by: Marty Chrisman

Bo was sleeping when a soft thud awakened him. Opening his eyes, he yawned and tried to figure out what had awakened him. He was sleeping in the second bed in Luke’s room, which he had been doing frequently ever since Luke was admitted to the facility. All of the staff had come to know the Duke family and liked them. They were all rooting for Luke to recover and so he would be able to return to his home and his family. Several of the younger aides were quite taken with Bo and enjoyed flirting with him (and more than one of them enjoyed flirting with Luke too even if he wasn’t in any condition to flirt back)

As his eyes adjusted to the dark, Bo realized what had awakened him. Luke’s arm had fallen over the side of the bed and his hand had hit the side of the bed. Crawling out of bed, Bo gently picked up Luke’s arm and laid it back on the bed, only to have his arm fall over the side again almost immediately. Bo frowned and then grinned as a thought suddenly occurred to him. “Cuz, are you doing that on purpose?” he said with a soft chuckle. He picked up Luke’s arm again and this time laid it across Luke’s stomach where it stayed.

Bo stood there for several long minutes just staring down at Luke’s face trying to see if he could notice any change but Luke still looked as if he were deeply asleep and didn’t seem to respond to Bo’s voice or to his touch but Bo couldn’t help hoping that Cindy was right and he was trying to wake up. “Now stop making so much noise and let me sleep.” Bo said with a grin as he gently touched Luke’s shoulder, rubbing it for a moment and then he returned to his own bed. Soon he was sleeping soundly again.

            Where the hell am I? What happened? Why can’t I remember? Why can’t I open my eyes? Who was that talking to me? What the hell is going on here?

“Uh…hey,” Bo said “Last night, his arm fell off the bed a couple of times. Could he have done that himself?”

“Maybe….” Cindy said thoughtfully “It could have been an involuntary reflex. But I think I’m going to have a few tests done this afternoon to see just how much he can respond to.”

Cindy started her range of motion exercises starting with Luke’s legs first. When she had finished with that, she started on his arms and hands. She frowned when she felt a definite resistance on Luke’s part stronger than it had been before. “Oh, we don’t wanna work today, do we?” she said “Well, I’m sorry but I’m not gonna let you off that easy.” When she had finished, she looked at Bo and said, “I don’t wanna get your hopes up, but his resistance to the exercises is stronger today than it’s ever been. I think he may definitely be trying to come out of the coma.”

“That’s great!” Bo said enthusiastically.

“Bo, listen to me. Even if he comes out of the coma, we don’t know what kind of condition he’ll be in. He’s still gonna need a lot of therapy to get back to normal.”

“Yeah, but at least he’ll be awake instead of just lying there.”

“Since you’re here you wanna help me get him into the chair?”

“Sure. What do ya want me to do?”

“Well, if you want to, you can just pick him up.”

“Okay.” Bo said. Carefully, he slipped one arm under Luke’s knees and the other arm behind his cousin’s shoulders. Gently, he lifted him out of the bed and then sat him down in the chair. Cindy handed him a specially designed contoured pillow to put under Luke’s head to keep it upright so it wouldn’t fall to the side. She handed him a second pillow and instructed him to put it under Luke’s knees. When Bo had finished, she handed him a lap blanket to cover Luke with.

“I’m going to go see about getting those tests done.” Cindy told Bo with a smile “I know he’ll be in good hands till I get back.”

As she left the room, Bo sat down beside Luke and gently started stroking his arm. “I know you’re in there somewhere, cuz….and I know you’re trying to come back to us. Just keep fighting…I know you can do it.”

Bo and the rest of the family were in Luke’s room having supper when Cindy came in to the room. She smiled at the picture of the family having their meal with Luke sitting in his chair beside them, still included in this ordinary family routine even if he wasn’t aware of it.

“I just wanted to stop by for a minute and let you know the results of the tests I had done this afternoon. They are very promising. Luke is trying to wake up. I’m positive of that now. He’s responding not only to painful stimuli, but also to certain sounds and I’m fairly certain that he can feel it when he’s touched he just isn’t awake enough to respond to that yet. I wish I could tell you how soon he’ll actually wake up but I can’t. It could be a few days or a few weeks. All we can do is wait and see.”  She smiled as she walked over to Luke’s side and gently stroked the side of his face “But I don’t think it’ll be long before he’s back with us. Will it be, Luke?”

“We can’t begin to tell you how much we appreciate what you’ve all done for Luke.” Jesse said gratefully

“That’s our job. That’s why we’re here.” Cindy told him “And it’s cases like Luke that makes it all worthwhile…for all of us.” Bidding the family goodbye, she left the room.