CHAPTER 11: Claudia

The next morning, I was fixing myself a cheese Danish and a cup of coffee when Janine came in. She looked exhausted, so she'd apparently had a long night at the hospital. "'Morning," I said cheerfully as I carried my breakfast to the table.

"Ugh, it's bedtime to me," Janine complained, sinking into the chair across from me.

"Long night?" I guessed.

"You might say that," she answered. "Look, no matter how exciting you may think my life is, being a doctor isn't all it's cracked up to be."

"I'll say," I agreed. "No offense, Janine, but you look like hell."

"None taken," she answered. "Do you mind if I have some of that coffee?"

"Yeah, there's still some on the stove," I answered. "How are the girls?"

"Well, Hannah suffered a broken right wrist, but was treated and released," Janine answered as she sat back down with her coffee. "Nancy broke her leg, spent the night in the hospital, but thank God, there was no concussion. She was being released this morning as I was leaving. Sad to say, though, Karen's in a coma."

"Poor kid," I said sympathetically.

"Listen, Claudia," Janine said in a businesslike tone of voice, "I talked to the nurses, and even though I know you're not family—well, Karen's family, that is—I was wondering if you'd like to see her."

"Really? You mean it?" I asked.

"Sure," she said. "After all, you were there on the scene of the accident."

"Of course," I said. "Is there a certain time I can come?"

"Any time you want."

"Thank you!" I exclaimed, throwing my arms around my sister. I just couldn't believe my luck.

I arrived at the hospital later that morning, and saw Kristy and Jason sitting on some chairs out in the hall. "Hi, you guys," I said. When they looked up, it was very obvious that Kristy had been crying. Part of it was due to her pregnancy, but most of it was from the accident.

Anyway, Kristy stood up and gave me the warmest hug. "Thank you so much for being there," she whispered. "I don't know what would've happened if it hadn't been for you."

"I know, I know," I said softly, petting her hair. "Oh, I called the airline this morning and cancelled my flight home for tomorrow. I want to stay as long as I can. I also called the school superintendent and asked for a substitute this week."

"Oh, Claud, you didn't have to do that," Jason said.

"I know, but I wanted to," I told them. "I really care about you guys."

With that, the three of us headed to the elevators as we saw Sam and Stacey coming back from the cafeteria. After we hugged them, we got on the elevator and went to the first floor to get some lunch.

As soon as we got our food and sat down at a nearby table, I said, as I took a bite of lasagna, "I hope Karen comes out of the coma soon."

I don't know why, but I was remembering a couple of things. First, there was the time I was baby-sitting for a practical joker named Betsy Sobak, and broke my leg. You see, she'd convinced me to use this old swing, and after I fell, she swore up and down that she didn't know the swing was broken, but I thought baby-sitting was too dangerous, and almost quit the BSC. When Kristy came to visit me at the hospital that following weekend, she arrived around lunch time, and said the hospital's food looked worse than school food and airline food combined. I also remembered how Kristy used to make disgusting comments about the school lunch, and make Mary Anne almost gag. Hopefully, by today's standards, it's much more identifiable, not to mention digestible. Why no one's called the Health Department is beyond me.

"I do, too," Kristy said. "I couldn't stand it if anything happened to her."

While she was speaking, I noticed Jason taking her hand. Her other hand was clenching her fork so tightly that her knuckles were turning white. I thought for sure that fork was going to snap in half.

I guessed Jason was thinking the same thing I was. "Kristy, honey," he said soothingly. "Calm down. Can you do that for me, love? Just take some deep breaths for me, all right?" All the while, he was rubbing her back and doing everything in his power to keep her from exploding.

To my surprise, Kristy was able to calm down. She took a deep breath and loosened her grip on her fork. "I'm all right," she said. "I'm going to be all right."

Hopefully, we all would be.