"Please Mommy! Pleeeease!" a young boy whined from his bed. William Pratt was a 6 year old boy and had already been confined to a hospital bed for a week. After being admitted for pneumonia he was sentenced to bed rest and made to stay at the hospital to be monitored.
"Honey, I already told you. The doctors said that if you were good and got a full night's rest tonight, we could go home tomorrow. Don't you want to go home?" his mother questioned. Honestly, it broke Anne's heart to see her young strong son chained to a hospital bed and desperately wanted to give into his every whim to try and make it better but knew that he only needed this one night then he could go home.
"Yesssss…but I just want to get out of bed for ONE minute! Mom, I promise I will stand up for only one minute then I will get back in bed. I'm bored and my legs hurt!" William pleaded with his mother. He had been stuck in bed for so long and knew that if he could just stand for awhile he would feel better. Plus he thought if he could get his mom to give into this one request he could stretch out his time.
Anne thought it over. She knew that her son wanted out of bed for more than one minute but she was trying to think of a way to get him out of bed without him getting too excited and over-exerting himself. She finally landed on an idea, "how about we take one walk around the floor? You have to hold my hand the entire time and after we finish you have to promise me you'll get into bed without any complaining and get ready for bed."
"Yes! Yes! I promise!" William nearly flew out of bed, grabbed his mother's hand and started hem down the hall. The children's wing where he was being kept was small and nearly went a circle. The walls were painted with fun looking animals and bright colors. Walking for a short time they passed the nurses' station where all the nurses waved at the little boy they all adored. With his curly brown hair, blue eyes and polite manners, not to mention the footsie pajamas, he quickly became their favorite, if not their most shy, patient. The pair rounded the corner and at the end of the hall housed his room. Two doors away from his room and suddenly William let go of his mother's hand and rushed into a room. Anne ran in after her son to find him staring intently at a little girl who appeared to be asleep. She ran to her son to pull him out of the room and spotted what she thought to be the young girl's mother and quickly starting apologizing, "Oh! I'm so sorry! I'm sorry. I was just walking with my son and he ran in here. I'm sorry, I don't know what happened. We don't mean to intrude."
"Oh, no, no, no. It's fine." The woman answered. "I understand. Sometimes my Elizabeth can get away from me too. I know your son didn't mean any harm."
"Thank you." Anne felt relieved. There are worse rooms he could have ran into I suppose, Anne thought. "I'll just get my son and we will leave you." Anne looked down to her son to find him starring at the young girl with an awed expression. "William, we need to leave this young girl to get to sleep. Come on, lets get back to your room."
"Is..is she a princess?" William finally looked up to the woman in the corner. "She looks like a princess."
"No, honey she's not a princess. She's my daughter, Elizabeth." She looked up to Anne, "Your son seems to be taken with my daughter," she laughed lightly. "My name is Joyce, my daughter's name is Elizabeth."
"I can see that. William is usually very shy around other children. I'm Anne by the way and my son here is William." Anne reached out to shake hands. "My son was getting a little restless. See, we've been here a week and William has been on complete bed rest. He was brought in with pneumonia. Hopefully he'll be released tomorrow so I took pity on him and we took a quick walk around the floor. I am sorry again for just barging in here."
Joyce smiled, "No, it's fine. You're very lucky you get to go home tomorrow. My Elizabeth has been in a coma for almost three weeks. She was at pre-school and decided she should see how far up a tree she could climb and fell and hit her head on a rock. She was rushed in the emergency room. She's healed but still hasn't woken up." Joyce wiped at the tears in her eyes. "There is not anything else to do but sit and wait. Really you and your son are a breath of fresh air after sitting in this room so long by myself."
Anne felt her heart break for this poor mother. How awful to have to sit and wait for your child to wake up and stare at her day after day without hearing their voice or seeing their eyes. "I am so terribly sorry. That sounds awful. I know this is sudden and we are leaving tomorrow but let me give you my number and if you ever need any company, please call me." Anne reached for a Kleenex on the table and Joyce grabbed a pen.
As this exchange was going on, neither parent noticed that at the beginning of their conversation William had proceeded to climb up into Elizabeth's bed. "Hi." William said quietly. He was sitting up by the young girl's head. "Elizabeth? That's your name? It's pretty. I like it. I know your mom said that you aren't a princess but you sure do look like one." William took a glance over at his mother to see she was still talking to the other mom. He laid down next to her. "You should wake up. Your mommy looks sad." William whispered. He continued to gaze and the beautiful girl. "I think you're the prettiest girl I ever seen. Well, after my mom of course. I think that when we get older we should get married."
The two women looked over at the bed and saw their children laying next to each other and could hear the low murmur of William's voice. It would be such a cute picture if not for the surroundings. Joyce looked to Anne and held up a finger to her lips in hopes that she could hear what this darling young boy was saying.
"Elizabeth, I guess I have to go back to my room now. I promise that when we get married you can pick out a puppy to live with us. All princesses should have a pretty puppy. Don't forget to wake up soon. I think it would make your mommy really happy." William smiled at the young girl.
Joyce's eyes teared up again. She looked over at Anne, "well, it looks like your son decided we will be in-laws." She chuckled. "Thank you for livening up my evening. You have a lovely son and I hope everything goes well for you tomorrow."
Anne smiled, "Thank you. I hope your daughter comes out of her coma soon. She is so beautiful and I wouldn't mind having her for a daughter-in-law" she joked. "Please call me if you ever want someone to sit with or grab a quick bite to eat. I don't live too far and I would be happy to come by." Anne turned to her son, "Come on now William. It's time for us to leave and let Elizabeth rest."
William nodded to his mother and looked back to the girl, "Goodbye. I know I'll see you again." William made a quick decision and decided to do what he had saw in a movie once to wake up a princess. He bent over and gave Elizabeth a light kiss on her lips and then hopped out of bed and started down the hall. Anne was stunned at the display and quickly left after her son. Neither noticed that right as they were leaving the room Elizabeth's eyes opened.