Chapter 6
Andrew was wondering if there would be one day again when he could stop feeling as worried as he was feeling since the moment he had regained consciousness. Once again, his nurse had made him go back to bed and he was rolling over and over, wanting more than anything to get up and go back to Monica's window. It had been more than three hours since the doctor had advised him to pray for his friend but he wanted to do more. Be by her side. Take her hand. Look at her trying to remember something. Being away was killing him: he felt he would wake up any minute and find himself completely alone, no memories at all, not even Monica lying on a bed as a very thin thread telling him something about his past.
His patience was about to be over when the night shift nurse came in, thermometer in one hand and a rattling bottle of pills on the other. "Hello, handsome!" she greeted him. "How are you feeling?" But before the blond angel could answer, she had put the thermometer in his mouth and was taking his pulse. "You're doing great, baby! You'll be released soon and..."
Andrew tried to sigh to stop listening to her chatting. When she finally took the thermometer out of his mouth, he asked immediately, "Do you know something about Monica?"
"Monica?" the nurse turned to see him as if she couldn't believe he had in fact interrupted her.
"Yes, Monica, the woman on the next room!" he said somewhat exasperatedly.
"Oh, you mean, the girl that was with you on the accident!"
"YES!"
"I understand she got worse in the afternoon but they managed to stabilize her."
"Yes! And how is she now?!" the blond angel felt his patience growing weaker and weaker.
"Hum... Let's see..." the woman said taking out a little note pad. "The next 24 hours will be critical for her... But I checked on her before and she's fighting for her life. She must be really brave!"
"Yes, she is..." he replied almost automatically.
Something in his green eyes moved the nurse's heart and for the first time, she paid attention at the angel's expression when talking about Monica. "Is she your girlfriend?"
"N-no..." he replied in surprise.
"Have you known her for a long time?"
"Yeah..." He didn't know for sure but he said what he felt. He was distractedly looking at his hands, and his desperate expression did the nurse.
"You're doing it well. Do you want to see her?"
Andrew lifted his head immediately and a wide smile appeared on his face. "Yes!" he said standing up quickly.
He felt his heart beating faster when he saw her, paler than before, more machines attached to her small body. He took a chair and placed it right to the bed, so he could take her hand as he had done before.
"Hum... I'll be back later, ok?" the nurse said feeling like an intruder.
Andrew didn't reply. He was already lost in thought, his hands covering Monica's and trying to warm them up. "God, she can't die..." he murmured. "I need her... Please, let her be alright." He took her hand to his lips carefully, trying not to move her IV. "Monica, be strong for me, baby," he kept on talking, "I want to see your eyes open again and hear your laughter. I..." he swallowed hard, "I can't remember anything about us, but I do know I like to hear you laughing and seeing you smiling. I will be absolutely lost if you're gone, angel girl. I need you to get my life back."
A couple of hours later, the nurse came back to Andrew's room and found it empty. She closed the door wondering where he could be, and she walked to Monica's. She smiled at the scene in front of her eyes: Andrew was deeply asleep, his broken arm carefully placed over the bed, his head resting on his cast, his other hand still holding Monica's.
Something in the monitor called the nurse attention: the little angel's heartbeat was more regular now... and stronger. The woman smiled again: she had more chances now to be fine, it was as if Andrew's presence had in fact given her strength to fight for her life. She decided not to wake him up, so she took a blanket out of the closet and covered him, her heart moved by the sight of such a beautiful scene.
Next morning, Judith came back form New Orleans and walked through the corridor towards Andrew's room and she found him playing distractedly with his breakfast. "How are you feeling, Andrew?" she greeted trying to sound cheerful. "I've brought some clothes for you and Monica. I guess you'll want to wear something more than these gowns... Everyone from the agency send you two their best wishes. They want you back as soon as possible."
"Yeah..." the blond angel replied distractedly. "I want to go back too."
"What happened, Andrew? You look too worried..."
"It's Monica..." he said. "She got worse yesterday and..."
"OH, NO!" the woman exclaimed covering her mouth. "Why nobody called? How is she?!"
"She's better now... They stabilized her yesterday night. They said the following 24 hours would be especially critical but this morning she was better. Her heartbeat was stronger..."
"Thanks God! What did the doctor said? Is there something they can do? Or what can we do?"
"What they had told us to do since the beginning, Judith..." he said reaching for her hand and looking at her with his worried green eyes. "Pray."
"Please, Father, guide my steps to Monica and Andrew... They need me right now, I can't imagine how lonely and abandoned they must be feeling..." Tess prayed. She was waiting for Adam miserably leaning on the wheel of her Cadillac, with some tears, now familiar to the angel, falling from her eyes.
"Tess, please, try to stay calm," the angel of death said, meeting her a minute later.
"Did you find anything, Adam? Did you talk to the other angels of death?"
"They don't know anything about Andrew either and they have no idea where he can be."
"So I'll tell you what: we'll go back to New Orleans and continue to search..."
"I'm sorry Tess, but I cannot go with you. I have an assignment in 5 minutes. I just came here to tell you that..."
"So I'm going all by myself, I..." the supervisor stopped talking when she heard a silent message and her face turned into a more desperate one, "Oh no, Father! You cannot ask me that! I need to find my babies first!"
"What is it?" Adam wanted to know.
"He wants me to go on another assignment too!" she spoke, with distress.
He placed a supportive hand over her shoulder. "Tess, you know that if He's telling you to do it, then you have to. Remember that He always has a greater plan; bigger than you and I can imagine..."
