Dying Words
Julie Lein
Jill reclined in her uncomfortable plastic chair, crossing her arms as she stared at her grandmother on the hospital bed. They had been here for days, ever since her grandmother had lapsed into a coma. Jill had discovered her grandmother collapsed on the kitchen floor.
The doctors were baffled. Jill’s grandmother was in perfect health, all the medical tests came back normal. Her grandmother shouldn’t be in a coma, yet she was. All they could do was wait and hope she woke up.
Jill yawned, fighting fatigue. She’d been up for days by her grandmother’s bedside, just waiting. She’d rest for just a few minutes. If her grandmother awoke, Jill would be right here. She leaned forward, resting her head on her arms on her grandmother’s bed. Closing her eyes, she was soon asleep.
“I’m a witch.”
“What? Grandma?” Jill asked, startled out of her nap. Lifting her head off the hospital bed, she looked into her grandmother’s eyes.
“I’m a witch and so are you,” she whispered again.
Jill’s flesh grew cold, her heart pounded. She opened her mouth to speak, but no words came. She thought she saw a flicker of life in her grandma’s eyes.
“Can you hear me? Grandma?” Jill implored. Then she saw her grandmother’s eyes drift out of focus, looking right through her.
“Grandma, can you see me?” Jill stood, gripping her grandmother’s hand as she moved in closer. Her grandmother’s eyes then closed and she was gone.
Jill looked up in time to see her grandmother’s heart monitor flat line. Her grandmother’s heart had stopped beating!
“No!” She screamed as a team of medical personnel rushed past her, pushing her out of the way. She let go of her grandmother’s hand as they surrounded her grandmother’s bed. Jill saw the bright red crash cart being wheeled in and the doctor prep the shock paddles.
“Clear!” He yelled at the medical team. They stopped working and moved off her grandmother as he positioned the paddles and administered the shock.
Her grandmother’s tiny body lifted up off the bed in a violent jolt from the electric shock before falling back onto the bed. The doctor shocked her again and again, each time increasing the power, all with no change in her grandmother’s EKG. The deafening sound of the heart monitor was all she could hear. The flat line remained.
Giving up, the doctor shook his head, replacing the shock paddles.
“Time of death, 8:30 PM,” he spoke in monotone.
He then turned to Jill and approached her as the rest of the staff left the room in silence.
“Jill, I’m so sorry.”
Jill took a deep breath to stop her tears from flowing before speaking. After collecting herself, she looked up at the doctor.
“You did all that could to try and save her. Thank you for all your help.”
She paused before adding, “I’d like to be alone with her now.”
“I understand.”
Without hesitation, the doctor left, shutting the door behind him. Overwhelmed with emotion, Jill’s body shook out of control. She hugged herself and sobbed.
“Grandma, I love you, I’ll miss you,” she said as she sat down again by her grandmother’s bedside and held her still warm hand.
Did her grandmother say that she was a witch? No, couldn’t be. She shook her head. She closed her eyes and placed her grandmother’s hand on her cheek.
All of a sudden, she felt her grandmother’s fingers move on her face, she opened her eyes in time to see her grandmother’s head turn towards her and she was smiling, her eyes full of life and light.
Jill backed up in her chair, dropping her grandmother’s hand and falling backwards onto the tile floor. Her heart raced as she pushed herself off the floor and again looked at her grandmother lying on the bed.
Her grandmother’s eyes were shut and her head hadn’t moved as she thought it had. She looked the same as she did when Jill first sat down beside her just seconds ago.
Am I losing my mind? She thought. Jill picked up her grandmother’s hand and, with tenderness, kissed it before replacing it on the hospital bed beside her.
After making arrangements for her grandmother, Jill drove home exhausted, feeling empty inside. She didn’t realize she could miss someone so much, she thought, wiping away fresh tears. It had always been Jill and her grandma since she had been a little girl and her parents had given her up after divorcing. She never knew them and never wanted to, she had been content with her grandma, content and happy.
“I miss you so much, grandma,” Jill spoke out loud as she pulled into her garage. She shut off her car and sat for a long time before entering the house that she and her grandma had shared.
Jill tossed and turned in bed that night. In every dream, she could see her grandmother’s face looking up at her and hear her dying words, “I’m a witch” repeated over and over.
Jill sat up, running her hands through her tousled blonde mane. She had to see her again. She had to see her grandma one more time. Jill rushed to her closet, got dressed and hurried downstairs to grab her car keys before hustling out of the empty house. She hoped she would get there in time.
After the short drive back to the hospital, Jill found and entered the morgue, in search of her grandmother. As she made her way across the large, dark room, she saw her lying on a metal table, a sheet pulled up to her chin. She made eye contact with the one remaining medical examiner before speaking.
“I’m her granddaughter,” was all Jill could think to say. The medical examiner gave her an odd look, but said nothing as she stepped away from the grandmother’s body.
“I’ll give you some time,” she said, leaving the room. The metal doors slammed together behind her as she left, echoing throughout the lab.
What now? Jill thought.
She reached out and touched her grandmother’s cheek, the flesh felt cool to the touch. Jill held her grandmother’s hand as she did in her grandmother’s hospital room.
She noticed the star shaped birthmark on her grandmother’s right cheekbone, just in front of her right ear. Jill’s free hand moved to her own cheek, touching the same star shaped birthmark on her right cheekbone. She remembered her grandmother always telling her, even when Jill was very little, that the birthmark made her special, different from any other girl. Did the birthmark make them witches?
How could she find out for sure?
Jill knew of only one thing to do.
She sat down on the steel table next to her grandmother. With all her energy, Jill pulled her grandmother’s fragile body up and held her to her chest, making sure the birthmarks on their cheeks touched as she held her grandmother close. Jill then felt an intense heat in her right cheek. She could see the glow in her periphery emanating from their cheeks touching. The heat scalded her, but she refused to let go.
“Come back to me,” she whispered into her grandmother’s ear.
“Come back to me,” she repeated, this time through tears.
Jill closed her eyes and rocked her grandmother back and forth, trying to block out the pain. She knew only a few seconds had passed, but it seemed more like minutes or even hours, still she held on.
“Please, grandma, please,” Jill pleaded through tears that were now overflowing.
Then in an instant, the pain and the heat were gone.
Just a second later, she felt her grandmother’s arms come to life and hug her.
“I’m here,” her grandmother whispered into Jill’s ear.
