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Her head spun back. She remembered the times she was sad in her apartment as she lay there with a sick sense of contentment, knowing that life was slipping away. It made her cringe now. Then she saw her parents and her kid, who was her heaven, in a blurry way. No matter what it was—a final dream, a trick her mind played on her, or the truth of death—the recollection of it seemed to help her now. She appeared to get a burst of vigor from a remembrance of something that most people would call an illusion. It was like she had found her safe place, and it had given her the uncommon promise of kindness. She had spotted Kellen next to her bed when she woke up, and she had seen Lola, Damien, and Ryan. It was their voices and emotions that brought her back.
Dr. Robert remarked, “I hope you’re not thinking this is the afterlife?” It was hard to tell if he was serious or simply joking. “My last patient did that after I punched him out of a coma. It was funny until he begged for mercy.”
“My head feels scary,” Lena said in a hoarse voice.
“Yes, it is,” Dr. Robert responded in response. Then he asked her about her health, memory, and some light motions of her fingers and toes. He was busy writing things down on pieces of paper on a clipboard.
After Dr. Robert was happy and departed with his troop, Selene came in and has been threatening and angry with Lena ever since.
Lola hit Lena on the arm again and said, “You’re bad.”  “You’re really bad!”
Lena murmured, “Ow,” when Lola hit her on purpose with a mild blow.
Lola’s nose was stained from the few tears she had shed after going in. “How dare you pull this stunt? No, for not pulling any stunt?” she said. “It was like the nasty grim reaper came for you, and you served yourself on a silver platter! Is this what you’ve learned from me after so many f*****g months of being friends? Not done, Lena, not done at all.”
Lena groaned and shut her eyes for a while out of shame and regret. “I always choose the easier ways out, don’t I?”
By now, it would have been a universal fact.
Lola huffed and made her mouth into a narrow line. She didn’t say anything for a long time before she spoke again. “And that’s why Dr. Robert has you in counseling. Apparently, girl, you’re a sad puppy that needs some weird person for—” she said, twisting her hands about. “Training for the potty.”
Lena’s mouth turned into a faint but happy smile. Her arms and legs felt heavy because of all the medications that were being forced into her body, yet she still took the time to pat Selene’s hand, which was on the bed. “You talk dirty, Lola, and I’m glad you do.”
Lola’s face seemed angry until she heard Lena say it. Then, the corner of her mouth turned into a crooked smile.
Lena started to doze off again as the weight of her brush with death began to wear her down. After that, she went outside for a few hours, maybe longer, and fell into a deep, colorless sleep. She heard them talking about the revelation at the party and Selene from a distance and once quite clearly. When she finally woke up fully, she put the pieces together. In the empty, peaceful hospital room, she lay alone and let out a deep sigh of relief.
But she knew she had missed a really dramatic show.
Ryan arrived in just as the nurse was leaving after giving her the first dosage of medicine for the day.
At that point, Lena was feeling a lot better. Still sleepy but better and certainly awake.
“So, it was Selene all along, huh?” Her voice sounded hoarse. She took a nervous breath and then closed her eyes for a time.
Ryan nodded. “Now she’s safely in police custody and will be waiting for the day when she’ll be in court,” he said with an angry grunt at the end. “I made sure of it.”
How could one lady have so much poison? Lena thought about it with revulsion.
Selene was ill. She had stolen her baby away from her and made her life a terrible nightmare. And now Lena would make sure that Selene was punished for what she had done wrong. Ryan added that the police would collect her statement and that she would have to be in court. Lena was excited.
Lena’s eyes hurt, but she was able to keep the tears from falling. She didn’t think Dr. Robert had mixed in any anti-depressants, so it might have been the pills or the strange new vigor she felt inside her after this near-death experience.
The news that Kellen finally believed the truth made her feel a lot better, but she realized that was all she felt. She was glad with the change, although it wasn’t anything special. The fact was that she didn’t know how she should feel about it.
“I leave for a few days, and this is what happens. You scared me, Lena,” Damien said with a sad look on his face as he sat on the stool next to her bed. “Think about how I felt when I heard from Lola and how she told me in great detail how you came back from the dead!”
Lena bit her lip. As each of her friends came to see her, the guilt in her b****t became worse. “Damien—”
He stopped her off, as if he couldn’t hear her, and said, “And to hear that you didn’t call for help on purpose while you were… while you were… Damn it!”
Finally, her eyes filled up. “I’m so sorry! I know I’m a bad person. I should have been grateful for the friends I have who are so dedicated to me and help me more than they need to. But what do I do in return? I look for the easiest ways to get away instead of standing up and fighting!”
Damien took a deep breath and ran his fingers through his hair. “You need to know, Lena, that you’ll always have me—us,” he said, pausing for a while before continuing. “Things aren’t as bad as you think they are. There is light, but you don’t want to see it.”
Lena didn’t say anything and sighed in relief as Damien bent over her on the bed and gave her a side hug. Damien sat still, tired of the lines that were stuck to her hands and the gauze that wrapped her head. That hug was a touch strange, but if anybody could make strange feel great, it had to be Damien. He really picked her up off the street and didn’t simply drop her off at the hospital and be done with his ten seconds of generosity. He went above and above to assist her to start a new life in a new city. Damien had really saved her life.
“Did they really shave off all my hair?” Lena murmured a little bit later.
Damien looked sorrowful when he lifted his head up. “Don’t worry; they’ll grow back.”
Lena forced a grin and said, “Will they grow back blue?” She thought of a youngster named “Dala.” She thought about whether or not she was still in the hospital. If she was, Lena may come to see her.
Damien raised an eyebrow in disbelief. “I guess the pills are talking.”
“Yes, the blue ones,” Lena said, and her body shook with laughter. But then she moaned and stopped talking because it made the awful numbness in her brain feel strange.
Damien kept frowning, but he was careful.
*****
Lena basically slept during the day that went by. And whenever she woke up, one of her pals was always sitting next to her and watching her like a hawk. After a lot of poking and prodding, Dr. Robert said she could move to a room since she was healthy enough. Her three pals yelled from the door.
Selene wrapped her slender arms around Damien and Ryan on either side of her and pulled them down to her height for a group hug. Damien and Ryan choked as their necks were squeezed.
Lena smiled back at the nurse and watched as she put a new bag of saline on the stand and some medications on the bedside table. The nurse told Lena that they would change the bandage on her head in an hour and then leave. Lena moved her body a little from her slightly propped-up bed. She grinned to herself as she looked at her pals, who were all snoozing.
Damien was in the center with his lips open a little and his head leaning back on the backrest. Damien had Ryan and Lola’s heads on his shoulders from both sides. Lola drooling on Damien’s shirt was funny.
Lena let out a sigh.
She begged them to go home now that she was said to be fully okay. But no one paid attention to her. Lena felt even more guilty because of how much they cared about her. The sensation of belonging that was starting to take over everything else in her heart was also growing.
The sound of the door opening drew her attention away from her sleeping buddies. She was having trouble moving her head quickly, so it took her a long time to turn her head toward the entrance.
Celeste strolled in carefully.
Lena’s breath stopped for a second there.
She remembered the last time she saw the woman. During their final chat, the once-motherly woman appeared like nothing more than a cruel enemy.
Celeste looked uneasy as she stood next to Lena’s bed, unsure of what to do. She was right next to the stool, but it looked like she didn’t know if she should sit down.
They were quiet for a long time, and the only sound was the constant snoring in the background.