Chapter 4

The first week of Tiffany’s time at the hospital found Blake at her bedside every waking hour. He would hunt the doctor down and ask the same thing. “When will she wake up?” The answer was always the same. “We don’t know.”

Blake was there when they unraveled the bandage from Tiffany’s head. Her beautiful whitish-blonde hair was gone. In its place were stubbles so light they were barely visible. An ugly line of sutures marred her perfect head. But hair grew back. What he needed was for her to open her eyes and smile at him. To let him know she would be all right. But her eyes remained closed.

When Blake returned to work, he spent less time at the hospital. He went every night, but as the weeks turned to months he didn’t stay as long. The love of his life was getting thinner and thinner, fading away before his eyes. The ventilator pumped oxygen into her lungs, something she still couldn’t do on her own. He was losing her.

But he couldn’t give up hope. She would come back to him. He knew it with all his heart.

One day when Blake entered Tiffany’s hospital room, a nurse told him he needed to speak to a Miss. Wagner in Administration. He was directed to her office and, when he entered, a young woman looked up from behind her desk.

“Mr. Conner,” she said, “you need to move your wife to a long-term care facility. We need the bed.”

He knew what that meant. They needed the bed for someone who would recover.

“I’d rather she stay here.”

“Your insurance won’t pay for your wife to stay here. And the staff at the long-term care facility is better equipped to care for someone like your wife.”

That was what she had said—Someone like your wife.

“But her doctor is here,” Blake said.

“There’s nothing he can do for her until she wakes up. And the longer she’s in a coma ... well, they are better suited to care for her in a long-term care facility. Our physical therapists have been working her muscles, but in long-term care facilities they have more people trained to do that for people like, um, people in your wife’s condition.”

Blake was aghast. He couldn’t breathe. He gathered himself before saying, “You don’t expect her to wake up, do you?”

“I’m not a doctor, Mr. Conner.”

“But your hospital is giving up on her.”

“We’ve done all we could. She now needs long-term care we aren’t equipped to provide.”

So Blake had Tiffany moved to a long-term care facility.

More months passed with no change other than Tiffany getting paler and more frail looking. She had a year’s hair growth that covered the ugly scar. And her hair came in a tad darker than Blake remembered. Still whitish-blonde, but a little darker. Maybe it was from not being in the sunlight. He wished she’d open her eyes so he could see the almost clear blue he would lose himself in.

Blake was in his office when his boss entered and stood by the door. “How’s Tiffany?” he asked.

“The same.”

“I know you spend all your free time with her, but I have a favor to ask.”

“What?”

“I’m hosting a Halloween party at my house this Saturday. Many of our top customers will be there. I would like you to come.”

“You want me to go to a party? Do you really think I’m up for a party?”

“Think of it as a business get-together.”

“I couldn’t. I just couldn’t. Not with Tiffany...” Blake choked up and couldn’t finish the sentence.

“Just mingle for a little while. That’s all I’m asking. If it wasn’t important, I wouldn’t ask.”

“I can’t. It wouldn’t be right. Sorry.”

After work, Blake was sitting at Tiffany’s side, holding her hand. He remembered his boss’s invitation to his Halloween party. His boss could call it a get-together, but it was a party. And after Christmas, Halloween was Tiffany’s favorite holiday.

Blake squeezed Tiffany’s hand and stroked her cheek. “It’s almost Halloween,” he said. “Don’t you want to see the little kids in their costumes trick-or-treating? Don’t you want to carve a pumpkin? Wake up, honey. Open your eyes for me so that I know you can hear me.”

The door to the room opened. Blake turned to see one of Tiffany’s doctors enter. Dr. Satani was in his mid-forties with beady, black eyes and eyebrows that went up on an angle from the bridge of his nose. Along with his pointy ears, he had the face of the Devil. The mandatory stethoscope was draped around the back of his neck.

Blake leaned next to Tiffany’s ear and whispered, “Satan’s here. I told you about him. He has an “i” at the end of his name, but he doesn’t fool me. You gotta see this guy. Open your eyes, honey. You’ll love it. If you put a black cape on him, he’d be a natural for Halloween.”

“Mr. Conner, may I speak to you?” Dr. Satani asked.

Blake felt his heart beat faster. “Has there been a change? Is she waking up?”

Dr. Satani stood silent for a moment and then shook his head. “There is no improvement.”

Blake’s shoulders slumped. “Then what?”

“I think it’s time.”

“Time for what?” Blake asked.

“To take her off the ventilator.”

“So there is a change. She can breathe on her own.”

Dr. Satani shook his head again. “I’m afraid not. I think it’s time to let her go.”