to Liz, she reached up to wipes the tears, but as soon as she did, there were more to stain her cheeks. She shrugged, and then giggled. It was pointless to try to dry the tears. She didn’t think they would ever stop flowing.

Liz felt a hand gently touch her shoulder. When she looked up, she saw a nurse standing there, holding a tissue in one hand, and the box in another. “Here, dear. Perhaps this can help.” Said the kindly nurse. “Oh, thanks.” Liz responded. At this, the nurse started looking at the machines that surrounded Timmy and started taking notes. “Dear, visiting time just ended. I can let you stay a little bit longer; however, it’s shift change, and when we get to this area, we’ll need you to step out into the waiting area. We are usually closed for an hour and a half at shift-change, but you’d only need to be out for about a half-hour.” “Oh, ok. Thanks for letting me stay. My husband is outside making calls, will he be able to get back in?” “Probably not until after shift change, but I’ll see what I can do, ok?” At this, the nurse gave Liz a little wink, and then walked away.

A few minutes later, Jack came walking back in. “Liz” whispered Jack. “Liz, the nurse told me I could come back in for a couple minutes, and then we’d have to leave, ok?” “Ok. Here,” said Liz as she stepped aside, “you can stand here and hold his hand.” Jack smiled, and then held Timmy’s hand. Liz studied Jack, and wondered what he was thinking. After a few minutes of not talking, just listening to the sounds of the room surrounding them, Jack looked at Liz and said it was time to go. Jack and Liz walked out, hand in hand. Liz started sobbing even harder than before. “I can’t do it, Jack. I just can’t walk out of here and leave my son lying there.” “Liz, it’s OK. He’s in good hands, we need to go, we can come back.” Jack guided Liz away.

When they got to the waiting room, it was deserted, thankfully. Jack got some water from the vending machine for Liz, and then sat down directly across from her. “Liz” Jack began, “I spoke to my Mom. She is packing now, and will be here in a few hours. She’s going to stay as long as we need her to stay. My Dad can’t come right now, he has a work commitment, but said he’d be here as quick as he can get here, and he’ll stay as long as he’s able. I spoke with your Mom, and she is on her way, and is coming directly to the hospital. She wants to see Timmy, and then she’s going home and will stay there with Tyler so Mom can come up here. We have a bit of time until we can go back in, are you hungry? You haven’t had a chance to shower, would you like to go home so you can get cleaned up and then come back?” “No, I’m not hungry, and I don’t want to leave yet. I just don’t feel I can. Thanks for making all the phone calls.” “No problem.”

Jack and Liz sat in silence in the waiting room. Slowly, more people began to file into the small waiting room. Liz felt as if she had been waiting for hours, but in reality she had been sitting for about twenty minutes. She impatiently picked up a magazine, flipped through it and dropped it back on the table, then picked up another. She couldn’t distract herself. She wanted to know what the doctor said to Jack, but didn’t want to admit to him that she didn’t pay attention. Finally, Liz couldn’t stand any longer not knowing what the doctor said, so she turned and asked, “Jack, tell me what the doctor said. I just wasn’t able to concentrate on what he was telling us.”

“Sure. He said that the head injury is not good, but he isn’t sure if it will be fatal. They have put him in a medically-induced coma, to give him time to recover, and we just need to wait and see what happens. They don’t know if he’ll be able to recover, it will depend on how he does in the next 24 to 48 hours. They also did a series of MRIs while we were waiting downstairs, and they’re waiting to get those results back to know more.”