Prologue

The room was quiet and still. Gene lay in his bed staring blankly towards the ceiling. The only sounds were his slow rhythmic breathing and the beep, beep, beep of his heart monitor.

“Keep him clean and fed; make him comfortable and wait for the end,” they had told the head nurse.

It was his wife that couldn’t let go. Her visits had become less and less frequent, but she had left strict detailed instructions for his care. They had been married nearly ten years when the “accident” occurred. She had been at his bedside constantly as he recovered from his physical injuries. When the doctors told her that there was nothing more they could do for him at the hospital, she had him transferred to the long-term care facility. Money was no object she had informed them and proved it by paying for his first year’s stay in advance.

All the doctors were convinced that he was in a permanent vegetative state. They had long ago stopped his treatments. That was two years ago.

However, Gene was not a vegetable; he had dreams, wonderful dreams.