Read Online Coma Girl: part 2 by Stephanie Bond - Free Book Online Page B

tell me I was in this room for two years,” she slurred, obviously still working on her speech, “but I don’t remember very much.”
    The wheels squeaked on the floor.
    “I never knew there was a window… nice view, too. I can’t believe how things have changed in two years. You can watch anything on TV anytime you want. I’ve been watching the news nonstop. Crazy election, and all the things going on in the world are a little scary.”
    Her voice trailed off, as if she’s worried about re-entry. That makes sense, I guess. You miss good things when you’re in a coma, but on the flipside, you don’t have to experience the bad things. She’s been sheltered from the world for over two years.
    “My mom doesn’t recognize me.” She heaved a sigh. “I finally wake up, and now I’m losing my mother to dementia. It’s not fair.”
    She wheeled closer to our beds.
    “I had a sense of other patients in the room, but I didn’t know your names.”
    I heard the scrape of clipboards being removed from the footboards.
    “Karen Suh… Jill Wheatley… and Marigold Kemp.” She gave a little laugh. “So you’re Coma Girl… everyone is talking about you. And I see you’re the source of that awful classical music.”
    Technically, I’m a reluctant third-party distributor.
    “It’s annoying, but it was one of the few things that cut through the fog, gave me something to concentrate on, like a beacon.”
    Dr. Jarvis will be happy to know his scheme worked. Although it doesn’t make the music less maddening.
    “Except now that I’m awake,” she said softly, “I don’t even recognize myself. My body is different. My personality is different. This isn’t me.”
    Silence fell in the room, then suddenly I realized Audrey was sobbing.
    The door opened. “Audrey?” Gina asked. “How good to see you. I was your nurse when you were in the ward. Are you okay?”
    Audrey is clearly not okay.
    “My therapist thought it would be good for me to come back here,” Audrey said between gulps of air. “But I wish I’d never come, because I don’t want to see what I used to be.” She was wailing now. “Get me out of here, please.”
    After a noisy exit, I lay there thinking I’d been jealous of Audrey for no good reason. Her brain injury and two years of isolation had left her melancholy and emotionally fragile and a shell of her former self.
    I hadn’t considered that if I ever wake up, I might not be the same person I was before.
     
     
     
     
     
     

August 28, Sunday
     
     
    “THANKS FOR MEETING me here, Detective Terry.”
    “No problem, Ms. Spence. Since Lucas handed you the Kemp case, I thought it would be good for you to meet Marigold.”
    “You sound as if you know her,” she said in a silky voice.
    And you sound as if you’re flirting. Assistant District Attorney Spence also sounds skinny. And blonde.
    “Never met Marigold,” Jack said. “But I’m starting to feel as if I know more about her and her family. They’re eager for Keith Young to be prosecuted. Where do things stand?”
    “Well, since his blood alcohol level was over the legal limit, we could get him on DUI.”
    “And?”
    “And technically, you know he can be charged with reckless driving , driving to endanger, and assault.”
    “So why hasn’t he?”
    “Can she hear us?”
    “She” meaning me.
    “I honestly don’t know,” Jack said.
    Her footsteps moved toward the window, and he followed.
    “Well, between you and me,” she said, her voice lower but perfectly audible. “Lucas has consulted with several neurosurgeons on this case. And they told him most patients with this type of brain injury will expire within a few months.”
    Expire… like a Walgreen’s coupon.
    “So he wants to wait to see if she dies so he can up the charges to murder?”
    “Or see if she wakes up.” The ADA sighed. “Look, Lucas already explained to the family why proving damages in a coma case is difficult. And Young’s blood alcohol level