---

 

This writing was accepted for publication in the 108-page perfect-bound ISSN#/ISBN# issue/paperback book “Open Your Eyes” cc&d, v325 (the September 2022 issue) Order the 6"x9" paperback book:

Order this writing in the book Unable To Escape It the cc&d September-December 2022 magazine issues collection book		get the 422-page September-December 2022 cc&d magazine 6" x 9" ISBN# perfect-bound paperback book:

Coma

Mike Schneider

Tuesday 11:56 a.m.
The Cops

“Do you think he’s alive?”
    “Probably not. Isn’t moving. No blood running that I can see.”
    “The doors are locked. There’s no fire. Breaking a window might result in cuts, or more cuts, and there’s nothing we can do for him anyway. Fire department will be here in a minute or two with the hydraulics, they’ll get him out.”
    “Yeah, I hear the sirens.”
    “I’ll grab the clipboard and start writing. You can take your reflectors and get ready to direct traffic.”
    “Will do. Man! The few parts on this car that aren’t scrunched are dented all to hell. I’ve never seen a car so heavily damaged by hitting a parked vehicle.”
    “Yeah but look at the vehicle.”

6:21 p.m.
Third Floor Nurses Station

    “Oh my God! Claude Langston is in a coma in Room 307?”
    “Yes, brought him up while you were at lunch. Who is he?”
    “A very well-known resident of Boone Township. You could call him Mr. Boone Township. He has a 900-acre grain farm, nowadays rents out most of it. Been a township trustee for something like 30 or 40 years, ambulance board, fire board, cemetery board, and I forget what others. Where I live is a much better place thanks to Claude. I went to school with his three kids. They’re ok, I guess, but haven’t really lived up to their father’s hopes.”
    “What a shame. I hear his car looks like it got in a fight with a junkyard crusher. He could be brain dead for all we know.”

6:43 p.m.
The Kids

    “He looks like he’s sleeping but they say they can’t wake him up.”
    “Well, that’s what a coma is. Deep sleep. My guess is he won’t come out of it. He must have gotten tossed around pretty good, considering all the broken bones.”
    “I called Tobias Steinbauer. If he dies, he’s ready to buy.”
    “For a million-five?”
    “Nope, better. I told him a million-nine, we settled on a million-seven.”
    “That’ll give each one of us a pretty good chunk of change. Better than turning it into a preserve like the old man wanted to do.”
    “Don’t you think we’re putting the cart before the horse? He might live.”
    “You never know, Judy, but I doubt it. If he does, Steinbauer will buy a little later. That’ll be good for another price increase.”
    “I’m all for that.”
    “Me, too.”
    “Me three...I guess.”

10:18 p.m.
The Doctor and Interns

    “Sixty-three years old. Coma following an automobile accident. According to his chart, both tibias fractured, right humorous, left ulna, fluids, nutrition, and medication, cathed, EEG tomorrow.”
    “Do you think there’s anything going on in there?”
    “Hard to tell but we’ll find out.”
    “Is it true he slammed into a Sherman Tank?”
    “That’s what Nurse Overbeck said. In Badentown at the National Guard Armory. Speed limit is 55 through there, I pass it every day on my way in from Wood City. I guess he hit some ice, skidded off the road, slammed into the tank. Eighty-eight thousand pounds, 44 tons. No wonder he’s in a coma. Must be very few people get up and walk away from an accident with one of those.”

Wednesday 9:08 a.m.
Jeremy Jefferson

    “Hi Claude, it’s Jeremy. They said you could have visitors but from the looks of things I guess we’re not going to get much visiting done. If you can hear me, I want you to know I’m doing the chores—slopping the hogs, feeding the chickens, collecting eggs, and taking care of Old Bess and the calf. Man it’s been a long time since I’ve hand milked a cow but she was happy to see me both last night and this morning.
    “You’re about the only real farmer left in the township with the flavor of an old farm—eggs, milk, bacon, vegetable garden and fruit trees, berry bushes and grape vines.
    “I’ll continue doing the chores until you’re out of here and healed up. It’s the least I can do after you loaning me that $40,000 so I could save my farm. That was the craziest thing. Without it, I would have lost it. With it, you saved it for me, and I was able to quickly pay it back. Doesn’t seem right it should work that way but that’s farming in the 21^st century.”

10:19 a.m.
Sarah Stevens Eckberg Jordan Harrison

    “Hello Claude. Sarah. I hear your prognosis isn’t good. I hope they’re wrong. But if they aren’t, I want you to know you were the love of my life. I began falling in love with you the first time I saw you, shortly after we moved here in the middle of my sophomore year.
    “Remember that time my parents went to Chicago for the weekend, Saturday night we were making out on the davenport in the living room and you...well, you know. And I knew, after that, that I not only loved you but would always love you. I went through three husbands trying to find one like you. Never did. I’m sorry it didn’t work out between us but I’ll tell you this, I’ve put my prayer chain to work, and if you find your way out of this predicament, don’t be surprised if I come calling because...I still love you.”

