The Coma Waker

Last Friday I went on a date with Garrin. It was horrible. The date was fine; we just went to dinner then to meet up with some friends. But I thought about Tyler the whole time. So, I went on a date with Tyler on Saturday. It was the best date I've ever had. We went to a hockey game then out do dinner. It sounds so dumb, but I love hockey and he let me pick out our date activity. And it was sweet; he held my hand and kept me warm as we walked through the busy downtown streets.

I have continued talking to Tyler since and have been seeing him regularly.

Garrin... since rolling his truck has had it rough. We didn't have a good time on our date and it has become fairly obvious that he has made his decision to go after me. But I am no longer interested. He and I haven't talked since our date a couple weeks ago. Until this weekend...At church on Sunday, I found out that Garrin was in another accident the day before. He had a horrible crash while racing his dirt bike. Flying over his handlebars at 35 mph, he smashed his right side into a solid dirt hill. Unconscious, he was airlifted to Harborview in Seattle. He has head injuries, a broken pelvis and a broken arm in addition to the badly bruised skin that now covers his helpless body. I visited him in the hospital on Sunday, after church. I went with Tyler and a few other friends. It is an eerie feeling to enter a hospital. None of us were sure of Garrin’s condition upon arrival. All a little nervous but optimistic, we entered his small, dark room in the trauma ward to find him peacefully sleeping.We all stood around in shock for a few minutes, absorbing in the fact that our friend lays there comatose. His dad let us know that he had yet to respond to anything or anyone. I sat next to his bedside and began to speak softly to Garrin as everyone else watched. "Hey Garrin," I said. "We are all here to visit you." I continued to let him know who was there and who was all just staring at him. The nurse was yelling to try to get through to him; like one does to a deaf person, or an Asian. But I spoke in a soft, high-pitched voice. Garrin had been moaning and making slight noises all day, but after I began speaking, he began responding. He suddenly opened his eyes. Almost as if jolted, his body shook and he looked at me. "Melissa?" He asked. And be began, incoherently, speaking to us.

WTF??

Did I just wake a guy from a coma? Is this real? Am I in a movie? He grabbed my hand with his movable one and was talking to me about how he wanted to get up and take his neck brace off. He kept saying my name and reaching for me. My eyes welled up with tears! This is the guy that I just stopped dating and I woke him from a coma!

Tyler put his hand on my shoulder and I flipped. "Don't touch me!" Tyler jumped back and I had to get up and move out of Garrin’s sight. I was pretty quiet during the ride back home; I was slightly traumatized.