Page 41 of Sparking Sara

“What?” I say. “You’re kidding, right? She can’t even—”

He raises his hand to stop me. Clearly, I’m missing something.

“She’s not going home,” Dr. Miller says. “We’re a long way from that. She’ll be transferred to a rehabilitation facility. We don’t have the resources here for the rehabilitation she needs. And now that her fever is down and her injuries are healing, she’ll be better served getting intense rehab at a dedicated facility.”

“But are you sure she’s ready?” I ask. “She just woke up two days ago.”

Dr. Miller nods. “She’s surprised us all, quite frankly. I wasn’t positive she’d even wake up, let alone be able to follow directions and communicate. She’s progressed further than any of us expected her to. So, yes, she’s ready. It’s best to dive right into rehab before she loses any more muscle tone than she already has.”

I peek through the window and watch her sleep as Oliver questions the doctor about her condition. He seems to be mostly concerned with her memory, not the fact that she can’t eat, sit up, or even talk. But I guess that makes sense. He has no idea what he’s in for when he walks into her room. How do you introduce yourself to someone you love when that person has never met you?

Oliver finishes talking with the doctor and then stands at the door, hesitating.

I hang back at the nurses’ station, thinking how my job here is done. He’s here now. I guess that’s my queue to leave. But then Krista nudges me forward. “You should go in with him. She’ll need a familiar face in there.”

“You think I should?”

She nods. “This is scary for her. She needs people she can trust. Right now, she trusts you.”

As Oliver walks in the room, I step in behind him, moving off into the corner where Sara will be able to see me standing behind him.

“Sara?” he says.

She opens her eyes, groggy and confused as usual.

“Sara, luv, it’s me, Ollie.”

He picks up her hand tentatively, like he expects her to pull it away. She doesn’t. Or she can’t.

Sara looks at him, then she looks at me. I give her an encouraging nod.

She looks back at Oliver, studying him as if she’s trying hard to remember. It’s now that I notice she doesn’t look at him the same way she looked at me the first time she saw me, which is confusing since she seemed so upset that I wasn’t him. She looks at him like you might look at the checkout lady at the grocery store.

“Sara. Do you remember me?” Oliver asks.

She averts her eyes and then gives him a reluctant shake of her head.

I take a few steps forward. “Sara, this is your boyfriend, Oliver. The one Joelle and I told you about.”

“Fiancé, actually,” Oliver says.

Sara’s eyes go wide as do mine. It almost makes me laugh because it’s the biggest reaction I’ve seen out of her. Normally, it’s like she’s only half conscious, like she’s in some dream-like state.

“Fiancé? Really?” I ask.

My eyes immediately go to her left ring finger. “But she’s not wearing a ring.”

He sits down next to her bed, still holding her hand in his. “That’s because it only happened a few days before I left town.” He looks back at her. “You didn’t want to tell anyone until you could show them the ring. The one I got was too small and wouldn’t fit over your knuckle, so we sent it out to be sized. Isn’t that right, hun?” He shakes his head and then brings her hand up to his lips to kiss it. “Sorry. It’s going to take me while to remember that you’ve forgotten about us.”

“I guess congratulations are in order,” I say.

“Thank you.” He leans over and kisses her forehead. “I’ll pick up the ring today. That way we can start telling people. It was so hard to keep my mouth shut, especially on the cruise with all my mates.”

“Maybe you should hold off on that a while,” I say. “You know, give her a chance to acclimate.”

“The doctor said that the best way to treat her is the way we always did. So my plan is to treat her like my fiancée. Like the woman I love.”

I nod. What else can I do? He’s her loved one. I have no say in the matter anymore.

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