The First Summer of My New Life

              The First Summer of My New Life


     Running backward, Mitch almost fell on Tina. Who was
sitting on the beach watching the volleyball game that Mitch
was a part of. Only her standing hands and arms behind her
stopped her from falling. Instead, Mitch rolled off her to a
sitting position too. Just in time to catch the volleyball
heading toward him.

     Tina looked at Mitch and smiles. “That’s one way to
meet a girl.”

     “Who says that I was trying to meet you?” Mitch asked.
“Maybe I was just trying to catch the ball.”

     “Then why did you keep looking back at me while you
were doing that,” answered Tina. “Adjusting your movement to
do it?”

     Mitch smiled back. “Okay, you’re right. One of the
reasons why I did it was to meet you. But another reason was
to invite you to join our volleyball game.”

     “I was thinking about doing that,” said Tina. “But I
don’t think I’m ready to do it just yet.”

     “Why not?” Mitch asked. “We know you have been watching
us. Is it because you are new to our area? And you are shy
about making new friends.”

     Tina's thumb pointed to the house behind her. “I’m not
new here. We have lived here for almost three years. It’s
just that I have been in a coma for about two and a half of
those years.”

     Mitch’s mouth dropped open and his eyes appeared to
bulge outward a little when he looked at where Tina was
pointing. A man with an angry look on his face and his arms
crossed on his chest was walking toward them. He stopped
right behind Tina.

     “What’s going on here?” Jackson asked. “Is this boy
bothering you?”

     “Of course, he isn’t. And nothing is going on here,”
said Tina. “He just came over to invite me to join their
volleyball game.”

     Jackson never took his eyes off Mitch. “That’s not the
way it looked to me.”

     “I saw what happened,” continued Jackson. “If you
hadn’t still been sitting up, he would have rolled in the
other direction.”

     “No, he wouldn’t have,” said Tina. “If he had, he would
have missed the volleyball.”

     Jackson stopped staring at the trembling and shaking
Mitch to look at Tina. “I think that you have been out here
long enough. It’s time for you to come back inside anyway.”

     “It hasn’t been that long,” replied Tina. “I have only
been out here a couple of hours.”

                              #

     “I HATE YOU, I HATE YOU, I HATE YOU,” Tina screamed as
she left the living room. “I HATE YOU.”

     Jackson smiled. “Don’t you just have to love them when
they are this age?”

     “It’s going to be okay, Jackson,” said Victoria. “She
may be mad at you right now. But she will get over it.”

     “I don’t know about that,” replies Jackson. “After all,
I am the reason why she doesn’t have any friends right now.”

     Victoria hugged her husband, Jackson. “Give her a few
minutes to calm down. And I will go up to talk to her”

     A few minutes later Victoria knocked on Tina’s bedroom
door. When she didn’t get a ‘come in’ because of all the
bellowing, Victoria enters anyway. She went over to Tina
lying face down on her bed crying. “You know your father
had no choice but to do what he has done.”

     “I know,” said Tina as she sat up next to her mother.
Wiping tears from her eyes as she did it. “But I still don’t
have any friends because of him anymore.”

     “You may not have any friends right now. But you will
make some new ones real soon,” replied Victoria.

     Jackson was pacing around the living room of their new
beach house when Victoria returned. “Does she still hate me
for what I have done?”

     “Of course, she does. She’s ten,” answered Victoria.
“But she will get over it.”

     “How did you do that?” Jackson asked.

     Victoria smiled. “That was easy. All I had to do was to
remind her that she still had friends from where we used to
live. In fact, she’s talking to some of them right now.”

     Suddenly, Jackson and Victoria heard a big loud thud
coming from upstairs. They looked in the direction of where
it had come from as they ran up to Tina’s bedroom. Both
stopped just after they entered to see Tina lying on the
floor by her bed.

     “What happened?” Jackson asked.

     “We don’t know Mr. and Mrs. Peterson,” answered Hanna.
Hanna was now on a sideways turned computer screen on the
floor next to Tina. “One second we were all talking. And the
next she was on the floor looking dead.”

                              #

     Jackson and Victoria paced next to each other up and
down the hallway in front of where Tina was being examined
by two doctors. Their hands were almost white after being
clasped together like they were. When they got to the window
where Tina was, they stopped and stared at what was going on
in there.

     A few minutes later Dr. Bradley Vance and Dr. Kelly
Nath came out of Tina's examination. They were still talking
to each other when they got to Jackson and Victoria. “What’s
wrong with our little girl?” Jackson asked.

     “We don’t know what is wrong with Tina yet,” answered
Bradley. “But we have already done several tests on her.”

     "We’re just waiting for the results of those tests,"
said Kelly. “We will know more after we get them.”

     Jackson and Victoria looked at each other with fear on
their faces. “What do you mean by that?” Victoria asked.

     “That’s our little girl in there,” said Jackson. “Can’t
you tell us anything about what is wrong with her?”

     “Unfortunately, we don’t know too much yet. But what we
do know is that Tina is very, very sick,” said Bradley.

