Cara's eye lids felt so heavy. She wanted to open them, but was unable to do so. She tried to sit up, but couldn't. As she laid there trying to figure out her current situation she heard the sound of a door opening and closing somewhere near her. That was followed by the sound of sneakers on linoleum. She struggled to open her eyes again. But again she failed to do so. "Hey, I see you sis", a familiar male voice said from somewhere in front of her. She was trying to place where she knew his voice from when he spoke up again. "Mom. Hey, mom. Mom, wake up. She's doing it again." Cara scrunched her brows at his words. Who was doing what? Who was that guy? "Hey! She just... she just did it again! Mom! Look!" The familiar guy's voice called out again, more excited this time. Cara heard a chair slide across a floor and the noise was then followed by the sounds of footsteps approaching her. Once more she struggled to open her eyes. Once more it was impossible to do. "Cara. Cara, honey,
"What? Tara? You're Tara? But how... how are you Tara? I saw you.You had the mask, the uniform...Your hair was BLACK! How are you Tara? Who even is Tara? Who are you?" Cara rambled on and on, unable to calm down. This was crazy. What was going on? Cara was so upset and confused. She started hyperventilating and began to feel light headed like she might faint. "Where am I? Why am I here? Where's my mom? I want my mom!" She screamed out at the now red headed young woman in front of her. She began trembling violently. And had to fall back into the chair to keep from falling off the edge of it into the floor. Tara, knelt down in front of her and placed her hands on Cara's arms before she looked up with a deep concern evident on her face. "Cara, sweety, You Have Got to Calm Down! I can help you understand. But only if you Calm Down. Please, Cara, this is so important. Everything is riding on you and your ability to chill out!You can make this all stop. But you have to calm down and stop ru
"I know it is a sensitive subject, Mrs. Magdalen. But we really should revisit the matter of a DNR. There has been no improvement in her condition. She has continued to decline. There is nothing that leads me to believe that she will ever regain consciousness. Every time we revive her, she continues to decline. I fear that we are doing far more damage than good.. I know this is very hard on you and your family. But we need to think about what is best for her. Please, ma'am, I ask you to discuss this as a family again." Cara heard a man's voice. She did not recognize his voice. After the man finished talking there were the sounds of muffled sobs. Someone was heart broken over what the man had just said. Cara's heart went out to them. She laid there with her eyes closed, awake but not ready to face the day. As she laid there thinking about what she had heard and wondering who the "she" was that they had been discussing and what might have happened to her. She felt someone touch her arm
The warm light shining in her face caused Cara's eyes to flutter open. She blinked repeatedly and used her hand to shield her eyes as she tried to figure out where she was standing and where the warm, bright light was coming from. She heard voices echoing in the distance, but couldn't discern what they were saying or who they might belong too. The light in her eyes slowly dimmed and after blinking quite a few times, Cara was surprised to see that she was standing in front of her high school. Looking all around she could see that the parking lot was filled with vehicles. Some were very old and obviously from bygone eras. Others were much newer. It was like some weird car show or something. Cara was confused. She didn't know how she had gotten here or what was going on. Looking beyond the school building she could see the high school's football stadium lit up. Just then, cheers rang out from within it. She wondered if there was a football game. She looked back at the parking lot and
Tara looked around for a moment at all the other people milling around the stadium before taking Cara by the hand and standing up. She then led her sister back down the ramp and back out into the parking lot. Cara wondered where Tara was leading her. She wondered where they were going, but she didn't ask. Once they were back in the parking lot, Tara stopped and turned back to Cara, before explaining, "I could try to explain it to you. But I think that the easiest way for you to understand will be if I show you instead. Some things are better seen than heard. I have to warn you, though, you may not like some of what you will see. But it's the only way for you to understand why I am here now. Why I chose this existence." Cara nodded back to her and Tara turned, leading Cara into a hospital surgery room. There on the table laid their unresponsive mother. Medical staff ran here and there while a doctor barked orders and performed surgery. There was blood everywhere. It was very shocking t
Cara, turned and looked at her family home. She had mastered control of her ability to travel wherever she wanted. She merely had to think of a location and it would manifest there in front of her. Standing there in the street memories of everything that she had endured in her family's home since that Monday, came flooding back to her. Cara stood there with memory after memory coming to her. The memories caused her to relive a host of emotions. At the verge of feeling overwhelmed, Cara noticed that the wind had picked up. It began blowing harder and harder, whipping her red hair all around. It almost looked like a wild fire raging on her head. All around her it got steadily darker and darker. Thunder began to rumble up above her head. Lightning began cracking off as well. Causing the house in front of her to light up like a strobe light hung above it. Large rain drops started to fall on her as she started walking up the front steps. Cara stopped on the porch and looked all around th
Cara considered what her father had asked of her. She focused on his hand holding her own. She was able to flex her fingers and close them around his hand twice. It wasn't quite strong enough to call it a squeeze. But she had done her best. Apparently, it was good enough, though. Because she heard the excitement in her father's voice as he told her mother what she had done. Cara laid there and listened to her parents celebrating. They were so happy to see Cara trying to communicate with them. She wanted to do more. She wanted to wake up and hug them both. She wanted to tell them just how much she loved them and how grateful she was for them. But that was easier said than done. Because, try as she might, she just couldn't wake up. Her body simply refused to do as she asked. It was infuriating to her to be so close, yet so far away from her loved ones. Cara wished she knew what to do. She wished that she could just tell them she loved them. She had missed them for what felt like foreve
The sun was warm on her face as she sat there on the grass looking out across the pond. There was a small flock of Canadian geese swimming along, honking at each other as they seemed to glide across the mirrored water. Here and there a fish occasionally broke the surface of the water. The reflection of the trees creating the illusion of a twin upside-down forest, their fall colors were amazing. Over on the far bank a few muscovy ducks napped or preened their feathers. Near the ducks was the old dock. Usually there were people fishing or feeding the ducks from there. Today it stood empty. Other than the honks of the geese and occasional quack of the ducks it was completely silent. There was no one else in sight. Cara had always loved to come here. She had been here many times with Mrs. Davies throughout her childhood. They had come to feed the water fowl and to have picnics. As Cara sat there looking around, she wondered if there actually were people here. She wondered if it was like at