Page 25 of Be My Reason

Emma textsme back right away despite the early hour.

Emma:Lyn, you don’t need luck. You rock!

I don’t get a response from Michael, but I don’t expect one. When he is working it takes a while for him to get back with me. He will be home, probably sleeping, when I get done with my tests and I have special plans that involve how to wake him up.

Four hours later I emerge,zombiefied, from my three tests. How can one person regurgitate that much information in that amount of time? I look around at students walking around campus and smile a huge face-cracking smile because I’m no longer a student—well technically not until after they hand me my diploma next month—but I’m not counting that.

I reach into my purse and turn on my phone again. I smile when I see I have several voice mails, first from Michael and then from Emma and my mom.

I smile at Michael’s voice. “Lyn, I know you probably won’t get this until after your exams. I’m sure you did great. You are so smart and beautiful and I can’t wait to share my entire life with you. I’m heading home now and I’ll probably be sleeping but I want you to wake me up. We should celebrate . . . any way you want to.” He laughs. “I’ll see you later. I love you, sweetheart.”

Any way I want to?Yeah, that’s kind of what I was thinking, too. I’m practically skipping to my car as I listen to the next voice mail from Emma.

“Lyn. . . um . . . I need you to come to the hospital. There’s been an accident and . . . ,” she pauses and clears her throat, “just come to the ER and I’ll be here.” She sounded nervous, excited even.

I think I know what is going on here.I listen to the next one from Mom. “Honey, I don’t want you to worry and we need you to drive safely, but you need to come to the hospital as soon as you get this message. We will see you soon.”

I smile.Yup. Just as I suspected. Really, you think he could be a little more original. But I guess when you practically live at the hospital, you do what you have to do.

I check my watch to make sure I will arrive about the time I told him I might get done with my exams.I don’t want to get there too early and ruin the surprise. As I’m making the twenty-minute drive to the hospital, I recall the last time there was an ‘emergency.’

“Lyn, you have to come to the hospital right now!” Emma’s shaky voice screamed over my voice mail as I was leaving the bakery for the day. “Michael is okay, but he collapsed at work and he is asking for you.”

I tried to call her back but couldn’t reach herwhich is unusual since she practically showers with her phone. I tried to call Michael but it went straight to voice mail. I couldn’t even contact my parents. I was getting worried and made the drive in record time.

Upon arriving at the ER, I couldn’t find Emma so I told a nurse who I was and she ushered me immediately into a large room and left without saying a word.Looking around the room, I realized it was the same room where I met Michael for the very first time eighteen months before. It was a very white, clinical room with one of those curtain things that separates all of the patients that are in the area.

I heard someone clear a throat and thought it must be Michael so I went over to the curtain, ripped it quickly to the side and was stunned by what I saw. Standing there with stupid grins on their faces was pretty much everyone I knew.My parents, Michael’s parents, Michael’s brother and sister, Emma, Kaitlyn, a few other close friends and some hospital staff that Michael called friends. Then I looked down to see Michael in front of me, on bended knee, still in his scrubs, holding out a small black velvet ring box.

“Lyn, I know this isn’t the most romantic place for this, but I figured if you aren’t used to this by now, you’d have run out that door long ago.”

I already had tears streaming down my face.

“I think I fell in love with you the moment I saw you in this very room.You are the best thing that has ever happened to me and I want to spend the rest of my life with you.” The tears started to run down his face as well. “Lyn, will you marry me?”

I wonder what he is going to do to top that one? I have to admit, planning something today did catch me off guard. I expected something after graduation next month, but not now. And especially not the day after one of his long thirty-six hour shifts. That is probably why he chose today, because I wouldn’t expect it. He is such a sweetheart.

I arrive at the hospital and park in the ER lot.I know better now than to leave my car in the ambulance bay like last time. It almost got towed away. Not today.

When I enter the ER, there is a nurse waiting for me.They all pretty much know me by now. She is directing me to a private room. Private room, nice touch. Her eyes are red-rimmed and she is sniffing.Geez, emotional much?It’s just a surprise party.

As I enter the room, I’m so excited to see everyone there and I skim their faces.Again, it’s Michael’s parents, his brother and sister and their kids. A bit overkill bringing the kids, but I’ll take it. My parents are there. I see Emma, but none of my other friends. Maybe they will jump out and surprise me in a minute.

Emmaplows through everyone to get to me when she sees me enter the room. She has tears running down her face. She almost tackles me into a hug and I can feel her body heave as she squishes me.

What is going on? Where are the balloons and the cake?

It’s then when I really examine the faces of everyone in the room. Most are crying.My father is sitting down with his head in his hands. Michael’s older sister, Janie is in the corner with her ten-year-old daughter, Amanda, trying to console the child who is practically in hysterics. Michael’s mother and father are in an embrace and she is shaking and crying.

Where’s Michael? I frantically look around the room again, sure that I’ve missed him. But he isn’t here. I look behind me into the hallway and don’t find him there but I do see several staff hanging around all crying and hugging.

“Lyn, I’m so sorry,” Emma hiccups the words. “I’m so, so sorry.”

What is she sorry for? What has happened? I reach up to stop the tickle on my face and realize that I have tears streaming down my cheeks. “Someone tell me what is going on.Where is Michael?”

They all look at each other for a second before my father stands up andwalks over to take my hands in his. “Brookie,” he says, calling me by a nickname he hasn’t used since I was a small child, “Michael was in an accident on the way home after work this morning. They think he might have fallen asleep. His car went off the highway and hit a retaining wall.” He takes a deep breath that looks like it hurts. “Brookie—”

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. “No, don’t say it,” I beg him.

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