The Long Way Home by Phillip Overton
****
Rowena returned over an hour later to a room full of people. She stood in the doorway and looked at the circle of family gathered around Simon’s bed. Doug sat on the end of the bed, hand gently squeezing Simon’s leg while he sat up talking to everyone. There was Doug’s brother Barry leaning casually against one of the monitors, Doug’s father William sat nearby in one of the armchairs looking frail and tired and sitting next to him were Jim and Laura Braddley, her elderly neighbours from across the street. Laura was more like the unofficial babysitter who would invite Simon across the road for afternoon tea when he would get home from school to find that his mother was working late at the supermarket. Her sister Gail and brother-in-law Tim were standing as close to Simon as they could possibly get, Gail squeezing Simon’s hand, Tim with his arm around his wife. At first she thought they had left the two kids at home but on a closer inspection there they were, squashed between their parents and the side of the hospital bed.
“Rowena!” Gail squealed with delight as she noticed her sister standing in the open doorway. She immediately ran over and hugged Rowena, squeezing the wind from her. “Where have you been?”
“I had to go for a walk and clear my head, it’s all been too much.”
Gail broke down and cried into her sister’s shoulder as she continued to hug her sister, gently rocking her back and forth.
“Didn’t I tell you to never give up hope? Didn’t I?”
“Yes I’m sure you did plenty of times.” Rowena replied pulling her sister away from her yellow silk blouse. “It’s incredible news isn’t it?”
“Hi Mum.” Simon shouted above the noise of the room as Rowena edged through the crowd to reach his side.
“Rowena, you must be overwhelmed with delight dear.” Laura spoke up as Rowena passed in front of her.
“Yes I am, more than you can imagine Mrs Braddley. Thank you so much for coming to visit.”
“I wanted to see the miracle for myself dear, we’ve all been praying for his recovery for the last month and a bit, and God has answered our prayers.” She dabbed her teary eyes with her handkerchief.
“While you were out Rowena, Simon was telling us all about his brush with heaven.” Gail spoke from across the room. “Isn’t it the most touching story you have ever heard?”
“Yes it was.” Rowena looked up, unable to bite her tongue. “It was a lovely story, but that’s all it is, a story. Let’s not try to make anything out of this now, okay Gail?”
“Hi everyone.” A voice called from the doorway. They all turned around to see Susan Wilkes, the mother of Simon’s best friend who lived in the next street, standing in the doorway with her five children. “It looks like you’re pretty full in here so I might get the kids to wait outside in the hallway. Say hi to Simon kids.”
“Hi Simon.” They sang in chorus.
“Brian!” Simon shouted from the bed as he watched his best friend dart between the grown-ups that had nearly filled the room and pop up beside the bed. Brian gave him a quick hug and the two boys were soon busy chatting.
“Don’t you believe him Rowena?” Laura Braddley asked, tugging at Rowena’s sleeve. “Why would a little boy who’s been in a coma make something like that up? It’s a miracle from God, that’s what it is.”
“It’s not that I don’t believe my own son Mrs Braddley, it’s just that I’m not a religious person so I tend not to look at things and a try to give them some sort of religious meaning.”
“Oh Rowena!” Gail exclaimed. “How can you still be so narrow-minded in light of what you’ve just seen? Try and have a little faith.”
“That would mean being religious now wouldn’t it?” Rowena smiled, choosing sarcasm as the best defence. “Can we talk about this later, please?”
Inside she wanted to scream, she was the one who spent most of her nights propped up in the chair after work wondering if she would ever hear her son talk again, see him walk or if he would come out of the coma at all. Sure they felt upset by it all, but they didn’t have to go through the sense of loss that a mother does in a situation such as this, to the point of grieving for her child. It was all too easy for them to flood in as soon as there was a happy ending and cry ‘sweet Jesus our prayers have been answered.’ Honestly, she was going to strangle the next person that said something like that.
“Praise the Lord!” A voice boomed from the doorway. “It’s a miracle!”
