Dot's Coma
Chapter One – The Message
It was a rainy Tuesday morning in March. Dot Gillman sat in her French lesson, thoroughly bored. Her teacher's voice droned on and on and all she wanted was for the lesson to finish. The other members of the class obviously felt the same way because she couldn't see a single person who was even remotely interested in the imperfect tense. She glanced at Caitlin, who was sat next to her. She too looked as though she'd rather be anywhere else other than this stuffy, worn-out classroom.
There was a knock at the door. Everyone jerked their heads to look; this was the most exciting thing that had happened all lesson.
"Come in," the teacher called.
Jerelda McMorsson, the reception runner, entered the room with a flourish.
"I have a note for Dot Gillman," she said in her booming voice. She spoke with a thick Scottish accent. Dot stood up and walked over to her, looking slightly bewildered. "That's you?" the runner said. Dot nodded. "Here you go," said Jerelda, handing over the message.
She unfolded the paper and read the message. That was the last thing she remembered.
Chapter Two – Waking Up
Dot woke up in the hospital feeling drowsy and light-headed. She had no idea how she had got there or what had happened since that fateful French lesson. She looked round and noticed a man in a white coat sitting on a chair in the corner of the room. He was about twenty five years old with dark curly hair and intense brown eyes.
"Hello Dot," he said, his crinkly smile revealing perfect white teeth.
"H-Hello," stammered Dot, still taking in her surroundings, "um...who are you?"
"I'm Doctor Criss," he said, smiling again, "I've been looking after you for the past few years. You've been in a coma."
She was suddenly much more awake. "A coma!" she exclaimed. "Why was I in a coma! A-And what's the date!"
"The date is 26th February 2012," he said, "you've been in a coma for nine years. You are currently twenty four years old."
She gasped. How could this had happened? She'd missed some of the most important parts of her life! Her GCSEs, her prom, her 18th birthday – all gone while she'd been in a coma. Her friends probably didn't remember who she was! Her family had probably turned her bedroom into an arcade! They might not even live in the same house anymore! She'd missed all these momentous occasions and now here she was, twenty four years old, with not a single qualification to her name. She wouldn't be able to get a job. She wouldn't be able to buy a house. She wouldn't be able to go to university. How was she going to carry on with her life with nine years of it missing?
Chapter Three – Answers
"But how did this happen?" she asked Dr. Criss, eager for an explanation.
"Well, it's a bit of a long story," he said, "but I trust you'll want to hear it."
"Of course I do," she replied.
"Okay then," he said, leaning forward in his chair. "You may recall that French lesson when you received that message."
"Sort of," she said, struggling to remember, "It's my last memory before the coma."
"Yes, that was the same day you went into the coma. You see, after you read the message, you were so shocked you fainted. As you fell, you hit your head on a table leg and suffered what we thought was a mild concussion. You were taken to the hospital after you didn't recover from fainting. You were given an MRI scan and the results showed that you had a haemorrhage."
"My brain was bleeding!" Dot exclaimed.
"Yes," said Dr. Criss, "we gave you an injection to try and ease the bleeding. It worked, but you had a severe reaction to it. We had to induce a coma. We only intended it to last about a month, but there were complications. It ended up lasting nine years."