Almost Easy

Third Person POV

Tears were streaming down Liz’s face profusely as Matt helped her navigate the hospital hallways to the room Zack had texted her. She was wiping her face just as fast as more tears fell, Matt’s hand on her back gave her the comfort to keep running down the hallway to the room.

She pushed the door open and Zack instantly stood, grabbing his sister in his arms tightly, “IS she… is she going to be ok?” Liz choked as Matt took a seat by the door, staring at the bed where Liz and Zack’s mom was laying hooked up to machines.

“She had two strokes, Liz… in the right side of her brain, and she has a blood clot sitting at the stem of her brain.” Zack hummed the words in to Liz’s hair as she cried harder, “She can’t see well, and… she doesn’t remember.”

“Remember?” Liz looked up, “Like… the date? Her name?... Us?”

“All of it. Right now they aren’t sure what’s going to be permanent and what’s going to come back. The have to do more scans.”

Liz buried her face in her hands as Zack pulled her close, rubbing circles on her back as she sobbed in to his chest, their dad standing feet away wiping his eyes from his own tears. Matt wasn’t sure what to say or to even do so he sat in silence and watched until Liz finally parted from Zack’s arms, wiping at her patchy red face.

“She’s just taking a nap right now, sweetie.” Mr. Baker walked over and gave Liz a small hug, “She should be awake soon… don’t be afraid that she doesn’t remember you, please. It’ll come with time, she’ll know when you tell her but she doesn’t recognize very well.”

Liz nodded and silently took a seat by her mother’s side, thoughts of how she could have been there more recently flooded her head. How she had let foolish pride and little issues come between her and seeing her parents, and now this was happening and she may never be able to have a full conversation with her mother again, “How… how did it happen?” Liz asked, “Just from the procedure?”

“A blood clot formed apparently and then… she just had them.” Her dad sighed as Liz took her mother’s weathered hand in her own, caressing her palm softly as Mr. Baker sat down with Matt and broke the conversational ice while Zack sat across from Liz, repeating the same motions as his sister.

An hour or so went by before Liz’s mom finally woke up, her eyes scanned the room hazily before stopping on Liz’s face. Liz smiled and gave her time to focus.

“Oh, hi there.” Maria smiled, patting Liz’s hand as she managed to sit herself up, “I wasn’t sure if a nurse was going to be here so soon.”

“Maria.” Liz’s dad put his hand on her shoulder and spoke before Liz could open her mouth, “This is your daughter Elizabeth.”

Liz locked eyes with her mother, who just stared for a moment, tears welling in her dark eyes, “Oh, my love… I’m sorry.”

“Mom it’s fine, please.” Liz wiped at her eyes and kissed her mother’s cheek, “It’s alright. Zack’s here too, your son… Over there.” Liz pointed to the other side of the bed where Zack was sitting and Maria placed her hand over her mouth.

“This may be a lot for her.” Zack whispered as Liz nodded in agreement.

“I’m going to go, mom I’ll be back later ok?”

“Ok, thank you for coming to check on me dear. Tell the next nurse I’d like some lemon shaved ice, would you?”

Liz sighed with a small smile, nodding, “I will.” Liz grabbed her purse from the floor beside Matt as she gave her dad a goodbye nod and walked for the door.

“Liz, wait up!” Zack called as he rushed out the door behind her, pushing in front of Matt as he to was following Liz, “Liz seriously-“

“I don’t know how you can handle that!” Liz stopped, turning in the hallway with her hand wiping tears from her eyes, “She doesn’t know who we are! WE’re her children! She birthed us and she doesn’t even know us! How.. How is this happening to her?!”

“Liz it’s happening, it just is, and she needs us more than ever now.” Zack grabbed her hands as Liz shook her head, not realizing Matt was standing behind her unsure of what to do, “She needs us to support her and help her. So does dad, how do you think he feels? Mom doesn’t even remember him either!”

“That’s not my mother.” Liz shook her head, “She… she’s not in there any more.”

“She is, Elizabeth, I promise.” Zack stared at his sisters eyes, “Please, I know it’s hard but… how do you think she feels? She’s confused, she’s hazy, and you think you have it hard because she doesn’t know us?”

“I can’t have a conversation with my mother! She thinks I’m someone else! I wasted all that petty time not speaking to her and now I can’t!” Liz hiked her bag up on her shoulder more, “I need some time to process this.”

“Ok.” Zack looked up and nodded at Matt, signaling it was time for him to take her home.

“Come on babe,” Matt gently placed his fingers on Liz’s arm, “Let’s go home and get some dinner, you haven’t eaten yet today.”

“Ok, right… Call me when you leave, Zack?” She brought Zack in for a tight hug.

“I’ll call you in the morning, and we can revisit coming over and talk ok? They’ll also have more tests run tomorrow and we’ll have more answers.”

“Thanks.” Liz nodded and took Matt’s arm as he led them down the hallway to the elevator. Matt glanced down every now and then to check on her expression and she was hard as a stone the entire way to the car.

Matt began driving in silence as Liz fiddled with the tassels on her purse in her lap, humming mindlessly to the music on the radio, “I know it’s a dumb question, and I’m pretty sure I know the answer, but how are you holding up babe?”

“Not dumb, I appreciate it.” Liz whispered, “Like crap apparently, Zack’s not even bothered and I’m over here having an internal crisis about how I feel like the worst daughter on the planet.” She stared out the window and wiped at her eyes again, “What if I never get her back? What if she never remembers me?” She scoffed, “At least she wont remember how shit of a daughter I’ve been and how I abandoned her when she needed me the most.”

“Come on, don’t think like that Liz.” Matt extended his hand and took Liz’s, “She’s in there, somewhere, but she’s in there. I bet this wont last forever, hard times don’t last forever.”

Liz looked over at Matt with a raised eyebrow, he nodded slightly and then redirected his attention to the road in front of them.