     Jackson and Victoria looked at each other again. Their
fear even worse now. “How sick is she?” Victoria asked. “Is
she sick enough that she’s going to die?”

     Victoria double held one of Tina’s hands. And Jackson
did the same thing with her other hand. Jackson patted that
hand. “Everything is going to be okay,” said Jackson.

     “Of Course, she is. Now that we know what is wrong with
her,” said Victoria.

     Jackson and Victoria both looked up at Tina asleep on a
bed in a room at the hospital where she was at. “I still
don’t like that we had to put her in a coma,” said Jackson.
“But if that is the only way to save her life, then that is
what we are going to do.”

     “I don’t like it either,” said Victoria. “Especially,
since Tina didn’t want us to do it.”

     “Tina only said that because she was afraid that she
would never wake up again,” said Jackson. “But after we
explained why we were doing it, that fear wasn’t as bad as
it was.”

     Victoria looked over at Jackson with fear in her eyes
and on her face. “Maybe she was right about what she was
feeling. After all, it has been almost six months since we
put her into that coma.”

                              #

     Suddenly, Tina opened her eyes and sat up on the bed.
She slowly looked around the room she was in. Mostly with
her eyes. But she did it with her head too. “I’m finally out
of my coma.”

     Tina got out of her bed and quickly closed her hospital
gown behind her. Then she started walking toward the door to
that room. But as she passed a mirror on a small vanity
table, she stopped to look at herself in it. “How old am I
now? I must be at least eleven. Maybe even twelve.

     Slow, Tina looked behind her at her bed where she was
still sleeping. “I haven’t come out of my coma after all.
I’m still in it.”

     Just then Jackson and Victoria came back into her room.
Jackson and Victoria both walked through Tina, she shivered
slightly, as they stood on both sides of her bed. Looking
down at her with sadness on their faces. “Maybe I’m not
still in my coma. I might be looking at my death too.”

     “I’m not dead,” continued Tina. “I may be close to it.
But I’m not there yet.”

     Jackson and Victoria returned to sitting beside Tina
with their double hands holding onto hers. “How are you
doing tonight little one?”

     “Would you stop calling me that,” said Tina. “I’m not a
little girl anymore. From what I just saw, I’m closer to
being a teenager. If I’m not one already.”

     “We called to your doctors on our way in here tonight,”
said Victoria. “And they think that you will be coming out
of your coma real soon.”

     Tina smiled. “That’s good to hear. Wait, I can see and
hear everything that is going on here.”

     “I just hope the doctors are right this time,” said
Jackson. “It’s not the first time they have said it. And I
don’t think it will be the last time either.”

     Victoria took her eyes off of Tina to look at Jackson.
“I’m starting to get worried about our little girl too.”

     “Now you are doing it too,” said Tina. “Quit calling me
a little girl.”

     “I hope that I’m wrong about Tina,” continued Victoria.
“But after almost two years, it doesn’t look like she is
ever going to come out of her coma.”

                              #

     Tina was screaming ‘I HATE YOU’ as she stormed into
their beach house. Almost hitting Jackson in the face as she
slammed the front door behind her. “I will never forgive
you. That was so embarrassing.”

     “What have you done now, Jackson?” Victoria asked as
she walked toward the front door of their beach house just
after Jackson entered it.

     “He is still treating me like a baby,” answered Tina.
“Did you see what he just did to me?”

     Victoria smiled. “I did. And don’t worry. I’m not ever
going to let him do anything like that ever again.”

     Early the next morning, Tina was on the beach in front
of their house. At first, she didn’t see anyone else there.
Then she saw Mitch. And he was walking right toward her. “I
didn’t think that you would be coming back here after what
happened yesterday.”

     “Don’t be embarrassed,” said Mitch. “It happens to all
of us at this age.”

     “That was very embarrassing,” said Tina. “But that’s
not what I was wondering about. I’m talking about me telling
you about me being in a coma yesterday.”

     Mitch smiled. “Oh, that. Don’t worry about it. We
already know about your coma.”

     “What? How did you know I was in a coma? Tina asked.

     “It’s because we have been at your bedside ever since
you entered your coma,” answered Mitch. “Especially, me. I
was about to come by and introduce myself just after you
moved in here when you were taken to the hospital.”

     Mitch continued. “While your parents were at work, we
would come by to see you. We even skipped school sometimes
to see you.”

     “During the summers I would spend most of my days with
you.” Mitch's thumb pointed behind him as the others set up
to play some volleyball. “A lot of the others did too who
have been worried about you. But they didn’t do it as much
as I did, though.”

     “So, it wasn’t a coincidence of our meeting yesterday
after all.” Tina took her hand into his. She put her head on
his shoulders as they started walking toward the others
there their age.

     I could never in a hundred summers get tired of this,
thought Tina as she and Mitch joined the other volleyball
players. I’m sure that I will never forget this summer.

     Tina looked at Mitch and smiled. “By the way, you may
know everything about me. But I don’t know anything about
you. Not even your name. What is your name?”


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