Just A Bit Of Hope

Just a Little Bit of Hope

The boy twitched for a bit, as he attempted to move his body and did everything in his part to open his eyes, but with all of his strength he only had the ability to slightly crack open his eyes. It was the first ray of light the boy had seen in over a month but it felt to him as if it had been years. His eyes ached all over from the struggle to keep them open and finally they forced themselves shut again. The pain was too great. In the background, he could hear murmurs of people speaking to him, encouraging him, but he could not make out exactly whom it was or what was being said. He tried to concentrate on the tones and voices but he could not process anything that was being said. His state of mind was a complete fog and everything felt as if it was a dream, but this time he knew it was reality. He felt a small amount of pressure on his right hand but otherwise his body was numb. He suddenly became overwhelmed with fright and anxiety as he tried to piece together where he was and what had happened. He went to scream but it was hopeless and nothing, not even a peep came out of his mouth. Then he felt an impulsive rush of exhaustion come over himself and without a second thought about it, he was back asleep. He had drifted right back into his coma.

His mother was patiently waiting at the side of his bed, gripping firmly onto his right hand in hopes of it somehow bringing him back to life. She felt hopeless and worthless without her son by her side, and even though he was physically there, his mind and soul was missing.

Her son had been in a coma for eight days now. She vigilantly sat there day and night in hopes of him coming to. She had seen him jerk around a few times so that gave her some promise that he could feel her presence. At night, she would kneel by his side and squeeze her hands together as firmly as she could and pray to God for her son's health. And every night at the same point of her prayer, she would break down into hysterics and beg for mercy and forgiveness from the Lord. It was as if she took the blame for her son's nearly fatal accident even though she was not present for it.

"Please," she would cry aloud to God, "please don't take away the one thing that has any meaning left to me in the world."

It was very depressing for the night shift nurses to watch the boy's mother during her nightly prayer and wonder about what else this family has endured in the past, but they knew their places and that it was better if they stayed out of it. The most horrible thing for them to watch was the destruction this boy suffered because of this ridiculous accident and of course the fact that the mother was in denial of his recovery. Everyone who had heard about this accident knew that the boy was going to be impaired for life, but the mother swore, "He will make a full recovery; he is a very strong-willed boy." The nurses supposed that it was probably easier for the mother to deny what was inevitably going to happen, especially since the boy had not even pulled out of the coma yet.

The overwhelming physical damage he had sustained made it difficult for anyone to look at him without a shudder and a disapproving shake of the head. His once beautiful brilliant blue eyes, or what seemed to be the area his eyes would be in, were covered in black and blue and looked like little mounds on his face because of the swelling. The swelling restricted any way for the boy to be able to open his eyes although the doctors were doing the best they could to treat this. His head was completely wrapped up and underneath the bandages laid a five-inch gash that had been sewn together for the time being. The impact on this boy's head had been so great that the doctors worried of some kind of internal bleeding, but fortunately, the boy had none, which astonished them. The boy's jaw had been broken in two places and was now wired together. In fact, almost every facial bone had been broken and his face was completely disfigured. No one would ever be able to recognize who this person was if they saw him, not even his mother. It was hard to believe that a boy that was so identifiable by his beautiful facial features was now going to be thought of as a freak. His ribs had been crushed and his vertebrae crunched. It seemed as if the only parts on his body that were not significantly damaged, besides a few scratches and bruises, were his legs, which was a shame since they would probably never be of use to him ever again.

As the boy was drifting back into his coma, he was having some sort of dream. Actually, it felt more like a nightmare. There was a flash of light and then some wild type of movement and he remembered feeling excruciating pain. This type of dream kept repeating itself over and over again in his mind, each time with a little more detail of what was going on. He realized he was in a car, in the backseat with his girlfriend. He remembered some laughing and horseplay going on in the car. He remembered enjoying himself. Then that flash of light, it horrified him and then this traffic-stopping scream escaped from his girlfriend's mouth. Everything was happening so fast, he could not make out what else was going on. He felt dizzy and completely disoriented and then everything stopped. There was not a sound in the car anymore. Next, came that agonizing pain that was felt all over his body.

The boy was exceptionally baffled by these images and sounds. Where were they coming from? Unexpectedly, everything connected in his mind and he figured out what had happened. The extreme realization awoke him from his coma and he turned over a few times and made a slight groaning noise. He still could not see a thing and realized that he could not move his mouth as well. He felt the grip on his right hand tighten and he listened as hard as he could to a voice that was calling his name.

"Seth, Seth, its Mom, I'm here baby, its ok, its ok," his mother managed to spit out between her sobs and tears. She watched as he tried to squeeze her hand to show her his recognition but the pain appeared to be too much for him as he groaned louder and louder at his failed attempts to clutch her hand. A tear snuck out of his swollen shut eyes and rolled down his cheek. The sight of her feeble son broke her heart. She wanted to stay strong for her boy but she could not take the pain of witnessing his strain.

"Save your energy baby, you're gonna need it" she whispered into his ear as she leaned over and gently kissed his forehead. She knew it was going to be a long and hard trip back to his recovery. The nurses rushed in to tend to Seth and the mother stepped back and

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