Roses

Will came down for a snack at quarter to eleven, only to find that Robbie and Luciana weren’t in the living room like they usually were.

It didn’t worry him until the next day, when he came down and a breakfast made by Luciana wasn’t waiting for him.

He checked the living room and Robbie’s bedroom… neither of them contained either Luciana or Robbie.

He shrugged it off.

His mum came in at quarter to eight.

“Hey mum? Where the hell have you been? And where are Robbie and Luciana?”

Aurora slipped into the room.

“Did they elope?” she asked, looking round for her breakfast.

“Ahh, Will, Aurora… umm, I have something to tell you. Aurora, will you go and get Juillietta for me? It’s something she needs to hear.”

Aurora nodded and bounded off up the stairs. She came back down a few minutes later, followed by Juillietta, who had been wondering what she should do with her hair.

“So what’s up mum? You look really tense,” Will prompted, when they had all sat down and Caroline hadn’t said anything.

“Luciana… we took Luciana to the hospital. last night. She’s in a coma. They don’t know what’s wrong with her.”

There was silence.

Then; “who will make me a packed lunch?”

Aurora was ignored.

“Well when is she coming back? What could have happened to her? Will she be okay?” Will asked.

“I don’t know Will. I honestly can’t say. The doctors ran every test and they don’t know what caused it. She didn’t fall or hit her head, and hasn’t done so any time recently. She’s not diabetic- she doesn’t drink, or take drugs. They don’t know what’s wrong with her.” Caroline sat down at the table, her face drawn.

Silence reigned, after that.

There was nothing to say.



Miss Perky was met with a much quieter Aurora. She didn’t do any work, but she wasn’t actively naughty either. She just sat in the back of the room staring with a glazed expression at Miss Perky- not her real name but what Aurora had silently christened her the day before.

Just before break the teacher came up to ask her if she was having any trouble with the work, staring very pointedly at the blank page in front of the girl.

“What is a coma?” Aurora replied.

“A coma is… it is a like a very deep sleep that you can’t wake some one out of. Why do you ask?”

“What do they do? Are they dangerous?”

“They can be, but sometimes they’re fine. They just make it so that the person can’t wake up. Why do you ask?”

“Luciana’s in a coma. They don’t know why, Caroline said.”

“Who is Luciana? Is she your sister?”

Aurora nodded.

“Could she be catching up on her sleep? She doesn’t sleep that much, because she has nightmares.”

Miss Perky shook her head sadly. “No, dear. Coma’s don’t work like that.”

Aurora sighed, and leant her chin in her hand, staring glazedly at the front of the classroom once more.

Miss Perky couldn’t get a word out of her for the rest of the day, and neither could anyone else.



“They’re saying that her blood sugar is really low, but because she’s not diabetic they wouldn’t have thought of that as an option. They’ve given her an injection of glucose though. She still hasn’t responded,” Robbie said through the phone, to his mum.

“Well did you tell them about her eating habits?” Caroline queried.

“Yeah, I did.”

“Well… aren’t there any tests they might have forgotten to do? You can’t just get a coma from nowhere! That’s ridiculous!”

Robbie sighed. “I don’t know, mum. They don’t either. They said they’re just going to put her on a drip- glucose- and see if that affects her. If it works, she should be up by tomorrow.”

“And if it doesn’t?”

“Then they’ll just have to try something else.”



“Wait- you told him you like him?” Louise asked Juillietta. They were in art, and Luciana was drawing the things she felt symbolized her round her name.

“Yeah, but that’s not the point. The point is that I was really mean about Luciana, and now she’s in a coma. I feel as though it’s my fault somehow.”

“Of course it’s not your fault. It’s not even like she was even around when you said those things.”

“Yeah. I guess. But I’m really worried. What if she never wakes up?”

“You can’t think like that Juillietta. She will wake up, and she’ll wake up soon.”

“Yeah, I guess…”

“So, how did Robbie take being told you like him?”

If possible, Juillietta seemed to shrink inside herself even more. “He… he didn’t know what to do. He just sort of stood there awkwardly and he said he didn’t… he couldn’t like me back. I kind of… don’t want to talk about it. I embarrassed myself back there and I don’t really want to relive the moment. I hadn’t even meant to tell him so… we’ve decided to treat the whole thing as a fluke. Of sorts.”

Louise nodded slowly, trying to think of an appropriate response.

She settled on: “So what are you going to do about him?”

Juillietta shrugged. “Nothing, I guess. There’s not much I can really do now, is there?”

Louise grinned at her. “There’s a lot you can do, my dear girl. You just need someone to teach you.”



Will and Chuck joined Louise and her friends again at break.

Will was taking Luciana’s incapacitation almost as badly as Robbie was, and he was pretty quiet throughout the entire breaktime period

Chuck took the opportunity to talk to Juillietta.

“Are you okay?” he asked, looking over at her.

