Almost Too Late
by Sydni
Part One
"No, Honey, they say she is going to fine in time." Jim tried to calm his sister’s worries, as his stomach fought against the nauseating hospital smells. "She hasn’t regained consciousness yet," he continued, " but they say that we were very lucky to make it out alive.""How did this happen?" Honey asked in a bewildered tone, tears clogging her throat. "What were you two doing together anyway?"
Jim had known that that question would be asked of him and had debated how to answer his sweet-hearted sister without making her feel somewhat responsible for what had taken place. "Honey," he began, " it’s…it’s a long story. We were going to surprise you." He sighed heavily. "God, Honey, how could this have happened? Why with all her fire and all her spirit, why does it have to be Trixie to get into a bind again?" His voice fairly cracked with these last heavy words.
"Jim, we both know Trixie…this won’t hold her up one iota. She’ll be out of that hospital bed before any of us can come visit her!" Honey spoke with quiet determination, as if to convince both herself and her adopted brother that her words were true. "She just has to!"
Jim sighed heavily once more. "I’m sorry that I had to call and tell you this, Honey. We were planning a much different reunion with you. Look, I’ve got to call the rest of her family, as well as the other Bob-Whites. I promise to contact you as soon as I’m told anything else."
"I understand, Jim. I’ll tell Brian what’s going on as soon as he gets back to the ship today. Until we talk again, you’re both in our hearts…and everyone will be praying for you."
"Thanks, Sis," Jim said gratefully, but wearily. "It means so much to me that I was able to get a hold of you before I had to call everyone else. We love you, too!"
After that, they said their good-byes; Jim hung up the phone and slumped back against the stark wall, closing his eyes to summon some more strength. How can she be unconscious in that hospital bed, when all I got was a broken wrist? Where's the justice in this? Trixie, honey, you’ve got to wake up!
Jim realized that he didn’t have the emotional stamina to call everyone else yet with the bad news. He found himself walking down the pristine hallway again towards Trixie’s IC room. He stopped in his tracks just after entering the door. A shaft of light was strewn against her bed, spotlighting the left side of her body.
The site of Trixie’s bruised and swollen face covered by her trademark corn-silk curls, fairly physically struck Jim in the stomach with one hard wallop. One half of her face was swollen more than twice it’s normal size, with a myriad of purple hues contrasting against the pale creamy skin of the rest of her face.
Jim moved slowly to her bedside, picking her lifeless left hand with his uninjured right without thinking. Oh, Trixie girl, come back to me! You have to be okay! There is so much that I need to tell you. I had it all planned. This trip was going to be our chance and I was finally going to get over myself, and my fears of losing the most important person in my life, and tell you how I so deeply feel. Honey, come back to me!
Trixie stirred in her bed as if she heard his beckoning thoughts, but she did not awaken. Jim sat back in the chair he had formally vacated in order to call Honey, not letting loose the cold hand within his grasp. He started thinking back to the early hours of the day before any of this had happened. He remembered how his heart warmed immediately upon seeing Trixie’s grin and dancing eyes when she opened her dorm room door at nine o’clock that morning. She had laughed with glee at seeing her best guy friend for the first time since the winter holiday back in Sleepyside, as well as at the prospect of the adventure that they were both secretly about to start.
Though Jim was finishing up his fourth year and soon his degree at New York State, Trixie had just finished her last exams of her first year at George Washington University in Washington DC. After months of e-mailing, the original bizarre idea that Trixie had, had developed into a full-fledged plan to celebrate the end of their grueling college years and promised to be an amazing adventure to start out another Bob-White summer. Trixie had jokingly named their upcoming trip "Project Welcome Home" and Jim had fallen under her contagious energy to happily allow the theme to stay.
Finally, after more than a year apart from their siblings, they were both going to be reunited with their siblings and those siblings were sure to be quite surprised. Honey and Brian had surprised everyone last May themselves when they had announced that they were newly engaged, and that they were leaving the country to travel on a mercy ship for a whole year. Brian had been accepted to partake in an internship with the mercy ship before moving on for his residency a year later. Honey had been only too glad to volunteer her services wherever needed on the ship, not only to be with her new fiancee but to also have a chance to help so many hurting children in some of the world’s most poverty-stricken countries. And after all this time, they were going to see them again.
If only things hadn’t gone so wrong! I swear, I didn’t see that car coming. His light was RED! I had gazed over at Trix’s beaming face as we laughed over former trips of the Bob-Whites’. I know that I was almost hypnotized by her gorgeous smile, but I couldn’t have had my eyes off the road for more than a second! But, even though I jerked the wheel so roughly that my wrist snapped, it was too late. That man’s dead, Trixie’s unconscious in a strange city hospital bed, and all I can do is sit here and wait! God, help me!
Jim bent over in his chair, wrung out by the strong emotions running through him. He didn’t know what to do without his love, Trixie, though she didn’t have a clue as to how he felt. He was near tears when he felt a movement from the hand within his grasp. A soft moan of pain brought his head quickly up in time to see Trixie stirring much in her bed. He stood as he noticed her lashes starting to flutter. With bated breath, he watched her eyelids finally lift and her usually bright blue eyes bleakly begin to take in a focus.
"Trixie, honey, you’re okay. Don’t be frightened. It’s not as bad as it seems right now," Jim hastened to stop Trixie from becoming distressed before it could happen. Her hand turned over within his as her eyes slowly moved to take him in. "Hey, Trixie," he said with an expectant grin. "Baby, you’ve come back to me."
"What did you call me?" came a wispy from the bedsheets.
"Trixie," Jim replied with a bit of concern now laced in his tone.
"Honey, you’re in the hospital. We had a car accident but you’re going to be just fine. I’m just so happy to see those baby blues again!" Jim became worried when a confused look came over those blue eyes and the hand within his was pulled from his grasp.
"I-I’m sorry, I don’t quite understand," Trixie said. "Are you my doctor? Where am I? And what happened to me?" Pain clouded her eyes some more. Jim sucked in a sharp breath at that.
"Trixie, don’t you remember? Don’t you know me?"
Very confused eyes took him in. "I’m sorry. I don’t know who you are. I really can’t recall anything…" Her voice drifted off as she lost consciousness once again. Jim stared down at her in utter fear and dismay. Quickly, he turned toward the door and bellowed with his heart in his throat, "DOCTOR!"