A Place on My Pillow

Alex didn’t get the call until after Polly was out of post-op and in the ICU. He begged his boss to let him off early. His boss didn’t look impressed by Alex’s reasoning.

“She’ll be alive when you get off work at 3, now get back to work.”

“She’s in the ICU! She could die before 3!” Alex said loudly. He could get fired for acting up like this. But did he care at this moment? Not really. He just wanted to see his Polly. His poor, defenseless, beaten Pollyanna.

“Don’t expect your job to be here when you get back,” his boss growled, essentially firing Alex. But again, Alex didn’t care. He was already sprinting off towards his car, determined on seeing Pollyanna. He didn’t care that his car was parked three lots from the building, tucked in the corner. He didn’t care that he’d been blocked off. He simply drove over the grass and crashed over the curb, making his illegal exit from his workplace. He never once checked his speedometer, although he was pretty sure he was speeding. He reached the hospital in record time and found Millie, curled up in a ball, almost catatonic. He hugged her and she unraveled, wrapping her arms around him and crying so hard, he was sure she wasn’t able to breath.

“Millie, come on, breath,” he whispered. She sobbed herself back into the catatonic state. He set her back on the chair and walked up to the desk. A nurse with short red hair turned and looked at him. “I was wondering about a patient.”

“Are you related?”

“Yeah, she’s my wife.”

“Alright, what’s her name?”

“Pollyanna Salisbury,” he replied. She checked a clipboard and nodded.

“She’s in the ICU, recovering. You can go in, but I warn you. It’s not a pretty sight,” the nurse replied.

“She’s always beautiful,” Alex shot back and headed through the doors to his destination. Polly was in the corner, away from everyone else. A doctor was checking her vitals when Alex walked in. The tall, blonde doctor glanced at Alex as he drew closer, his steps unevenly spaced and his breathing halted. He couldn’t believe someone could do this to Polly, and then he realized, yes, he could. He knew exactly who could do this to little Pollyanna. And this burned in his gut as he stared at the unconscious, most likely comatose girl.

“Hello, I’m Doctor Sears. Who are you?”

“I’m Polly’s husband, Alex.”

“Oh. I was wondering if she was. She came in with this around her neck,” the doctor said, holding up a silver chain. Alex held out his hand and the doctor lowered it onto his palm. The metal was cold, but clean. He sat in the chair next to Polly as the doctor finished his quick exam. He jotted down the results onto Polly’s chart before turning to her “husband.” He started talking, rattling off what was wrong with Polly when she came in and what they had done to save her. He didn’t understand half of what the young doctor was saying, nor was he trying to keep up. Finally, the doctor sighed and shook his head. “There’s a very slim chance, Alex, that she won’t come out of the coma.”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” Alex replied.

“Well, since she came in, there’s been a lot of slim chances and she’s somehow hit every one of them,” he proceeded to list off more medical terms. Alex reached over and held Polly’s unresponsive hand.

“She will wake up,” Alex stated.

“I hope so, Alex.”

“No, I know. She will make it. There’s no way that Polly, my Polly would give up on living. Not my Polly.”

Doctor Sears said nothing. He merely patted Alex’s shoulder and walked out of the ICU, leaving Alex alone with a lifeless Polly. He leaned over and kissed her cold lips, hoping their life was really just a fairy tale and one magic kiss would bring his fair princess back to him. Nothing happened though. She wasn’t a princess, although in his mind, there was nothing else she could be, and this wasn’t a fairy tale.