CHAPTER SEVEN
(chapter title - In Need of a Miracle - Part Two)

You can't do anything about the length of your life, but you can do something about its width and depth -
Shira Tehrani

Lizzie? Honey, can you hear me? A faint male voice called to her. Lizzie moaned in her sleep, thinking that it was Roger, but it didn't sound like him.

Mommy?
A young girl's voice called. Lizzie felt tears in her eyes - it was Doug and Iris.

Liz - I want you to know something. It's not your time. Roger and your daughter need you - please stay with them. Everyone needs you in their lives. Lizzie's eyes welled up with tears - April's voice.

Lizzie opened her eyes and looked around. Roger was stroking her hand and the rest of her family sitting or standing around her bed.

"Mmm." Lizzie moaned, opening her eyes.

"Oh God!" Roger exclaimed, making everyone jump.

"R-Roger?" Lizzie croaked, sitting up in the hospital bed. Lizzie could see Roger's eyes well up with tears.

"Thank God you're alive." Joanne whispered, rushing over to her. Lizzie smiled and looked around at her friends - Mark and Maureen were sitting in the chairs next to the hospital bed on Lizzie's right; Roger was sitting in the chair next to the hospital bed on Lizzie's left and the rest of her friends - including a black man that Lizzie didn't recognize.

"I was in a tunnel - heading towards a warm, bright light when I saw my daughter, April and husband - they told me to turn around and stay here." Lizzie told her friends. Roger cried and gathered her in his arms, sobbing into her hair.

"We all thought that you were gone." Roger sobbed. Lizzie smiled and wrapped her arms around his neck. The others joined in the hug - including the black man. Lizzie later found out that his name was Benjamin Coffin the third - Benny for short - and that he was an old friend of the gang.

After everyone had left - except for Roger and Ming-Na - Lizzie drifted back off to sleep, happy that she would be able to see her family again.