Page 4 of Unknown

She took his arm firmly, walked with him, helped him down the path. Opened the passenger door, and waited while he climbed in. Then she got in the driver's side and hit the gas, flying along the roads, heading for the hospital.

Silence lay heavy in the car. This wasn't a time for small talk; it was a time for getting there as quickly as she could. If her dad wanted to tell her, Cora guessed he would.

And he did.

"She collapsed again, late yesterday night," he said. "The paramedics were here in five minutes. They did a great job. They did CPR on her. That's the only reason she survived, to get to the hospital."

“Why did she collapse?” That was surely the key question. Why had any of this happened?

“They said in the hospital that she developed an allergy to the meds she was on.”

Cora felt as if a knife was in her heart. An allergy to the meds that were saving her? That really was not good.

“She had such a bad allergic response they put her on life support. They have to dampen the allergy before they can do anything else.”

"And how is she now?"

"They sedated her, of course, so she hasn't been conscious. I don't know about this morning yet."

Cora gritted her teeth. She wished this wasn't happening. It didn't sound good. It sounded worse than the last time, and she knew she had to be prepared for what would happen if her mom didn't make it.

This was desperately unfair. Her mom wasn't even sixty yet. She should have decades left ahead of her to be the pillar of her community, to bake cakes for the church and to help run the local events. Decades to enjoy that life.

"Maybe they'll find a new medication," she said, thinking positively. “There must be alternatives. Or else they can figure out how to control the allergy.”

They pulled up to the hospital entrance, and Cora quickly parked the car. They rushed inside and were directed to the intensive care unit.

Finally, at the ICU's reception, a stern-looking head nurse directed them to her mother's ward.

They had a short argument. Visiting hours were almost over. Her dad had misread the time.

"She's family! And we're here!" Cora insisted. "We won't be long. But we need to see her."

Her dad wouldn't have fought, but she was the fighter. She was the one who saw battle lines drawn in every confrontation.

"This disrupts the hospital's routine," the head nurse complained, but Cora guessed there was something in her eyes that was able to convince the head nurse that it would be wise to allow a short visit.

"Just ten minutes," the head nurse relented, pointing the way.

They hustled down the corridor and reached her mother's room. Cora's breath caught in her throat at the sight of her mother hooked up to machines, her eyes closed.

She had never been emotionally close to her mother, but seeing her lying there, so vulnerable, broke something inside her.

There was a doctor in the room, reading her charts.

Cora's heart sank as the doctor looked up at them, his expression grim.

"What's the situation with my mother?" Cora asked politely. Meanwhile, her dad rushed forward, gently clasping her mother's hand. She opened her eyes. Looked at him. So she was conscious, at least. Maybe that was a good sign?

Cora acknowledged she might be clinging to false hope. Especially when those eyes closed again.

The doctor spoke slowly, in a low voice, but his words were like a punch to the gut. "I'm sorry, but your mother's condition is still serious. She had to be sedated, to allow the inflammation from the allergic reaction to subside. It is going down, but it's put the same strain on her heart again, so she's back to where she was when she was first admitted. We can’t use an alternative medication until that allergy is gone."

“But there is an alternative?” Cora pressured him.

Her dad was shaking his head, refusing to believe it. This was it. The end of the line. She couldn't believe it was happening again, so soon after the last time.She had been hoping for a miracle, for some shred of hope that her mother could pull through this.

And then, the words she'd been looking for.

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