They were all tangled up together, all shouting, all shoving, all stumbling into the hospital room, when suddenly a voice came in above the fray.
“HEY HEY HEY! What in the HELL do you people think you're doing!?”
Nurse Lund. Always popping up at the most inopportune moments. Ocean still had Charlie by the collar, his arm cocked back, ready to land a punch. Tabitha was pushing at Ocean's chest, trying to stop him, while August was at his brother's back, trying to pull him away. Zoey was yanking on Tabitha, trying to tug her out of the danger zone. At the sound of the nurse's voice, though, everyone froze.
“Do you have any idea how much noise you're making?” Nurse Lund demanded. “I could have you all arrested! I could ban you from the hospital! This girl is sick! She's in a coma, for christ's sake, and you're all fighting at her bedside! She is slipping further and further away, and before you know it, she's going to be gone, and then what are you all going to do, huh? What are you going to fight about then?”
No one could answer, though, because then something amazing happened.
15
“Just open your eyes.”
Jones' voice was still echoing around in Adele's head, but other than that, everything was quiet. The storm was gone. She couldn't feel the wind. She couldn't feel much of anything – her body seemed to be made of lead. It reminded her of the first time she'd woken up in the poppy field, when her limbs had felt weighted down, but now the sensation was times a thousand. Open your eyes, he'd told her. Easy to say back when her eyelids hadn't weighed a metric ton. Each.
“Just concentrate.”
And as simple as that, her eyes popped open.
A light was shining directly on her face and for a moment, she thought she was back on the endless ocean. Then she blinked and focused on the light. It wasn't the sun, she realized. It was a lamp. Like a desk lamp, tilted so it was shining in her eyes.
Where the hell am I?
“Jones.”
Her voice was so soft, it didn't even reach her own ears.
It was hard to breathe, her chest was so heavy. It was difficult to talk. She couldn't move her lips, and her tongue was was stuck to the floor of her mouth. She couldn't tilt her head. She couldn't even roll her eyes.
All she could see was the lamp, and beyond it, a white ceiling. More light was coming from her right – windows, maybe? To her left, at the edge of her peripheral, was something else entirely. It took her a couple moments to recognize it.
An IV. That's an IV bag standing right next to me.
“Jones.”
Her voice was more of a croak that time, finally loud enough for her to hear. Other sounds started filtering through, too, and she realized she could hear voices. People, a lot of them talking. Then someone yelling. Someone who was angry. Why were they angry?
What is going on?
With her last little bit of energy, Adele put everything she had into her voice.
“Jones.”
Not quite a shout. Not very loud, at all. But it was enough. There was silence, then someone shouted. There was a crashing noise, then more yelling. She felt like she was gasping for air, and the light was just too bright. She wanted to close her eyes so badly. Her eyelids were getting heavier and heavier, drooping their way down towards her cheeks. But before they could close all the way, a face leaned into her line of sight.
“Adele? Adele!”
Ocean. She recognized him. Could actually see his face. Brighter than any sun, more beautiful than a field of poppies. She wanted to scream his name, wanted to reach for him. Her big brother.
But then it was all too much and her eyes fell shut.
16
Nurse Lund's rant had barely ended when they all heard the noise. Something unintelligible coming from across the room. Coming from the bed. They'd all swiveled around and let out a collective gasp.
Adele had made a sound.
Adele had opened her eyes.
Everyone rushed forward at once. He felt ashamed about it later, but Ocean shoved Tabitha into the wardrobe during his dash across the room. They all crowded around the bed, shouting Adele's name, but he got there first. He almost cried when he saw her beautiful eyes. So big and violet. She wasn't looking at him, and she wasn't moving or saying anything.
But her eyes are open.
“Adele? Adele!” he practically screamed her name.
As quickly as the excitement had begun, it ended. Her eyes fell shut, and it was like it had never happened. It was like he'd been punched in the chest. He fell into a chair behind him, then felt a hand on his shoulder. A glance to his right showed Zoey next to him. She didn't say anything, just reached down and grabbed his hand. He fought back tears and squeezed her fingers.
“What's going on? Is she awake? What just happened?” Charlie was demanding. Nurse Lund was on the other side of the bed, leaning over Adele, pushing open her eyelids and swinging a pen light back and forth.
