Chapter 2
"I am not hallucinating! She did speak to me! How else would I have learned her name?"
"You could have heard one of the other nurses say her name. Now we really need to get you back to your room."
'No! please don't go! Now that you are here, please stay,' the woman in the bed begged.
"Tell me you didn't hear that?!" AJ demanded of the nurse.
"Hear what Admiral? Captain Jazz can't speak she is in a coma. Now let's get you back to your room. You clearly need your rest."
'Ask her how her daughter's divorce is going,' advised Amica. 'She was talking about it when she was in here earlier today.'
"Captain Jazz asked me to inquire about your daughter's divorce."
"What!? How could you possibly know that? The only one I told was my best friend Maggie! She is the only one that knew and I know she wouldn't tell anyone else. On top of that, you hadn't even been admitted when I told her!"
"Where were you when you told Maggie about this?"
"Well…" she paused a moment to think and there as if a light went on she admitted, "We were in here! I was changing her IV bottle!"
"So how could I have known unless Captain Jazz told me?" he questioned with satisfaction.
"How can this be? I've heard that people in comas can hear you that is why we encourage families to talk or read to the patient, but we've never heard of them talking back."
"Well it seems like it is happening now," AJ insisted. He walked over to the bed and patted the hand that laid across her stomach, "I'll come back in the morning Amica."
'Do you promise?' she asked rather plaintively.
"I do, I'll see you soon," he assured her while the nurse stood by shaking her head slightly.
'Good bye AJ,' he heard her say softly as he walked out of the room with the nurse.
Once in the hall he questioned the nurse, "She kept saying that she wasn't dying and that no one was listening to her."
"Because she is in a coma Admiral! And her vitals keep declining she might not make it. She's been with us for a year and a half now all alone."
"She has no family at all?"
"None that we could find."
"How sad to have no one in your life," AJ shook his head.
They arrived back at his room and the nurse waited until he was in bed before leaving him alone.
As he settled back against his pillows there was something AJ wanted to try. Focusing his mind down the hall to Amica's room he asked, "Amica can you hear me?"
'AJ? Is that you? I thought you wouldn't come to see me until tomorrow?' she sounded slightly confused.
"I'm in my room down the hall from you."
'How can that be?'
"I don't know, I've never experienced anything like this before."
'I don't know how to thank you for hearing me when no one else seemed to. It seems like forever since I've talked to anyone.'
"Amica do you know why you are in the hospital?"
'I was at work and I saw a plane coming at the building. The building shook and I climbed under a solid wooden table and the next thing I knew I was here. It seems like I've been trying to get people to hear me for weeks. I am so glad I was finally able to talk to you.'
"Amica 9/11 happened a year and a half ago," he told her sadly.
'9/11? What is that?'
He realized that she might have never heard what all of America referred to that awful day by. "9/11 is the day that the plane hit the Pentagon. Also two other planes hit the World Trade Center that day."
'I remember that! Everyone was talking about it! We were all so worried and sad for those people. There was talk that the President might declare war. But you said all that was a year and a half ago? I don't understand, have I been here that long?'
To be continued…