“Yeah. I guess. I mean, I should be fine. I’m not the one in a coma. But… yeah. I feel bad.”

“Why do you feel bad? It’s not like you hit her with anything,” Chuck reasoned.

“I know. I know, Louise said I shouldn’t feel bad as well, but I was really mean about her. And if she never wakes up how can I tell her that I really appreciate everything she’s done for me, and tell her I love her? I do love her.”

Chuck reached out a hand and rubbed her knee comfortingly.

“She will wake up. But even if she doesn’t, they say that sometimes people in coma’s can hear you talking to them, even if they don’t reply. Why don’t you go to the hospital and trying talking to her? It’ll make you feel better.”

“Do you think so?” Juillietta asked a smile hovering on her face.

“Yeah, I think it will. Ask Caroline to take you down there this evening.”

Juillietta smiled at him, and hugged him in thanks. Chuck replied that it was no problem. It wasn’t. For that hug, almost anything would have been worth it.



Aurora and Will insisted on coming when Juillietta asked to visit that evening.

“It was my idea! You guys didn’t want to come along ‘til I said I wanted to!” she cried when they both asked if they’d be allowed to come as well.

“Yeah, well,” Aurora said in return, thereby effectively ending the argument because there was nothing Juillietta could say in reply.

And so the three of them piled into Caroline’s car at eight, and drove in tense silence to the hospital.

Once there, Juillietta decided to lay down the law.

“Look guys, I know you all want to see Luciana as well, but I have some things I really want to say to her in private so can you give me five, maybe ten, minutes? I really need to talk to her,” she added the last as a rather pathetic pull on their heartstrings.

“Fine. I guess we can give you five minutes. Just knock on the door when you’re finished,” Aurora said, looking at her wrist.

Juillietta went in and found Robbie sleeping by the bed. He looked emaciated already; the stress of only one day at the hospital already having a terrible affect on him.

“Umm, Robbie,” she whispered, shaking his shoulder. He awoke with a start.

“Juillietta? Yes, umm what do you want? Umm,” he held his hands to his suddenly pounding head.

“I just wanted to ask you if you could leave the room for a bit- I want to talk to Luciana for a little bit.”

Robbie rubbed his eyes and looked at Juillietta, trying to focus on her.

“What? Sorry, pardon?”

“I wanted to talk to Luciana for a little bit. Umm, Chuck said that sometimes they can hear you.”

“Oh.” He let his head drop to his chest. “Umm, I don’t think she’ll be able to hear you. The doctors said she’s in the deepest level of a coma. That means she won’t respond to anything at all. Not even if you burned her. She wouldn’t respond.”

Juillietta deflated a little. “Oh.”

Then Chuck’s words at break came back to her. It’ll make you feel better.

“Umm, if you don’t mind Robbie, I think I’ll give it a try anyway. You know. It couldn’t hurt.”

Robbie stared at her blearily a while before nodding, and standing up.

“Okay. You do that. I’m just… gonna go find some painkillers. And a bed would also be good. Umm…” he left the room, walking a little wavily.

Juillietta took his seat by the bed.

“Umm, hi, Cianae. I don’t really know what this’ll do, because Robbie says you can’t hear me at all. But I’m going to pretend to myself that you can. So, I want to just say sorry for all the times I’ve been mean to you, or rude to you or about you, even if you didn’t know I was doing it. Umm…” she paused and thought. There weren’t really any words for what she wanted to say, she knew. “You’re a really good sister. You take care of us really well, and I’ve realised that I can’t live without you. Well, I could, of course, but it wouldn’t be as nice, and it’d be much harder, I think. What I’m really trying to say it that I love you. And I’m very jealous of you because Robbie loves you more than you love him, but I love him too. I don’t think it’s very fair. But it’s not your fault. And I guess it’s not Robbie’s fault either, so I’m going to try real hard to stop… liking him. And to start liking you. Umm.”

An oppressive silence fell over the room. Surely the silence hadn’t been this bad before she started talking?

“Umm, well, I’m finished,” she said finally, standing up and walking over to the door.

She had raised her hand to knock when she changed her mind, and turned back. She laid a kiss on her sister’s forehead. And then she turned and walked back to the door and let the others in.

Aurora took the chair beside the bed and leant on Luciana, heedless of Caroline’s cries to be careful.

Will pulled a chair up to her other side, meaning Caroline and Juillietta had to stand.

Aurora was speaking over Luciana to Will, about something she wouldn’t even remember. The words were just a screen, so she wouldn’t have to think about Luciana, lying there and looking more lifeless then she had ever seen her.

Everyone in the room had to remind themselves every time they looked at her that she was actually still alive.

Juillietta backed against the wall away from everyone else, trying to lose herself in thought but it was impossible. Her mind kept on allowing itself to be drawn back to that girl lying on the bed and the boy who loved her, like her own conscience hated her.