“It's not unusual at all for coma patients to open their eyes. Some move their limbs around, moan, make noises, get out of bed even. I'm going to page her doctor, but don't get your hopes up. And no more fighting, or I'm not kidding, I will have all of you banned from this hospital.”
No one said anything and the nurse jogged out of the room. They just stared at Adele. Eventually, August cut the tension by clearing his throat.
“I've never seen her open her eyes,” he said.
“Not once,” River agreed.
“Me, neither, and I've been here almost every day,” Zoey piped up.
“Me, too. She hasn't moved at all,” Charlie added.
Ocean cleared his throat, as well. Tried to speak. Couldn't bring the words up. Zoey moved so his hand was clenched between both of hers.
“I don't care what that nurse says. I think it's a sign. I think it's a really, really good sign,” she stated.
He still couldn't speak, but Ocean smiled. He didn't know Zoey all that well, but there was one thing he already loved about her – her absolute confidence in everything she said. It made him feel assured. Comforted. If Zoey thought it was a good sign, then hell, it WAS a good sign.
“I agree,” he whispered.
17
Adele gasped as she sat up. Almost choked on the air – it felt like she'd been holding her breath for hours. She was shaking, shivering cold, and when she looked around, she realized she was back in the poppy field.
The cliff was still there, but the tree was gone. Something else had appeared, though. In the distance there was now a cabin. It was small, and very rustic looking, something maybe a hunter or trapper would use.
Adele didn't even think about it, she just got up and started jogging towards it. The storm that had been bubbling when she'd left had turned into a full boil. The wind was strong, running against it was like swimming in a strong current. Before she was even halfway to the building, it started to rain, but she didn't slow down.
It doesn't matter. None of this matters.
By the time she reached the cabin, Adele wondered if they were in a hurricane. She could barely keep her feet on the porch as she gripped the doorknob. It took all her strength to pull the door open enough for her to slip through, and when she finally did, the sudden lack of wind resistance caused her to stumble and fall to her knees.
“You're back.”
Adele lifted her head to find Jones sitting on a small bed. A kitchenette was off to her right, but looked like it hadn't been used in years. An easel was set up in a corner near a window, but there was no canvas on it, no painting supplies near it. And then there was Jones, sitting on the bed.
“Back ...” she let the word out on a breath as she pushed herself to her feet. “That's one way of putting it.”
“I love this place,” he sighed, smoothing his hand down the rough wooden headboard. “We used to come here when I was young. Fishing. I was a horrible fisherman, but my dad brought me anyway, year after year.”
“This is your memory,” she stated, then ducked as thunder crashed directly overhead, strong enough to make the windows rattle. The wind was shaking the roof, threatening to tear it clean off.
Maybe not a hurricane. Maybe a twister. Better keep an eye out for that pesky wicked witch ...
“I guess. You created a castle with your brain. A whole town. An entire house, filled with every detail, every memory. But this cabin was the best I could manage. Or who knows, maybe it's all you,” he suggested, his gaze traveling over the space.
“No more riddles. I hate your riddles. So many circles! No wonder why I could never get out of this place – if there was a straight path, you bent it beyond recognition,” she accused him. She understood so much now. She'd been in the dark the whole time they'd been together, and opening her eyes in that hospital room, it had been like stepping into the light. A wealth of new information was magically in her brain, explaining so many things.
“No circles, Adele. I never tried to mislead you.”
“Bullshit.”
“Honestly. I only ever wanted you to open your eyes.”
“Really? Gee, then maybe just say 'hey, you're in a coma, wake up', instead of literally everything but that!” Adele was almost shrieking by the end of her statement.
“I tried. God, believe me, I tried, but I couldn't get through to you. You were convinced you were dead. I can only tell you what you're willing to listen to, so you only ever heard me halfway,” he tried to explain.
“That makes even less sense than what you said before.”
“What did you think the black outs were? The spaces between moments? You think you just blink and no time passes? Adele, I've told you dozens of times that you're in a coma, but it never helped. You refused to recognize it, your brain wouldn't accept it, and your soul didn't understand it, so you just ... didn't listen.”
She was blown away. He'd told her she was in a coma? Time passed when she closed her eyes?
“So you're saying I close my eyes, and time passes by without me noticing? That all of this is because I didn't understand what was happening to me?” she tried to clarify, though she was pretty sure she was beyond clarification.