Your Guardian Angel

It felt like I was plunging down into a pit of blackness until I heard voices.

“I think she might be coming around,” said a male voice that I did not recognize.

“Riley, if you can hear me, squeeze my hand.”

Jesse! I thought hungrily. That was Jesse’s voice! I tried to squeeze his hand as much as I could, but it really only came out as a light tap considering I had almost no energy.

“Riley, follow my voice. I really want you to wake up. I know you can do it because I have faith in you. You’ve made it this far. Don’t back out on me now. Hear my voice and let it guide you. I love you and I need you to come back to me. Come on, Riley, I know you can do it. You’ve never let me down before and now is not the time to start. Come back to me.”

The fight I had to put up to open my eyes was the hardest of my life. It was like I was trying to dig myself out of a giant hole that I had fallen into and it seemed almost impossible to get out of it. Finally, I won the war and slowly opened my eyes.

I saw two blurred figures. One was sitting right beside me with his head down and the other was standing by the very end of the bed with a grave look on his face.

“Jesse…” I croaked.
The person sitting beside me turned to look at me with a relieved look on his face.

“Thank God you’re awake! You scared me so much. I thought I was going to lose you.”

“That would never happen,” I responded weakly while smiling at him. “I’m not ready to die just yet.”

After a few minutes, my vision started to clear up and I saw that Jesse had huge, puffy circles under his eyes and knew that he must not have slept in days.

“I’m sorry to interrupt, but I’m afraid I am going to have to run some tests.” I looked over and discovered that the person standing at the end of the bed was my doctor. He was a middle-aged man who wore big glasses and a white lab coat that went all the way down to his knees. His hair was brown and slightly graying and he was rather tall and his name was Dr. Morrison.

Jesse told me he would come back as soon as the doctor was done; I had a few questions that I needed answered. As soon as the door closed behind Jesse, Dr. Morrison started the tests.

“Doctor, can I ask you a question?”

“You just did,” he joked, “but sure.”

“What happened to me?”

“You were in a car accident,” Dr. Morrison responded. “You were in the car with your family and you had just left your house. Someone ran through a stop sign at a crossroads. You were sitting all the way in the back and you didn’t have your seatbelt on. The other car crashed into you so hard that you went through the window and landed about seventy-five yards away from the accident.”

“What about my family? Is everyone else ok?”

“Everyone else is perfectly fine. You were the only one who was really badly injured by the crash because you got the full effect. Everyone else only had minor cuts and bruises. That reminds me; they are all outside in the waiting room. I guess Jesse must have already told them that you are awake. I have told everyone countless times to go home and get some rest, but they refused.”

“How long was I in a coma?”

“You were in a coma for about four days. We almost lost you during emergency surgery; you lost a lot of blood and your heart rate was down to zero. Technically, you died, but we were able to, thankfully, bring you back. Oh yes, and today is Wednesday, and it is about,” he paused for a second and looked at his watch, “eight o’clock at night.”

“That’s definitely useful information,” I said, smiling.

“Ok, I’m done with the tests and everything looks great.”

“How much longer will I be in the hospital?”

“Probably about another week just because I want to make sure everything heals correctly. You have a few broken ribs. Do you want me to go get your family?”

“Yes please. Thanks, Doc.”

The doctor left and every member of my family filed into the room very shortly. My mother was the first person to throw her arms around me and express her immense relief that I was ok. I saw hot tears running down her cheeks and let her hold me for as long as she wanted to. After she was off of me, everyone else took turns hugging me and expressing his or her gratification that I had made it through ok. We spent about an hour talking together, but then a nurse came in to shoo my family out because I needed rest. I finally convinced them to go rent a hotel room, since we no longer owned a house nearby, and get some rest.

A few minutes after they were gone, Jesse snuck back in quietly.

“Hey, Beautiful! Are you still awake?”

“As awake as I will ever be.”

I scooted over and patted the bed, letting him know that I wanted him to lie beside me; he happily obliged. We both lied quietly for a moment, reflecting on everything that had happened recently. I told Jesse that I knew about the accident. I felt him shiver beside me and somehow knew that the reason was not because he was cold.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“I saw what happened,” he whispered. “I saw the accident. Somehow I knew that car was going to hit you, but there was nothing I could do to save you. I was not prepared for what happened next. I was so scared I was going to lose you. After you survived surgery, I promised myself that I wouldn’t leave you for another second until I was sure that you would be ok. The doctors sometimes had to literally drag me out of the room. It was the scariest experience of my life. I don’t know what I would do if you had died. I guess I would have died right a long with you. You are my heart, and I can’t live without my heart.”

“I could never leave you. You are the only person that makes me happy and I am not about to give that up without a fight. There is something you should know about, though.”

“What?” he asked curiously.

“When I was comatose, I had a dream I guess you can call it. I was in a tunnel and I saw a bright light and Josh was there to meet me. He tried to get me to come with him into the light. I almost went with him, but then I heard your voice and it was then that I knew that I had to find some way back to you. Josh tried to grab me and push me into the light, but I wouldn’t let him. I could feel myself dying while in his arms, but once I broke free of him, I ran as fast as I could and that’s all I remember. You saved my life when you said those words.”

A look of pure amazement was on Jesse’s face.

“You mean you actually had a choice between life and death?”

I nodded. “Yes and I chose life because there was no way I was going to put you through the same thing that I went through. I love you too much to let that happen.”

“That’s definitely a relief. As I said before, I don’t know what my life would be like without you in it.” After he said this, he kissed me lightly on the lips. A few minutes later, the nurse spotted Jesse in my room and asked him to leave. I told him to go home and get some much-needed rest (he had puffy circles around his eyes and he told me that he hadn’t slept in days) and to come back in the morning. He gave me one last kiss goodnight and then left.

I had some very pleasant dreams that night.