Chapter One

Tami Taylor rarely took naps, except for the first two years after each of her babies was born, because she couldn't take one without waking up groggy and confused. Groggy and confused was how she felt now as she blinked her eyes repeatedly. At last, the room began to come into focus.

The first thing she saw was the heart monitor, blipping out its green graph, and then the IV tube, coiled like a snake and falling free down toward her arm. She saw also the ventilator, took a sharp, natural breath, and felt the tube in her throat.

There was no one else in the room.

She struggled to remember where she was and how she had gotten here. There arose the distinct memory of packing Eric's game tape into boxes and then glancing out the window to see an inch of snow accumulated on top of the SOLD sign. They were preparing to put most of their possessions in storage. They hadn't found a house in Philadelphia yet, but they would soon be staying with Braemore's provost for a few days while they finalized their search. Eric had broken his school-year contract with East Dillon early so they could move in March. With some Internet research, Tami had already narrowed her list down to ten houses.

The subsequent events were harder to recall. Tami remembered feeling a sudden, sharp pain in her head, and Eric telling her to go lie down. After that was a blur of she didn't know how many hours or days: fever, sweating, stiffness, exhaustion…and then a shrill blast of sound that made her feel as if her head was going to explode.

She'd stumbled from the bedroom to find Gracie wearing her father's East Dillon coaching cap and blowing on his silver whistle. Tami had let loose on the girl in a torrent of raging words that brought Gracie Belle to tears. Eric scooped up the girl and hugged her close and looked at Tami with a a dozen emotions mingled in his eyes. Tami didn't remember all of his words now, but she remembered his tone: stern and determined. He said something like "I don't care if you think it's just a little flu" and "not yourself" and "doctor" and "NOW!"

She remembered him half lifting her into the front seat of his SUV, and the loud click of the seatbelt as he strapped Gracie into her booster seat. She remembered the snow coming down in big, wet flakes that couldn't last more than a day in Dillon.

And that was it. There was no memory after that moment.

Was she in Philadelphia? Dillon? Somewhere else?

She looked toward the open door of her room and saw a nurse staring at her in amazement. There was a shout and a shuffling of feet and a three people at her bedside, a flurry of questions she could not seem to answer, though she moved her mouth – Do you know your name? Do you know where you are? Do you know….do you know? Poking followed prodding, and then sleep followed tiredness, and then she awoke again to find her family doctor seated at her bedside, scribbling something on her chart.

"Dr. Martin?" she asked, feeling that she was now free of the ventilator, if not yet the IV. "Where am I?"

He flashed a light in her eyes and she shut them. "Follow the light," he ordered her, and she tried.
"Can you raise your left arm?"

It took effort, but she managed. He asked her to do several other things, some of which she managed, and some of which she couldn't. She felt horribly weak, and her arms looked thinner than she remembered them. "Where am I?" she repeated.

"You're in a long-term care facility. What's your name?"

"My name? You've been my doctor for over five years. You ought to know my name!"

He smiled. "You don't usually expect that much mental alertness in these cases."

"What cases? Where's Eric? Why isn't he here?" Wouldn't he have stayed by her bedside when she was admitted to the hospital? Maybe he'd gone to get a coffee. Only, Dr. Martin had said she wasn't in a hospital, but in a long-term care facility. Wasn't that for old people?

"He's been called. He's on his way. But it's over an hour drive from San Angelo."

"San Angelo? What would he be doing in San Angelo? Why isn't he here? Where IS here?"

"You're in Dillon. This is where you were admitted before Coach Taylor got the job offer, and he wanted to keep you here, keep me as your attending. But he's head coach of the SAEU Saints. He's in summer training."

"The SAEU…WHAT?"

"San Angelo Episcopal University."

"My husband is head coach of the Pemberton Pioneers!" Tami insisted. "Or…well…he's going to be. This spring."

Dr. Martin took her hand in his own, looked at her in the eyes, and swallowed. "Tami…you've been in a coma for eighteen months."