Andrew was in his room, lost in his thoughts. Although he couldn't remember a single thing about what had happened before the accident, in his heart the care and worry for the beautiful auburn lady who was fighting for her life in the ICU seemed to remain the same. A sudden knock on the door took him out of his reverie; it was one of the nurses.
"Excuse me, Andrew. I've looked for Ms. Harris but I couldn't find her..."
"Judith left for some time, but she'll come back soon... What is it?"
"It's the lady at the other room, Monica..."
Andrew felt his heart pounding loudly in his chest and stood up, "What is it? What... what happened?"
Noticing the worry and tension on his face, the woman smiled, "Oh, don't worry; in fact I bring you good news – a miracle if you prefer... Monica is out of the coma."
A flood of relief filled his heart and his soul with that piece of news and, for the first time since he had woken up in that hospital, the blond angel smiled, "Really?"
"Yes! And more, she woke up some minutes ago."
"Can – can I see her?" he spoke, hardly managing to control his happiness.
"Sure, come with me!"
Monica was sitting on her bed, staring outside through the window, with her brown eyes filled with great sadness, and it was far too clear that she was feeling completely lost and afraid. Tears were about to roll down on her face when somebody knocked on the door; she took a deep breath and tried to put her pain aside for some instants.
"Come in..."
The door was opened and she saw a tall, blond man standing there, with some bandages on his forehead and his arm in plaster.
"Hi..." Andrew greeted, without being sure of what to say.
"Hullo..." she replied, equally wordless.
"I... I'm glad you're out of the coma; I've been praying for you since I woke up... we were together in the bus..."
"I see..." she kept on staring at him with the same sad and tearful expression on her face.
He gave a few steps towards her. "They... they said that we are friends, that we work together with Judith at the travel agency and..." he stopped abruptly as she suddenly burst into tears, which left him not only moved but deeply scared.
Andrew was standing before her in a matter of seconds and didn't waste another moment in coming closer to her bed and taking her small hand into his. "Monica? Monica, what... what is it? Are you feeling some kind of pain? Do you want me to call the nurse?"
Sobbing, she quickly shook her head but was unable to control her tears immediately.
"Please... try to keep calm... take a deep breath... I talked to the nurse, you'll recover from the accident, the worst is gone now!" he said.
Only a long minute later, did she manage to calm down. "I'm... I'm sorry..."
"You have nothing to be sorry; please, just try to calm down..." he gently wiped away some tears from her face and filled a cup of water, "Here, drink this..."
Still sniffling, Monica drank some of it and, once again, stared blankly at him, "Thank you..."
"Are you sure you don't want me to call a nurse? You're... you're crying..."
"I... I don't remember what happened..."
"What... What do you mean?"
A single tear fell from her eye, "I don't know how I came to this hospital... they said there was an accident... they said that my friends were in it but... I can't remember any accident... I can't remember any friend..." she sobbed and finally spoke the words he was already fearing, "...I don't know who I am..."
Monica started to cry again, and, for an instant, Andrew hated the fact that one of his arms was immobilized, stopping him from holding her tightly in a comforting embrace. Deeply moved with her sorrow, and having the exact idea of how she was feeling, Andrew released her hand and placed his palm on her cheek. "I know how you're feeling, believe me, but, please, don't be scared, Monica! You're not alone, I promise you! There's this lady, Judith Harris, she was desperate with the possibility of losing you; we both were! We've been praying for you so much and now that you're awake and the doctors said you're gonna be alright, you have no idea of how happy I am and I'm sure that Judith will be equally happy when she gets back! And that's the most important right now!"
His words seemed to have some effect because she managed to control her tears again. "What's your name?"
"I... I'm Andrew."
"We knew each other before the accident?"
"Yes..."
"I... I don't have any memory of what happened or before... could you please tell me what happened?"
He sighed deeply frustrated with the fact that he couldn't do what she was asking him. The blond angel took a seat on the chair next to her bed and, once again, took her hand into one of his own. "Monica, what I know is that there was an accident and you and I were sitting next to each other, in the front seats of the bus, together with Judith. We are tourist guides and work for her."
She slowly nodded her head. "What about our family?"
"That's... that's the problem... the collision was too strong, you and I were the most wounded in the accident... I had a concussion in my head and was in a coma for some days..." he took a deep breath and continued to speak, "Like you, I... I don't remember what happened before..."
The Irish angel's brown eyes grew wide. "What?"
"I lost my memory too, Monica. All I know is what I've been told here in the hospital when I woke up some days ago."
Staring at him in surprise and amazement, Monica straightened herself in bed, which wasn't easy for her, as her leg was immobilized. "You mean you don't remember anything?"
"No... The only memory I have is waking up here, in this hospital, some days ago..."
The look in her eyes was one of sadness, and, for an instant, she seemed to forget about her own despair; her kind and compassionate heart already filled with worry for that complete 'strange'. "I'm terribly sorry..."
"I've talked to the doctor and he said that the trauma of what happened could appear in many different ways. Some people can't speak, others are afraid of getting into a bus or in any vehicle again, and others delete everything that happened from their minds."
"I wouldn't mind having no memory of a terrible accident but to wake up not knowing who I am is something... very frightening..."
Andrew brushed some strands of hair off her face. "But the doctors also said that the trauma would be over. Some people get over it in some days, others need more time, but it always has a cure!"
"I hope it doesn't take too long..."
"I'm sure that our memory will come back when we least expect. And, in this meantime, Judith and I will stand by you, you can be sure of that."
His last words were so comforting and reassuring that, even with her eyes filled with tears, the Irish angel managed a slight smile. "Thank you... Andrew..." she said, gratefully.
Pleased with the effect of his words, he returned the smile. "You're more than welcome, Monica."