2:44 p.m.
The Neurologist and the Kids

    “The EEG showed plenty of brain activity but he’s had a stroke in the left hemisphere and—”
    “Is that what caused the accident?”
    “It may have. His right side will likely be at least partially paralyzed, and he might have some trouble both speaking and understanding when—”
    “Will he get better?”
    “He may, if he wakes up.”
    “When will we know?”
    “Well, when he wakes up. And we have no way of knowing if he will. It’s not like a heart attack where you can put the paddles on the patient and they spring back to life.”
    “What are the chances, Doctor?”
    “Hard to tell. You know how they say with earthquakes the further away you are from the last one, the better the chances are of having the next one? Well, this is kind of opposite that. The further you are from when he went into the coma, the worse the chances are he’ll ever come out of the coma.
    “Meanwhile, his vitals are good, he’s getting nourishment, we’re keeping him hydrated, medicated, and none of his systems appear to be shutting down. We’ll just have to wait.”
    “And if he doesn’t come out of it?”
    “After a time he would be sent to a long-term care facility where he would get excellent care but at a much lower cost. There are several good ones in the metropolitan area.”
    “I hate not knowing.”
    “Same here.”
    “Please try to have patience. We’re doing everything we can for him.”

4:31 p.m.
Township Trustee Jay Rizzo

    “Hey Claude. I only have a minute, the truck’s double parked with the back door open like I’m making a delivery.
    “We missed you at the meeting last night. What a mess. We voted to do the improvements on Rohr Road, also hired Jake Talbot as an extra snow plow operator for the times Stan can’t make it because of Gwen’s cancer. I hear she’s much worse.
    “Ed and I split on the railroad crossing gates for Stern’s Way, need to get you healthy again to find out whether we’re getting them or not. Listen, you take care now, I’ll look forward to seeing you back at the trustees’ table when you wake up.”

Thursday 7:20 a.m.
Nurse Rowena Engle

    “Hello Claude. It’s Rowena Pelton. Rowena Engle now. I work this floor, I’m one of your nurses. I was off the last two days. That’s why I haven’t been here before.
    “First, I want to say, I honestly do hope you get better. I hope you wake up and have a complete recovery. That’s the truth.
    “Second is to tell you today they would call it date rape. I would go straight to the hospital to get checked, the police would ask for a rape kit, they’d find your DNA, and you’d be arrested. Draw jail time for sure, maybe prison.
    “I dropped out of high school after that, became a prostitute for about a year. Let men do all kinds of things to me. And I did all kinds of things to them. Why not? Whatever dignity I had, whatever worth, you stole. I had no value anymore. But to those men I did. They paid money.
    “That was a long time ago, but I’ll tell you something, you never get over it. It’s always there, lurking. Then every once in a while it pounces, sometimes from out of nowhere, often when you least expect it. I wouldn’t wish being raped on anyone. Not even you.
    “The turning point came when I got arrested for soliciting. Spent 30 days in the county jail. I imagine you saw it listed in the court records in the Herald. I wonder what you thought. Probably something stupid, like, ‘I knew she didn’t mean it when she kept saying no and trying to push me away.’
    “In jail the social worker took an interest in me. She knew someone at the A&P, recommended me for a job. I got my GED while working there. Then community college for an LPN degree, later an RN from the university.
    “That’s all the time I’m going to give you and it’s more than you deserve. Except to tell you, you took my life, temporarily, all those years ago. I could take yours now, permanently, if I wanted to. You’re lucky I don’t want to live with that.”

5:02 p.m.
Millie Morgan

    “Hi Claude. Can you hear me. I hope so because I want thank you again for taking Bob on at the farm back in the summer of ‘86. He’d been out of work for so long we were about to be evicted. Diane and Laci were 4 and 2, Sonny had just been born. Due to complications, I couldn’t work throughout the entire pregnancy, Bob was laid off at GM with no chance of getting back.
    “Our marriage was in the dumper, about to break up. You provided what we needed. You...you saved it for us. I know you paid him more than you paid others, to help us out. We so appreciated that.
    “Then the day all three combines broke down in the middle of the wheat harvest totally changed our lives. Using the knowledge, skills, and experience he’d learned at the drag strip from the time he was 14, Bob had them all running again in less than two hours and the harvest continued. You were so impressed you loaned us the money to open our shop. Today we’re the largest farm implements dealer in the county with the best on-farm emergency service anywhere. Not to mention sending all three kids through college, and one to law school, without them having to take college loans. We’ll never be able to thank you enough.
    “Take care, Claude. When you wake up we’re going to throw a big party for you.”

