Page 93 of Pomegranates and Olive

"On Tora?" Luca looks at me incredulously. "Alone?"

"I was going to watch the sunrise, and then the explosion happened."

"I asked you whether you were alone." Luca’s tone was accusatory, jealous and ugly. I didn’t like it.

"Wereyoualone, Luca? Or were you too busy flirting up astormwith my sister?" I look over at Rosie who's face gives me all the answers I need. "I hardly think who I happened to be with tonight is the issue right now."

Just then, the radio on the hip of the paramedic tending my burns crackles to life. The only word I could make out was ‘Yilmaz’. That can’t be good. We all turn to watch as Deniz is being loaded into the waiting ambulance. The paramedics slam the doors shut and race off. Aydin runs across the grass towards Deniz's motorcycle. "Deniz has collapsed! We've got to go."

"I'm coming with you!" I try to stand, but the paramedic shakes his head and speaks to me in a mix of Turkish and broken English. "Hastane. Tamam? I take you now."

"He wants to take you to the hospital.” Ginny immediately takes charge as Aydin jumps on the motorcycle and is already halfway up the hill chasing the ambulance. “We'll be at the hospital quicker if we go with him in an ambulance, Liv."

Quiet tears trickle down my face and I nod as the paramedics help me onto a stretcher.

“Cabuk Ol!” Ginny nods to the paramedic before yelling over her shoulder to Rosie. "Can you stay with Emine?"

"Of course.”

Running alongside the paramedic to the ambulance Ginny calls out to Luca. “You coming?”

“No,” he says in a low, subdued voice, the guilt plastered all over his face. “I’d better stay here, just in case whoever it was comes back.”

I want to say something… anything… and I try to raise my arm to get his attention, but the pain of my burned skin shoots through me like a bolt of lightning.

Ginny sits beside me and smoothes back my frazzled hair from my face. I lean my head back. I'll just close my eyes for a minute, just a minute…

22

If I’m In A Coma, Don’t Wake Me Up!

I realise three things as I rouse from a hazy sleep.

The first thing? It’s way too early and waayyy too bright. I open one eye slowly. Close it. Try the other one. Open. Close. Now both together... ever so slowly... I squint against the brightness of the room.

The second thing I realise, is that I'm not actually in my comfortable double bed at Ginny's.

This is a verydéjà vumoment. My foggy brain tries to figure out just what the hell is going on. I shift in my uncomfortable bed and feel the tight pull of an IV. Ouch.

Which brings me to my third realisation… I'm in a hospital.

How the fuck did I end up here?

I tune into the muted voices coming from somewhere nearby.

"I swear to God, if Liv doesn't wake up…"

Luca.

"You'll what?"

Deniz.

I moan, but can't get their attention, so I close my eyes.

It’s night when I wake up again. I have no idea how long I've been asleep. I turn my head and squint at the body in the chair beside me. I try to clear my throat to speak, but it is too painful and comes out as a moan rather than anything sensible. "R..oo…sss…"

Rosie wakes and is beside me in an instant.

---