“Move,” says another voice.
A woman stands over me. “Kris, I’m Dr. Elizabeth Young. We’re so happy you’re awake. You’ve got a tube down your throat. It was helping you breathe. I’m going to remove it, but I need to undo a few things first.”
“He’s awake?” asks someone I can’t see.
“Yep, let’s get this tube out of him.”
Another female face comes into view and smiles, then the tube is pulled out of my throat. I cough and splutter as it comes out of my mouth. My throat is sore, they press a button, and the bed moves into an upright position.
“Don’t try to speak,” orders Dr. Young.
She thrusts a cup of water at me, and I gratefully take a sip. Looking around the room, there’s the doctor, a nurse, and a big guy, but I don’t know any of them.
“A-Athena?” I whisper.
The doctor glances at the nurse then back to me.
“Kris, you’ve been asleep for a long time. Don’t try to speak, give it time.”
Shaking my head, I ask in a whisper, “How long?”
“Ten weeks.”
With a shaking hand, I reach up and touch my head. The movement is jerky, and my body feels alien to me.
“Take it slow. Your body will have to learn how to do everything again.” I scowl at the doctor, and she repeats herself, “Take it slow.”
My arm falls back on the bed. I clench and unclench my hand, and the movement isn’t fluid. I scowl at it. The doctor moves the sheet, exposing my leg, takes a pen out of her pocket and runs it up the sole of my foot. My body jerks in response.
“Good.”
“Athena,” I whisper, and the word grates on my throat.
“How about we call your father?”
I’m so tired, but the one thing I know is I want Athena. I shake my head and try to speak again.
“Okay, Kris, we get it, you want Athena.”
The doctor looks at the nurse, and she gives her a slight shake of her head. I don’t understand why Athena isn’t here, but she’s the only one I want to see.
“Don’t.” Both look at me. “Tell anyone I’m a-awake.”
“Kris, your family will want to know.”
I shake my head, close my eyes, and fall back asleep.
***
Two days later, and I wake up again. The same big man is in the room positioned near the door reading.
“Hey,” I whisper, and my throat doesn’t feel as sore.
He looks up and smiles. “Hello, Mr. Livingston, I’m Clive.” He gets up and moves toward my bed. “You’re probably wondering who I am.” I nod. “I was hired by Gabby Turner. There are four of us, and we work on six-hour shifts to make sure fans or press don’t sneak in here to snap a picture of you and to ensure you are safe. We work for a company called Triple Threat Security.”
I nod, it makes sense to hire a security company.
“Athena?” I ask.
“She’s not here. I asked one of the nurses about her. Your Athena hasn’t been here for some time. The nurses like to gossip, they said she went home.”
I shake my head as none of what he said makes sense. “She wouldn’t.”
Clive shrugs and looks at the floor then up at me. “Your dad will be here on Friday. He normally brings visitors, too. So, you can ask them.”
“What day is it?” My throat burns, and Clive picks up a cup with a straw in it and puts it to my mouth. The liquid soothes my throat.
“It’s Thursday.”
“Take me home.”
Clive frowns and shakes his head. “Not sure I can do that, Mr. Livingston.”
“It’s Kris, take me to Athena.”
Clive’s lips turn down, and his eyebrows go up. “You’ve just woken. I’m not sure if medically, we can even move you. You’ve been in a coma for ten weeks, Kris. I heard the doc say you’re probably going to have to learn how to do everything again.”
“I don’t care.”
Clive smiles. “Let me get a nurse.”
“Clive—”
“Yeah, yeah, roll with me here.”
Clive leaves, and I let my head fall back, raising my arm. It shakes, and the once-easy movement exerts far too much energy. With a groan, I let it fall back. Clive walks back in with the nurse from the other day.
“Hello, Kris, Clive tells me you want to leave?” I nod. “Kris, your body is still recovering.”
“I’ll pay someone to look after me.”
“I understand you want to see your loved ones, but your dad will be here tomorrow night. He normally stays for the weekend.”
I shake my head. “Athena.”
She looks at Clive. “We can’t stop you from leaving, but for your own health, you should stay. You have a catheter.”
In a raspy voice, I say, “I’ll pay you to come with me, you and Clive.”
She smiles at me like she’s humoring a small child. “Let me get the doctor.”
I shake my head. “Does anyone know I’m awake?”
“No, but—”
I hold up a hand, and she falls silent. “Athena.”
“We could call her and get her to come here?”
Again, I shake my head. “I’ll pay you a year’s wages if you travel with me. I made her a promise. Please.”
Clive moves closer and looks at the nurse. “Sue, is there any kind of life-threatening reason he can’t go?”
“You mean apart from the fact he only just woke up from a coma?”
Clive winks at me. “A year’s wages, Sue. Does that go for me as well?”
“Anything to get me to Athena.”
“I say, let’s do it. If something goes wrong, we’ll check him into a hospital.”
“I don’t know…” Sue chews on her bottom lip.
“Your kid has been wanting to do that school trip. You’d have enough money to pay for it,” replies Clive charmingly.
“I’ll pay for that, too.”
Both look at me.
“Let me get the doctor first, and we’ll go from there.”
***
After much arguing, they let me sign myself out. Clive, on my behalf, hires a private plane to transport us to Boothbay Harbor. I sleep most of the way there. It’s the early hours of Friday morning when we arrive at Wiscasset Airport. Clive carries me from the plane to a waiting car even though I’ve regained some use of my legs. Nurse Sue has taken good care of me the whole trip and is fussing over me. Turns out she’s a single mom, and her parents are looking after her son while she escorts me.
I’m tired, sore, and my body won’t do what I want it to do, but I have to see Athena. When we arrive in Boothbay Harbor, it’s only five o’clock in the morning.
“Clive, small detour. My father’s house is just up here. He’ll be awake, he always is this time of day.”
“Anything you want, Kris.”
My father’s home is on the waterfront, and we have to drive past Athena’s to get to it. I look up at her house on the bluff, but it’s obscured by trees and lack of light.
The big black SUV parks out the front of my father’s house, and I see the light on inside. “Go knock on his door.”