I smiled faintly, ” I don’t know anymore”.

Shane looked down and then up into my eyes, ” if Alice knows what’s good for her, she’ll come back,” she said as she forced a small smile.

Before I could say anything, the nurse opened the door and smiled at me and the other girls as she held the door opened for us to go in.

Shane walked up to Alice and gave her a kiss and weak, ” hello” as if she were scared to say anything else. But Carmen, who never seemed to be afraid or doubting walked right up to her and sat next to her smiling, ” hey Al, you gonna wake up today or what?”. if it were any other group in the room, people might have been offended, but Shane and I merely smiled knowing Alice was probably laughing in that beautiful head of hers.

Carmen and Shane were there all day until visiting hours were over. The nurse walked in and whispered to me that it was time for them to go and they left. But before walking out Shane turned around and asked Carmen to wait for her outside so that she could talk to me.

Shane looked down then looked up, ” she can hear you, you know that right? Everything we said in here she can hear”.

I didn’t know what to tell her, ” I know”.

Shane looked at me intently, ” but you’re scared, I know you are. But Dana you have to talk to her, I was doing research and they said that talking to them helps bring them out of their coma”.

I looked down and felt the tears, ” II just don’t know what I’m supposed to tell her Shane”.

Shane wiped away my tears and hugged me close, ” I remember a young tennis player telling me about a time when she fell asleep with this gorgeous blond and all she could do was talk to her as she slept. Just do that Dane, she’s just asleep”, then she looked at me, ” bring her back to us Dane, please”, then I saw it, a tear roll down her face, ” I miss her Dane” then she walked out.

I turned around and saw her there, Shane was right, I used to love to talk to Al in her sleep. She was always a deep sleeper, she was probably my living breathing journal. I slowly walked up to my sleeping beauty and sat laid down next to her, my face a breath’s away from hers, and I just let it out.

” hey Al, can you really hear me? Isis it true that you’re listening to me right now? We’re all waiting here Al, we miss you Alice. I miss you. Just wake up already baby, wake up and we can pretend like none of this happened, we won’t bring it up, I swear. I am so lost without you Alice. It’s like this whole world I knew so well with you in it, stopped when you fell asleep. I love you so much, you know that right? Just nod for me or smile or something AL! please answer me, you know I love you right?”

I got up off the bed and fell to the floor, unable to hold back the sobbing and crying. I buried myself in my arms and pulled my knees to my chest, ” Cant’ you hear me Alice? Please here me Alice”, I started to calm down and sat up so that I was facing her and I buried my head into the crook of her neck where it belonged and whispered, ” I love you so much Alice, please baby, I love you so much”.

Dana fell asleep in her chair next to Alice with her hand on top of Alice’s hand. Just as the sun was rising and the birds began to chirp, something changed in that room, Dana’s world was just about to move again. Without Dana’s knowledge, it seems Alice’s hand moved in the middle of the night so that now Alice was holding Dana.

I can hear you baby, I can hear you.