Chapter 26 – The Light
Over a week had passed since they arrived at the hospital, and Rod had yet to awake. Roseanne was getting worried, since Rod seemed to plane off and wasn't getting any better than he was six days ago. Pete was also starting to worry, especially since it was getting harder to do all his work in Tokyo versus being back in the States. He didn't want to leave, but if it came down to it he had to go back to America. He had no choice but to leave Rod behind.
Darrel came to visit everyday as he had promised, but he too couldn't hold back his fear his brother might not come back. He would get antsy when he would go to the hospital, and was always disappointed with the news of Rod not making progress. Everyone seemed to be loosing hope…maybe Rod would not wake up, and the trauma to his body had been worse than anyone had thought.
Roseanne and Darrel were getting ready to leave for the night, and were spending their last few minutes with Rod. They kept talking to him in hopes he would hear them, but they still got nothing.
"What are we gonna do if he doesn't wake up?" Darrel asked, more concerned than ever.
"I'm not sure, but he has to, he just has to…" Roseanne trailed off. But what if he didn't wake up? What if all the surgery and work done on him was all for nothing, and he was going to die anyway?
"We need to get going, the visiting hours have been long over by now," Darrel hinted, and Roseanne nodded her hood. She gave Rod a peck on the fender, a goodbye and one last glance before her and Darrel closed the door behind them
He felt his eyelids slowly open, and he was only surrounded by darkness. He felt weightless and free, an unexpected sensation to him after all the pain he was in.
He looked around in the darkness, trying to get his bearings, but he couldn't find them. Where were the ground and the sky? Why did he so feel so weightless?
"Where am I?" Rod asked, but he heard no one else except himself. Then started to think…was he dead? Is this what death was like, blackness and loneliness? I can't be dead, I can't just be Rod thought. He didn't feel dead, but he knew that neither him nor anyone else actually knew what death felt like.
Suddenly, for the first time he heard voices, faint voices. He wasn't really sure what they were saying, but he could differentiate their tones. One was a deeper male voice, and the other a female one. He listened hard, and realized the male's voice seemed unfamiliar, but the female's voice on the other hand….
"Roseanne?" Rod pondered for a moment. Was she still alive? Did the Lemons not hunt her down while she had tried to save him?
"Roseanne!" Rod shouted back at her through the darkness. He waited for a response, but he didn't really get one. He still heard voices, but they didn't respond.
"Maybe I need to get closer to them, maybe I'm too far away and they can't hear," Rod said to himself. He revved his engine, which to him sounded as healthy and youthful as ever. He smiled and he took off, driving around in the darkness still feeling the weightless sensation, and it made him feel like he was flying.
"Roseanne! Roseanne!" Rod kept calling as he drove, hoping she would hear. The voices didn't respond to him, but they were getting closer. He kept pressing on, pushing his engine to the limit, calling frantically.
Where the hell am I? This can't be a real place Rod thought as he continued to drive. He didn't know how he could exist and be driving in a dark void, it made no sense to him. Never before had he felt such a sensation.
The voices were getting louder now, and soon he could recognize the female car was Roseanne. He called out her name again, but still got nothing. He started to get frustrated. Why can't she hear me? Why can I hear her but she can't hear me? But what if I am actually dead, and I'm just hearing her voice out of my own memory of her Rod thought. Although, he couldn't understand why an unrecognizable male voice was part of his memory as well.
He kept driving, the voices even louder now and he was beginning to get hopeful. Then, suddenly, they stopped. Rod screeched his tires to a halt, and stood idling in the darkness.
"Hello? Hello? Where did you guys go?" he yelled. Nothing, he heard nothing. He let out a frustrated sigh.
"I'm gonna loose my mind here, nothing makes sense!" Rod shouted to no one, and shook his hood furiously. He didn't know what to do now. There were no voices for him to follow.
"What if I just keep driving until I hear them again? Maybe they will come back and they just drifted away, or maybe I'm going the wrong way," Rod said to himself. He revved his engine again and took off, and decided he was going to keep going, until the voices became crystal clear, or at least until he saw…
"Light, is that light?" Rod asked himself when he saw something bright shimmering off in the distance. It was light, it was hope from the darkness, and he drove straight for it. He revved his engine some more, picking up speed, feeling the light become stronger and stronger in front of him. He could feel its warmth, its security out of his dark surroundings. He continued to call Roseanne's name, even though he was getting no response. The light kept getting closer and closer, until it was blinding.
Then Rod drove straight through into the light. The darkness was gone.