Page 88 of All Your Tomorrows

“Let’s get the CT scan,” the male doctor said.

“Then decide,” the female doctor added.

“Go talk to her family,” the male doctor said. “I’ll get her prepped.”

I followed the doctor out of the operating room. She removed her gloves and mask and discarded them before making her way to the waiting room.

Once we entered the small space, I spotted my parents. I looked to Izzy who sat beside a woman who I recognized from the photo in Nora’s room. And though she looked older, there was no doubt it was Nora’s mom. Same dark hair. Same dusting of freckles on her nose.

The doctor approached them. “Nora’s family?” she asked.

They jumped to their feet. “Yes,” they said in unison.

“How is she?” Nora’s mother asked, her voice so similar to Nora’s.

“She suffered blunt force trauma to the chest,” the doctor explained. “So, we’re checking to see if she suffered an aortic aneurysm.”

Both of them gasped, indicating the diagnosis wasn’t good.

“We’re getting her in for a CT scan right now,” the doctor said.

“Do you think it ruptured?” Nora’s mother asked.

“That’s why we’re scanning her,” the doctor explained.

At the same time, another doctor approached my parents. I spun to hear what was being said as they spoke to them. “…exhausted our options,” the doctor said as I moved closer.

“We can’t stop the building intracranial pressure,” he said. “He will be brain-dead by morning.”

A guttural sob tore out of my mother as her knees gave out and my father caught her.

“There are no other options?” my father asked as he held my mother.

The room began to spin around me. Weightlessness took hold of me. The building intracranial pressure was catching up with this version of me. I tried to hold on. I tried to hear what my doctor was saying. What Nora’s doctor was saying. But darkness swallowed me whole.

CHAPTER 22

Nora

“Nora?” Izzy’s voice faintly played in my mind. But why was she at the café? I needed to get back to Kyler. The sight of him in my bed, knowing he was waiting for me to return, was such a gift. “Nora, honey. You’ve got to wake up.”

I attempted to open my eyes, but the unexpected weight of my eyelids prohibited it. I tried to speak, but my mouth was so dry I couldn’t get my tongue and lips to cooperate. What had happened? I had faint recollections of an explosion of pain like I’d never endured before. Then nothing.

“Nora?” It was my mother’s voice.

Why was she at the café?

“It’s time to wake up,” my father said.

Okay, this was getting weird. Why were they all here?

“Has she woken up?” an unfamiliar man asked.

“Not yet,” my mother said.

“Well, keep talking to her. It shouldn’t be long now,” he assured them.

Long for what?

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