Peter was the one who took it the hardest. He hadn't said a word since we arrived to the hospital. He just sat in one of the chairs, looking down at his feet. I felt so bad for him. He might lose his Mother, and there were nothing we could do.
A couple days earlier, my Mother had passed away in her sleep. Out of her self with grief, Kala had run out of the house and onto the streets. She hadn't noticed the car before it hit her, throwing her against a tree. She had been in a coma ever since and the doctors didn't know if she would ever wake up. They had her on life support because she didn't breathe by herself.
"You might as well go home and get some rest," one of the doctors came out and said. I guess he was right. We had been here for two days, taking it in turns to sleep on the couches in the private waiting room.
We went home and still Peter said nothing. Elaina put him to bed that night, reading him a goodnight story. He didn't say goodnight when she did. He just lay still and silently went to sleep.
One of our friends had looked after Elaina's and Kala's new baby girl. She was named Rachel after a character on their favorite sitcom "Friends".
Elaina loved spending time with their new little girl.
It carried on for months and still nothing happened. Peter had started talking again after a week. He refused to talk about Kala and left the room to cry every time she was mentioned.
"We have to do something to help him," Skylar said one night we were watching television in the living room. "This isn't healthy for him. He needs someone to talk to about it."
"If you haven't noticed he doesn't want to talk to any of us about it," I said.
"I agree with Skylar. Maybe we should just take him to a therapist," Elaina suggested.
"Do you really think that's necessary?" I asked skeptically. I wasn't sure how much good a therapist would do in this situation. If Peter didn't want to talk about the situation with us, i was sure he wouldn't talk to a complete stranger about his feelings.
"It couldn't hurt to try," Elaina said.
"I guess not," I said.
Elaina called the school the next day to give him a day off the following Thursday so he could go to the therapist.
I was right. He spend the entire session sitting in silence staring at the floor, while the therapist tried to make contact with him.
This repeated itself for several sessions until Elaina decided it was a waste of money and took him out of it.
Then finally we got a call from the hospital. After six months on life support lying in a coma, Kala had woken up.
We all hurried to the hospital, but the doctors said that she was still too weak to have a lot of people around her at once, so it was decided that Elaina would start with visiting her with Peter. Hey hugged and kissed and talked about what had happened since the accident.
After that Peter seemed to talk and smile more. He was happy that his Mother was awake, alive and steadily becoming stronger again. Though she still needed to stay at the hospital for a while longer under observation, all of us had now visited her with flowers and various presents for her to entertain herself with when she was alone.
Kala also started rehabilitation with an expert on the field. She wouldn't be able to workout for a while like she used to, but the fact that she was so fit, despite being hospitalized for six months, she did wonders. The doctors and the people helping her with rehabilitation were all amazed at how fast she got her strength back and before long she was allowed to come home again with her familiy.
We had all prepared a feast with balloons and a big poster that said "WELCOME HOME" for her return. She loved all the attention, as i knew she would. But she wouldn't talk about the accident. We learned quickly not to mention it and just treat her like she had been home all along.
I thought everything would be back to normal once she was home again. That she would begin working out like she used to, day in and day out. But instead she just sat in front of the television watching soaps all day long.
This went on for weeks. She was still on sick leave from work so she didn't have that to get up to in the morning. It did however mean that she could spend more time with her family. She would spend hours playing with little Rachel and the same with Peter. They would throw ball out in the back yard and watch movies together late at night.
Then after this had been going on for six months, we had an intervention. We all gathered in the living room to talk to Kala about her lazy behavior.
"I'm sorry, but i don't get why this is such a big deal," she said. "I'm just getting my strength back, give me some more time."
"We have given you six months. It's time you get back on your feet," I said.
"You'll see. It'll do you good to go back to work and start working out again. The old gym equipment is getting dusty without you," Skylar winked at her.
"Alright alright," Kala said. "I give up. On Monday morning i will go to work. It would probably be healthy for me to do something actively again. I am kinda bored anyway."
Things went back to normal. Kala started slowly working out again in our home gym room and go to work. Peter was a bit sad not to have his Mom at home all the time anymore and when she was home she was working out. But she did however make more time for family than she had before the accident. She would still watch movies with him in the living room and play ball in the back yard once in a while.
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