Previously –

Alice sat on the edge of her chair leaned forward on the bed and kissed the back of Dana’s hand that rested in hers.  Alice looked up at Dana’s closed eyes and decided to take Shane’s advice.  “Hey Dana, it’s me Alice…” 

Chapter 8 –

“Hey Dana, it’s me Alice…”  Alice paused nervously before continuing.  “I ah…I don’t know if you can hear me or not, but Shane said I should talk to you.  She um…she um thought it might help.  I don’t know.  I kind of feel weird talking to you like this.  But Shane is Yoda.  Wow!  I’m nervous and rambling, afraid I may say something wrong.  But really I don’t even know if you can hear me….I hope you can, an in so, just um, just hear listen I guess.”  Alice shifted in her chair a little and tried looking into Dana’s closed eyes.  She stared at Dana for a minute as if waiting for Dana’s approval to continue.  Dana laid still and Alice knew she was not going to get a response.  So she took a deep breath and continued.

“This is definitely not how I expected this conversation to occur.  I always imagined one day after you started feeling better and beat the cancer, we would take a walk on one of the trails that you love to run.  Somewhere near the top we would stray away from the trail and have a seat to watch the sunset together.  We would sit there for hours, talking, yelling, and crying.  We would open our hearts to each other, disclosing our deepest and darkest secrets and become vulnerable to each other.  Eventually holding each other protectively and lovingly.  Hopefully walk away hand in hand with the intention of spending forever together.  I know.  I know.  Only in my dreams.  I’m a hopeless romantic, what can I say?  Or maybe we would just become best friends again and die together of old age never talking about everything that happened in the past year.  But never did I imagine I would be talking to you like this while you lay in a coma, unsure if you will live, unsure if you will ever wake up, and unsure if you can even hear me.”  Alice wiped away the silent tear that snuck down her cheek.  She didn’t even realize she began to cry until she felt the tear on her cheek.