7:13 p.m.
Conference Call

    “So, did either of you go see the old man today?”
    “I didn’t. Jane has the adult mother-daughter club thing going on, I have the grandkid.”
    “I was going to but Tom asked me to fill in at the store for him.”
    “I didn’t go, either. However, I did go see Attorney Larry DeMarco to tell him about the old man and see what our options are. It was pretty interesting.”
    “What’d he say?”
    “He said we need to sign a DNR as soon as possible. Like yesterday.”
    “What’s a DNR?”
    “A Do Not Resuscitate order. According to DeMarco, if he lives in a coma all we can do is get ourselves declared trustees or guardians, or some such thing, will only be able to manage the money, won’t be able to get our hands on it. If he dies, then we can, as provided in his will.”
    “Are you guys sure we want to do that? What if he eventually wakes up and finds out?”
    “What if he does? He’ll be happy to be alive.”
    “I’m not so sure. How would we feel if we woke up and found our kids had done that?”
    “We don’t have to tell him about the DNR.”
    “I still don’t know.”
    “Trust me, sis, it’s the only thing to do. If he wakes up and signs the farm over to the land bank, county land preserve, or whatever it is he always babbles on about, we’ll end up with less than a hundred thousand each. If he dies you can up that six or seven times. But the thing is, we all must sign it. One holdout and they’ll have to bring him back from the dead.”
    “I’m not signing.”
    “Sis!”
    “Nope. Forget it.”

Friday 11:26 a.m.
Homeless Billy Jack Johns

    “Well you nasty old bastard, I see you finally got what you deserve. I’m glad you did. Overjoyed.
    “Only thing I regret is that a tank had to get you instead of me doing it to you 10 years ago. But I love the irony of a tank knocking the shit out of you, after you knocked it out of me while I was riding around in one in Iraq, you son-of-a-bitch!
    “There is some satisfaction, however, in that I was married to your trophy wife for seven years, and it only took her six months to see through your sorry ass and move back out west.
    “Here, I have a present for you, the nurses are going to love smelling this whiskey all over you. Asshole!”

12:46 p.m.
Claude Langston

    I sure wish I could wake up and talk to some of them, catch the looks on their faces, hear them cry, laugh, see them smile or frown. I can hear, can’t wake up. I want to, body’s not cooperating. And I don’t know that I’m long for this world.
    My ungrateful kids are in for the biggest surprise. About a year ago already that shyster, Toby Steinbauer, foolishly bragged to the wrong people that one day he would be building a housing tract on 1200 contiguous acres. That can only be me and Devon Whyte, who lives out in Hawaii now but still owns 300 acres that abut mine. Next biggest farm in the county is like 475 acres. Maynard Foise owns that one.
     As soon as I heard that, I got a hold of my lawyer, we put the land into an irrevocable trust, to be signed over to the Tinsdale County Land Preservation Cooperative, upon my death, or incapacitation, if the court so declares. Airtight. Nothing they can do.
    Rowena Pelton? I don’t know, I would love to talk to her about it. Maybe I did get carried away and rape her. But she’s not remembering all of it. While my memory of that night is, admittedly, foggy, what there is no mistaking is she had some LSD pills, said she had taken it before with no ill effects and we should try it together. We did. Did I rape her? Did she have a hallucination? Was she a willing participant? I don’t know. I’m not sure she does either but I would like to get to the bottom of it.
    If I could talk to Sarah, she’d be surprised to know I still love her, too. Or maybe she wouldn’t. But she clearly wasn’t a farm girl. She was made for the city. Billy Joel’s uptown girl, living in her white bread world, definitely not a country chick, cleaning up the chickens’ shit.
    But I’m retired now, others do the farming. I do take care of a few animals but tend to my small garden only when I feel like it. The interstate’s just a mile away, 18 minutes to the middle of downtown without a single red light or stop sign. If I get out of this mess it might work out. It wouldn’t be the same as when her parents headed to Chicago but it could still be pretty good.’

Three weeks later
Code Blue Team

    “Clear.”
    “Damn!”
    “Again. Clear.”
    “Almost had it.”
    “Once more. Clear.”
    “Got it. It’s beating again!”
    “And look, his eyes are open.”
    “Good morning, Mr. Langston. How are you feeling.”
    “Morning. Like crap...but awake.”

Copyright of written pieces remain with the author, who has allowed it to be shown through Scars Publications and Design.Web site © Scars Publications and Design. All rights reserved. No material may be reprinted without express permission from the author.

Problems with this page? Then deal with it...