Rowena turned around to see Ray, the railway worker who had found Simon on that Tuesday night over five weeks ago. ‘Oh God!’ She thought before cursing herself for the irony. The guy had called by almost every afternoon since they had admitted Simon to the hospital. He seemed a nice enough man but had kept rambling about another man that had been there that night actually finding Simon first. The more he talked about it the more convinced he became that it was an Angel. Gail ended up converting him on one of her visits and he turned all religious, spending ages praying over her son while she just had to sit there until she couldn’t take it anymore and had to leave the room.
Doug walked over to shake the guy’s hand and lead him through the crowd so he could be at the side of the bed.
“This everybody,” Doug’s voice silenced the room. “This is the man that saved Simon’s life! This is the hero who rescued my son from what will always be remembered as a terrible night. I’m so glad he could be here tonight so that Simon can meet him in person.”
“You couldn’t have kept me away for the world.” Ray said as he patted Simon on the head, gently messing up his hair. “But I’m sure we’d all agree there were forces at work far greater than ours. I’m not shy to admit that I believe it was an Angel that found Simon that night in the railway yard and I’ll never forget him telling me to let his family know that he was going to be alright. So that’s what I did almost every day, I just knew he couldn’t be wrong.”
Rowena saw Doug cast a nervous glance across the room at her, feeling the sickening pain of guilt in the pit of her stomach. She remembered they were going to turn the life support off after this weekend. They hadn’t told anyone else about it, and she didn’t want them to find out either. She would definitely have to talk to Doug about that.
“Who gave you the lovely pendant?” Gail asked Simon as she leant over the bed to examine it closely.
“You must be thrilled Rowena, could you have imagined a better result?” Ray asked her, obviously delighted. “I’m so happy for you and Doug.”
“When do the doctors say he’s likely to get out?” Tim asked, trying to join in the conversation.
“Rowena I want to talk to you now, outside!” Gail barked at her before turning apologetically to Ray and her husband. “Excuse us for a minute won’t you.”
Rowena’s head whirled from one person to the next. Before she could answer any of their questions she was being led out of the room by her sister who had a firm grip on her arm.
“What the hell is your problem?” She demanded once the two of them were outside of the room.
“Ah, that’s funny. That’s real funny sister. What is this, some kind of sick joke to you?” Gail let fly at her with a verbal spray while trying to remember she was in a hospital and keeping her voice low.
“I’ve got no idea what you are talking about.”
“Don’t act dumb for my benefit. I want to know where you got Mum’s pendant from. You know the one I got her for her birthday with the silver crucifix on it. The one your son has around his neck!” She raised her voice as she finished the sentence.
“You tell me Gail, I don’t remember exactly where or when Mum gave it to him but apparently he thinks that he got it from his Grandma at Heaven’s beach! It’s no wonder when you’re all encouraging him in there to believe his dream is real.”
“Are you absolutely sure?” Gail hushed her voice now as she leant close to ask Rowena, “Are you sure nobody gave it to you after Mum’s funeral to pass on to Simon? Please don’t lie, and please don’t tell me this is some kind of si
“What are you getting at? I only noticed he was wearing it after he had come out of the coma. I didn’t give it to him alright, I thought maybe you had so what is your problem?”
“My problem is I spent a whole day before her funeral looking for it. I wanted her to wear it when we buried her since there was no chance of having her look nice.” She put her head in her hands and burst into tears remembering how horrible the accident was.
“Are you certain that it’s hers?” Rowena asked quietly. “There are a lot of people in there that could have bought Simon a necklace that looked just like Mum’s without either of us knowing.”
“That’s impossible! You weren’t there Rowena. You didn’t get the call to go down and identify Mum’s body after the car crash. I did that so you didn’t have to. You had enough to deal with already. That pendant is the one that Mum was wearing on the night of the car crash!” Gail paused as she burst into tears. “Apart from their drivers’ licenses and credit cards it was one of the few things I could use to identify her. So you see there is no way Mum could have given it to Simon herself. All I want to know is how it managed to vanish after I identified her body and then somehow reappear three weeks later around Simon’s neck without any of us noticing.”