It took us about 20 minutes to get to the
hospital. I thought that because we were
about the only car on the road that there wouldn’t be any cars in the parking
lot either, but I was wrong. I guess we
weren’t the only ones spending our holiday at the hospital.
Kiy’s new room was on a different floor. The elevators took forever and when they
finally stopped at the right level, we had trouble finding the room
number. She was all the way down at the
end of the hall in a private room. I was
a little nervous about seeing her again.
Kiy hadn’t looked much like herself with her swollen face and
wires. I slowed my steps until Neal
shoved me from behind. “Hurry up!” he
mumbled.
“Cut it out,” Dad said quietly.
I picked up the pace as we turned the corner that
led to Kiy’s hallway. I could hear
voices coming from her room. Mom’s was
definitely one of them, but I couldn’t make out the others. I shrugged.
Must be a nurse, I thought to myself.
Kiy’s door was wide open, so I stepped inside her
room. The voices didn’t belong to
nurses. Aunt Laurie and Uncle Glen were
standing just inside the door. We didn’t
see them very often, so I was pretty surprised that they would leave their
family on Christmas Day just to see if Kiy was OK. I said a quick “Hello,” and headed for Kiy’s
bed. It looked like the same bed she was
in earlier. It was like a crib except it
was higher with huge silver circular bars instead of wooden slats. The sheets were white and clean and she was
covered with a little pink blanket. Most
of the wires were gone, but her tiny face was pretty swollen. Her hair was still matted and sticky from the
adhesive buttons on her forehead, and her eyes were tightly closed.
I carefully touched the blanket at her feet. Earlier, her feet had still been mostly blue
from the cold, but now they looked a healthy pink. She was getting better! “Did she wake up after I talked to her?” I
asked.
Mom glanced up from her conversation with Aunt
Laurie. “Not yet,” she answered
slowly. I rubbed my finger across the
bottom of Kiy’s tiny foot. Her toes
curled and she pulled away from me. Even
in her sleep she was ticklish! Aunt
Laurie’s voice caught my attention and I heard her say, “Why don’t you guys go
downstairs and grab something to eat?
Glen and I can sit with her for a little while.”
I glanced quickly at Mom’s face. She looked so tired! She definitely needed a break. “Yeah,” I said, “Neal and I can stay here
too. We’ll take care of Kiy.”
Mom looked at Dad and then she said, “That sounds
like a good idea.” Dad pulled her to her
feet and she glanced around the room.
“We won’t be very long.” Mom
lingered by the bed and slowly stroked Kiy’s tiny arm before she left. I don’t think she wanted to go, but she
really needed to get away for a few minutes.
Aunt Laurie took off her coat and made herself
comfortable on the couch. Well, it was
kind of a couch. It looked like it could
actually be a bed if it wanted. Uncle
Glen took the other half of the couch and picked up the remote for the TV. Neal threw his coat in the corner and slid to
the floor in front of the football game that Uncle Glen had chosen.
I slowly pulled off my coat and
laid it across the only other chair in the room. Why were they watching TV? I thought we were supposed to be watching
Kiy. I moved back over to Kiy’s crib and
reached for her pale little fingers. I
could see all of the blue veins right through her skin. I leaned my head close to her ear and kissed
her swollen cheek. Then I softly hummed
the “I Love You” song from Barney. It was
her favorite and after talking to her on the phone, I was sure that she could
hear me even if it looked like she was asleep.
I finished my song and carefully watched her little chest rise and fall
with every breath. Yesterday, I wasn’t
sure if I would ever see her tiny chest rise and fall again. My mind wandered to those terrifying moments
on the stairs when I held her freezing blue body and desperately tried to clear
her throat so that she could breathe.
A tear slipped down my nose and landed in her
hair. She tossed her head restlessly,
but her eyes didn’t open. Oh, Kiy, why
don’t you just wake up so that I can hold you and tell you that everything will
be OK? I rubbed her palm until it turned
pink. Her wrists were about as big
around as my thumb!
Suddenly, her eyelashes fluttered and I saw a
glimpse of her pale blue eyes. “Kiy?” I
whispered softly. I didn’t want to share
this moment with anyone. “Are you awake,
Sweetie?” I rubbed her hand a little
harder. “It’s me, Kira,” I whispered.
Slowly, her eyes opened and she turned to look at
me. Her pupils were huge and she looked
like she was on drugs. For a minute, I
could tell that she was afraid and she didn’t recognize me. She closed her eyes slowly and then they
opened again. She looked at me and her
lips moved without a sound. Then her
eyes closed again and I heard a tiny “Ra-ra.”
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