Danielle Steel - Accident

Page wanted to jump up and shake her awake, to scream to someone, to tell them that Allie was still there, that deep inside her child was still alive and breathing, but she just sat there, mesmerized, staring at her, willing her to wake up, as the eyelids fluttered weakly again, and Page cried silently as she watched her. What if it was all a cruel joke, if they told her it was just spasms again … if she never woke up again …”Baby, please, please open your eyes … I love you so much …Allie, please …” She was sobbing softly and kissing her fingers, as the eyelids fluttered again, and ever so slowly Allyson opened her eyes for the first time in almost four months, and saw her mother.

She looked very groggy at first, as though she wasn't sure what she was seeing, and then she looked Page straight in the eye and said, “Mama.” Page couldn't stop crying as she looked at her, she bent down and kissed her cheeks, and her hair and the tears ran down her cheeks into Allie's face, and then Allie said it again, louder this time, as she looked at her. It was a croak, but it was a word, the sweetest sound Page had ever heard …Mama …

Page sat there for ages, crying and looking at her, and then Frances came, and couldn't believe it.

“My God …she's awake …” She ran to call Dr. Hammerman, and by the time he came, she was dozing. But she had not fallen back into her coma.

Page explained to him what had happened, and he examined Allie quietly. After a while, Allyson opened her eyes and looked at him. She didn't understand who he was, and she cried as she looked at her mother.

“It's okay, sweetheart …Dr. Hammerman is our friend …he's going to make you all better …” She didn't care what anyone did anymore, Allie was awake, she had opened her eyes and spoken to them. Whatever came after that would be icing.

The doctor asked Allyson to squeeze his hand, and to look at him, which she did. And then he asked her to speak to him, but she wouldn't. Her eyes darted back to her mother's then, and she shook her head. And afterward he explained to Page, in the hall, that she had probably lost most of her language. She had lost most of her large motor skills, and how much brain damage there was remained to be seen now.

“She can learn many of those things again, walking, sitting, moving, feeding herself. She can learn to talk again. We just have to see how much is left, and how far we can take her,” he said matter-of-factly. But Page was willing to do anything for her, to work as hard as she had to, to bring her back as far as they could. She was ready to do anything she had to, to help her.

She called Trygve when Hammerman left, and told him what had happened.

“Wait a minute …wait a minute …slow down …” He was on a portable phone at the lake, and he could hardly hear her. He knew the doctor had said something to her about Allyson's motor skills, but he hadn't heard the rest. “Tell me again.” She was crying and laughing and he could hardly understand her.

“She talked to me …she talkedl” She almost screamed and he almost dropped the phone when he heard her. “She's awake …she opened her eyes and looked at me, and said 'Mama.' “ It was the most beautiful moment of Page's life since the day Allie had been born …and the day they had known they wouldn't lose Andy. “Oh Trygve …”All she could do was cry incoherently and he was crying too, as his children watched him. They crowded around him anxiously, wanting to know what had happened. They weren't sure if it was something terrible, or good, maybe Allie had died. Chloe was terrified of that as she watched him.

“We'll come down tonight,” he said hurriedly. “I'll call you back. I want to tell the kids,” he said almost hysterically, and severed the connection when Page did. She hurried back to the ICU to see Allyson, and he told his children that Allie was awake.

“Is she okay?” Chloe asked in amazement.

“It's too soon to tell, sweetheart,” he said, hugging her. It could so easily have been her in a coma and not Allie.

The whole family drove down from Tahoe that night, but Allyson was asleep again by then. Not in a coma this time, but just sleeping, like a normal person. She was being weaned off the respirator, but she was still in the ICU and would stay there for some time so they could watch her.

“What did she say?” Chloe wanted to know everything as they sat around the Thorensens' kitchen table.

“She said 'Mama.' “ Page cried again as she told them everything, and Trygve did too as he listened. And then Chloe cried, and Bjorn, because when people cried it upset him. He and Andy held hands as they listened.

It was the happiest day of their lives, and the next morning, Page took Chloe to the hospital with her. Allyson opened her eyes and stared at her for a long time and then she frowned and looked at her mother. “Girl,” she said. “Girl.” And then she lifted her hand and pointed.

“Chloe,” her mother said carefully. “Chloe is your friend, Allie.” Ally son looked at her again then and nodded. It was as though in some part of her she knew, but she had lost the words for everything. It was like being on another planet.

“I think she knew me,” Chloe said when they left, but she admitted to her father that she was disappointed that Allie hadn't shown more recognition.

“Give her time. She's come from a long way. It's going to take a long time to get her back where she was, or even close to it.” If she could even do that.

“How long, Dad?”

“I don't know. Dr. Hammerman told Page it could take years. Maybe two or three years before she's as rehabilitated as she can be.” She'd be eighteen years old by then, and in the meantime she had to learn how to sit up, how to walk, how to eat with a fork …how to speak English … it was awesome.

Page told them more about her progress that night. The therapists were busy with her night and day now. She had a physical therapist, a specialist for large motor skills, a speech therapist, who worked with people with aphasia, or language difficulties common after strokes. She was going to be a busy girl for the next few months. And so was Page.

“What about Tahoe?” Trygve asked her that night. They were all going back up in the morning. And he wanted to take Andy with him, after he visited his sister.

“I don't know,” she said, looking worried. “I hate leaving her now.” What if she slipped back into the coma again? What if she stopped moving and talking? But Dr. Hammerman said that wouldn't happen now, and in fact, it was safe to leave her.

“Why don't you wait another week, or two. You weren't going to come until later anyway and then you can commute every few days. I can drive you down if you want, we could stay overnight and go up in the morning. It's tiring but it's not nearly so bad as what you've been doing for the past four months. What do you think?” He was always willing to do anything to make her life easier and better.

“I'd like that.” She smiled as she kissed him.

“Why don't I take Andy up with me now? I think he'd love it.” And they both knew he'd be disappointed if Allie didn't recognize him at first. It was better for him to be away and distracted.

“I think it would be great for him,” she agreed. She wanted all the time she could have to work with Allyson. They had a lot to do now.

“I'll come down and pick you up next week, and if it's too soon, I'll spend a couple of days with you, and you can come up the week after.”

“Why are you so good to me?” she whispered as he pulled her closer to him.

“Because I'm trying to seduce you” was the answer.

She had called Brad in Europe the moment Allie had woken up, and he was ecstatic to hear it. He said he couldn't wait to see her when he got back. But when he did, like Chloe, and Andy when he'd seen her before Tahoe, he was disappointed. He had expected her to scream “Daddy!” the moment he walked into the room, and throw her arms around his neck when she saw him. Instead, she looked at him suspiciously, and then nodded and looked at Page. “Man” was all she said for a long time. “Man.” She looked at him as though struggling to remember his face, and then suddenly as he was leaving the room she whispered, “Dada.”