Several nurses came in while they were there, eyeing the family warily. It would have been clear to anyone looking that they wanted them to leave, that they thought it was far too late for them to be there, but they were all, legally family. There was nothing they could do or say, except give them pointed looks, or make pointed remarks about the time, or pointed gestures to the door.

Their points weren’t felt.

After a while, looking a thousand times better, Robbie re-entered the room.

“Any news?” he asked, almost hopelessly. Caroline shook her head, no, but she need not have. They could all see that nothing had changed.

At ten, everyone left, except Robbie, who insisted on staying another night, despite his mother’s insistence that he came home and got a proper rest.



“Where’s Luciana today?” Frank asked, coming up to the counter. It was Friday, the day Luciana came to help Caroline with the café.

“She’s not well,” Caroline said, after a pause. “She’s in the hospital. She’s in a coma.”

“A coma?” Frank asked, too loudly. The few people in the café looked over, openly eavesdropping.

“Yes. A coma. They’re not sure why.”

“Gosh,” Frank said after a while. “Well, I hope she gets better soon.”

“I do too,” Caroline replied, looking down at the till so she could avoid the sympathy on his face.

“You never expect it to happen to anyone in real life,” Frank said, still too loudly, to Beryl. “It’s something that happens in films and on Casualty, not to people you know.”

Beryl nodded, and inside her head, Caroline did too. She couldn’t agree more.



“So did you see Luciana last night?” Chuck asked. They’d left Will with Louise’s friends, who were beginning to warm up to him. Chuck said that was the only way to survive him, the pressure of trying to dislike him while he was there being a loveable twat in your face was spirit crushing.

He was right.

“Yeah, I did.”

“And did you talk to her?”

“Yeah. Robbie said that the doctors said that she was so deep in her coma she wouldn’t be able to hear me, but I spoke to her anyway. I think that maybe it helped. I don’t know, to be honest.”

“So I take it she’s not improved then,” Chuck asked, although it wasn’t really a question.

“No, she hasn’t. They’re giving her glucose. They think that maybe she could have low blood sugar, and that’s what’s making her brain close off.”

“Low blood sugar? Huh, I never knew that.”

“Apparently, it only usually happens to diabetics. Luciana isn’t diabetic, I checked. The doctor said that if she doesn’t eat as much as she should, she’d have low blood sugar, but that in her case her blood sugar should still be fine. And even if it wasn’t, it should have perked up by now.”

There was a silence.

“I’m very worried about her. I want to show her that I love her. Just telling her when she can’t even hear- it makes me feel better, a little bit, but I know that in the grand scheme of things it’s nothing at all.”

“It’s not nothing, Juillietta. Now, at least, you know the feelings are there. Even if you can’t act on them in the way you’d like just yet.” He reached out, and took hold of her hand. “But it will happen. She will wake up, soon now, and you’ll be able to say all these things to her.”

Juillietta leant against him.

“Thanks Chuck. You’re such an amazing friend.”

Chuck sighed. That was not what he wanted to hear.



Eleven days passed, and Luciana had still not awoken. Robbie had caved at day five and had gone home to shower, sleep in his own bed and change clothes.

They’d gone to visit Luciana every other night.

She was looking healthier. The bags under her eyes were fading, slowly, as almost all her body was switched off, and the IVs connected up to her gave her the exact nutrients she needed so she was looking plumper. Her skin and hair regained their glow, little by little.

As one doctor said, she was the picture of health. The only problem was that she wasn’t awake to appreciate it.

Two weeks passed, and Juillietta had cried at Luciana’s bedside exactly three times.

And then, twenty days had passed.

Juillietta finally got Caroline to take her up to the hospital without Will or Aurora begging to be allowed to come as well.

She sat next to her bedside, and held her hand gently. She wondered if she’d ever be able to do this if her sister ever awoke- when she awoke.

After a while, she started to sing to her. She didn’t know where the song came from; it bubbled up inside of her chest of it’s own accord, and the words tumbled through her lips in her mother tongue like nectar.

She wouldn’t remember the words afterwards, just the message they held. To Luciana, and to herself.

As she sang, something happened in Luciana’s mind that she couldn’t see.

She didn’t find out till later that the doctors- who’d almost given up testing her every day- found reason to hope.

Luciana’s mind had woken up a bit. She was no longer in total oblivion- almost dead.

She was reachable.

It wasn’t much, but it was something.

Juillietta didn’t even consider the possibility that it was something to do with her.



“Does this mean she’ll hear when we talk to her?” Aurora asked the doctor who told them the news.

“No, I’m sorry,” he replied, shaking his head gravely with that classic uninvolved doctors’ sympathy. “At this stage she’ll only respond to pain.”

“Really?” Aurora asked interestedly, barely giving the doctor time to confirm with a nod before spinning round and pinching her sisters arm, hard. A solitary finger twitched as the entire room watched.

“That,” Aurora said, after a while of absolutely nothing more happening, “was a let down.”