While My Sister Sleeps Read Online Free PDF Page B

needed
reassurance.
“How could this happen?” she cried in a burst of pent-up fear. “Robin is totally healthy. She should have woken up by now, shouldn't she? I mean, it's fine for her to be unconscious for a little while, but this long? What if she doesn't wake up, Chris? What if there
is
brain damage? What if she
never
wakes up?”
    He looked upset but said nothing, and just when Molly would have screamed in frustration, Tami Fitzgerald approached. Tamimanaged their garden products store. She was rarely in this early either, but there was purpose in her stride.
    Molly wasn't in the mood for a delivery problem. Not now.
    Apparently, neither was Tami. “I heard Robin was in the hospital,” she said, looking concerned. “How is she?”
    Actually, Molly would have preferred a delivery problem. Snow Hill people were like family. What should she tell them? Not having run this past Kathryn or Charlie, she deferred to Chris, but his face remained blank. Curious, she asked Tami, “How did you hear?”
    “My brother-in-law works with the EMTs. He said something about her heart.”
    So much for just saying Robin was “sick.”
    Again, Molly waited for Chris, but he was silent. And someone needed to say something. “We don't know much more,” Molly finally said. “There was some kind of heart episode. They're running tests.”
    “Wow. Is it serious?”
    How to answer that? Too much, and Kathryn would be angry. “I just don't know. We're waiting to hear.”
    “Will you tell me when you do? Robin's the last person I imagine having even a cold.”
    “Really,” Molly said in agreement and added, “I'm sure she'll be fine.”
    “That's good. Robin is absolutely the best. Let me know if there's anything I can do.”
    Molly waited only until Tami disappeared into the garden center before glaring at Chris. “
I
didn't know what to say. Couldn't you have helped?”
    “You did great.”
    “But what if it's not true? What if she's not fine?”
    He put his hands in his pockets.
    “Last night?” Molly hurried on, needing to confess. “When the hospital first called? I thought it was nothing. The nurse told me to come right away, but I didn't want to have to wait for Robin, so I did things around the house for a while. She was in a coma, and I was taking a shower so
I'd feel
nice.”
    He looked pained but remained silent.
    “She has to wake up,” Molly begged. “She's the backbone of this family. What would Mom
do
if she doesn't wake up?” When Chris shrugged, she cried, “You're no help!”
    “What do you want me to
say?
” he asked. “I don't
have the answers!
”
    Molly checked her watch. More than an hour had passed since she'd left the hospital. “Maybe Mom does. I'm going back to the hospital.”
    KATHRYN stood between her husband and the neurologist, studying MRI shots of a brain. The doctor said it was Robin's, and yes, Robin had been wheeled out of intensive care and been gone the requisite amount of time. But based on what the doctor was saying about the shade and delineation of dead tissue, this film couldn't be Robin's. The damage here was profound.
    Kathryn was more frightened than she had ever been in her life, and Charlie's arm around her brought little comfort. She looked to the intensivist for clarification, but he was focused on the neurologist.
    We'll get another specialist
, she thought.
Two specialists, two opinions.
    But there was Robin's name, clearly marked on the film. And there was all that dark area showing no flow of blood. There was nothing ambiguous about it.
    The neurologist went on. Kathryn tried to listen, but it was hard to hear over the buzz in her head. Finally, he stopped speaking. It was a minute before she realized it was her turn.
    “Well,” she said, struggling to think. “Okay. How do we treat this?”
    “We don't,” the neurologist said in a compassionate voice. “Once brain tissue dies, it's gone.”
    Darting a look at Robin, she shushed him. The last thing Robin