LOST

Brilliant colors filled Stew’s hospital room, as if a rainbow of fruit flavor exploded. Yellow carnations from Stephanie, the receptionist at the newspaper; a huge bouquet from everybody else he worked with; flowers and balloons—mylar and latex—from family and friends he hadn’t seen in months, or even years.

James and Carolyn were sitting beside Stew, holding each other’s hand when a nurse came through the door.

“Excuse me. Alex would like to speak to one of you.”

“Oh, okay. I’ll go talk to her, Honey,” Mr. Kasey said as he stood up. He patted her hand and walked out into the hall. Alex greeted him at the entrance to the hallway from the waiting room, her backpack slung over her shoulder.

“Good morning, Mr. Kasey. Did you two get any rest?”

“Good morning, Alex,” James replied. “Yes, a little. How are you?”

“I’m all right. Listen, if you guys need to get out for a bit, get some breakfast, somewhere you can actually sit at a table… I’ll stay here with Stew.”

“No, we’re fine, Alex,” He assured her as they walked toward the room. “You don’t have to…”

“I don’t mind, really,” Alex insisted. “I have to practice a speech for Public Speaking and I thought… I could do it here.”

James stood outside the room and looked at his wife holding his son’s hand. He blinked back tears and pulled his bottom lip in just enough to keep himself from crying.

“That’s not going to bother Stew, is it?” Alex asked.

“I don’t think so,” Carolyn said, looking at her son as he lay unconscious. “You never know. It might even help.” She kissed Stew on the forehead and stood up. “Well, I guess we’ll go get some breakfast, then.” She walked over to Alex and wrapped her arms around her. “Thank you so much.”

“You’re welcome, Mrs. Kasey.”

“Would you like us to bring you back something?” James asked.

“Sure. Just a sandwich would be fine.”

“Okay. We’ll be back in a couple hours. My wife will have her cell phone on in case anything… happens.”

“Don’t worry, Mr. Kasey. We’ll be fine.”

James nodded and left the room, Carolyn behind him. Alex turned, sat down in the chair next to Stew’s bed and bent over to take her notes out of her backpack. As she sat up, she said aloud, “I’m not sure why I’m so drawn to you, but somehow, I feel that this is what I’m supposed to be doing. Maybe when you wake up, you can tell me why.” She sighed and then looked down at her notes. “Here goes… The Phoenix. A Myth of Rebirth. The phoenix was originally a sacred bird in ancient Egyptian mythology known as a benu. It was adopted by several other cultures and so took on many different names.”

She continued reciting her speech, and as she did so, the room was filled with the warmth of the morning sun coming through the window. A tranquil scene, were it not for the blips and whirs of the monitoring equipment and the compression wraps on Stew’s legs to keep him from getting a blood clot. She found it a little bit difficult to find a rhythm. Tapping her foot on the floor, she was able to focus and drown out all other noise. As she continued, she kept looking over at Stew to see if he would move a finger or an eyelid. Little did she know, she was having more of an impact on him than she could ever imagine.