Jim and Sarah sat in a booth, enjoying breakfast at their usual get-away spot. It had been too long, with Carissa’s surgery and everything else, since they’d had time for just the two of them.
“I’ve missed this,” Jim said, cutting off a piece of his waffle.
“Me, too,” Sarah replied. “Hopefully, Carissa will be out of the woods medically for a while, and we can do more of it. I do enjoy a good private waffle with you.”
“Speaking of the kid, what’s going on with this law thing she keeps talking about?” Jim asked. “You’re around to catch more of it than I am. I can hardly keep up.”
“Well, apparently she has a lot of support from the spina bifida community, but she hasn’t heard back from the lady who’s supposed to tell her how to get everything in motion.” Sarah took a long, satisfying drink of her coffee. “She’s still waiting. I think it’s been a week or more. I hope this woman didn’t just drop her. She’ll be so disappointed.”
“Wow, I hope she hears back soon, with school starting back,” Jim said, a touch of worry in his voice. “I don’t see how she’ll have time to be so involved with it and still go back to school, and she IS going back to school.”
“Yeah, between this and school and Isaac, I don’t know how she’ll keep her head above water if she doesn’t get this stuff out of the way soon.” Sarah echoed Jim’s anxious look.
They finished up breakfast and debated taking a ride down to Galveston to the beach.
“Carissa said she and Isaac went the other night, and he carried her down to the water,” Sarah said. “Seems like they’re getting pretty serious.”
“Hopefully not too serious,” he said, only half-joking. “I heard he’s getting his own place soon. I hope they don’t get themselves into too much trouble with no adult supervision.”
“Yeah, let’s hope not. We’ve taught her, but who knows what’ll happen when temptation comes. Speaking of that, I’m sure Isaac is chomping at the bit to come over. Let’s skip the beach and beat him there,” Sarah said.
They went back to the car and started toward home. When they got there, Carissa still wasn’t awake. There was no sign of coffee or any other breakfast making.
“Good grief, Jim,” Sarah exclaimed. “She’s still in bed. Teenagers! This is ridiculous. I’m going to wake her up. She can’t just lay in bed all day. I don’t care if it is Saturday,” Sarah headed toward Carissa’s room to wake her.
Jim plopped in front of the television to let his waffle settle. Currently, it was piercing what he was sure was a lung.
“Jim, call 911!” he heard Sarah scream from the other room. “She won’t wake up!”
Jim jumped off the couch and ran into Carissa’s bedroom, where he found his wife hovering over his unconscious daughter. He felt his knees go weak. All this time they’d been gone. How long had she been like this?
“Is she breathing?” he choked out.
“Yes, but it’s shallow! Call 911!”
Jim fumbled his phone out of his pocket. He was shaking so hard he could barely dial the number.
“Yes, my daughter is in bed unconscious! I don’t know how long! She has spina bifida and hydrocephalus! Please hurry! Yes, she’s breathing! I don’t know! Just come!” he shouted into the phone.
The ambulance seemed to take forever. Carissa couldn’t be roused, no matter what Jim or Sarah did. They tried shaking her, screaming, pouring cold water on her, and she just laid there through all of it.
“Oh, please, God, we can’t lose her!” Sarah cried out.
There was a knock at the front door. Jim ran to get it. It was the paramedics. He let them in and led them to Carissa’s bedroom. It was like something out of a movie. Jim was sure he left his body as he watched these men put lines into Carissa’s body and an oxygen mask over her face. They transferred her to the ambulance gurney and had her in the back of the ambulance in less than three minutes. Jim and Sarah both climbed in after her.
“We can only take one of you,” one of the paramedics said.
“We’re both going in this ambulance,” Jim countered with more authority than he knew he had in him.
The paramedic didn’t argue. He just shut the door, and the driver turned the siren on. The ambulance shrieked all the way to the hospital while Jim and Sarah gave the best medical history they could.
“She’s got spina bifida and hydrocephalus. She just had tethered cord surgery about two months ago,” Jim yelled over the sound of the siren.
“Has she been complaining of anything recently? Pain? Any illness that you know of?” the paramedic asked.
“No. Nothing. No complaints, but she’s a pretty tough kid. She doesn’t complain much,” Sarah responded.
They pulled into the emergency room entrance, and the paramedic shoved the doors of the ambulance open. He lowered the gurney carrying Carissa onto the concrete, and began pushing her into the hospital. Jim and Sarah hurried behind him.
“Patient’s name is Carissa Schultz. Unconscious eighteen-year-old female, history of spina bifida, tethered cord, and hydrocephalus. Vital signs are normal except for slight bradycardia and altered state of awareness. These are her parents. They say she has had no complaints recently.”
“You’re the parents?” the emergency room doctor asked Jim and Sarah.
“Yes,” they answered in unison.
“How long has she been like this?” he asked.
“We don’t know. We found her in her bedroom after we got home from going out to breakfast this morning,” Sarah answered.
The doctor looked at her searchingly. “And she was fine this morning before you left for breakfast?”
Sarah shook her head guiltily. She hadn’t checked on Carissa.
“We don’t know, doctor. We’re not sure when this started. She was fine when she went to bed last night,” Jim replied, now holding onto Sarah.
“Okay, we’ll run some tests. Have a seat in the waiting room and we’ll come get you when we find something.”
Jim and Sarah did as they were told, going out to the emergency waiting room.
Sarah clutched his hand. “Jim, what’s wrong with her? Why didn’t we check on her? We should have checked on her!”
“I don’t know,” he said, patting her hands to calm her. “I don’t know what’s wrong. The doctors will find it.”
“My poor baby. How long was she alone like that? How long, Jim?”
“Sarah, I don’t know. She was never alone because God was with her. We have to trust Him.” It was all Jim could think to say. He felt just as guilty for not checking on her as Sarah did. Why hadn’t they? It would have taken just a second.
“We should call Isaac. Carissa would want him here,” Sarah said through tears.
“Okay, I’ll do it. You stay right here, and I’ll call him from outside. Come get me if you hear anything.”
Jim stepped outside to make the phone call to Isaac. Between rings, he tried to stifle the lump catching in his throat.
“Hello?” Isaac answered.
Jim took a breath. “Isaac.”
“Oh, hey, Mr. Schultz, what’s up?”
“Look, we, uh… Carissa… Isaac, you need to come to the hospital. Carissa is really sick. We’re not sure what’s going on yet. She’d want you here, though. Come on up.”
“What? What do you mean, really sick? Is she okay? I’m coming,” Isaac replied, worry filling his voice.
“I really don’t know, Isaac. We just found her… look, just come on up. We’ll talk when you get here.” Jim ended the call. He couldn’t bear to talk anymore, and he didn’t want to tell Isaac how serious it was over the phone.