"I shall be truest to you in the season of trial, as all the quietly loyal and good will always be."
—Charles Dickens

()()()

Blayze.

  I woke up late.

  So I stayed home today, much to the chagrin of my mom, who fixed me breakfast in bed.

  "Thanks," I mumbled as I began eating the eggs off of my plate. My mom smiled at me, but her face instantly transitioned when she sat on the edge of my bed. "Honey," she began, her wary eyes being the ultimate Tell Tale signs that something wasn't right.

  I knew that face, the face where she was going to tell me bad news.

  I then quickly swallowed my eggs, and set aside my plate of breakfast. "Yeah," I said sitting up. What was she about to tell me that was going to so bad?

  "You know how your dad doesn't try to tell you what goes on at work?"

  I nodded. My dad was a surgeon; I knew that he really didn't like talking about his job, much less us asking him about it. I knew it stressed him out and it was a not a territory to cross.

  Work and home were to be separated at all costs.

  "Well," my mom said, she put her hand on my leg. "Someone from your school is in the hospital."

  I didn't react right away. Who is it? Was the one question that first popped in my head. I knew it couldn't be any of my friends Mark, Gunther, or Will. They all had texted me earlier asking me where I was.

  I still wanted to know who it was, though.

  I waited for my mom to continue.

  "Her name's Zanna Purgeth," she said.

  I wanted to feel some sort of remorse, but I couldn't just yet---since I didn't even know who this Zanna person was. Had they been a new? I stared blankly at my mom, who I think was a little surprised by my reaction, because she didn't say anything for a moment. She only stared at me, waiting for me to react somehow—in some way.

  I think she was waiting for me to break down and cry?

  "How do you feel Blayze?" she asked, her eyes still having that look in them.

  She was bracing herself.

  "What happened?" I asked next, ignoring my mom's question. Now that I thought of it, I did feel some kind of remorse for the Zanna girl—I'm guessing she was a girl, telling from her name. It was horrible for anyone to be in the hospital.

  "She was walking home alone," my mom said, "and a car hit her."

  Shit, I thought. She got hit by a car?

  "So... Is she going to be okay?"

  My mom sighed, and moved her hand away from my leg.

  "She's in a coma."

()()()

  I sat on the couch in the living room as my mom was preparing a cake for Zanna's family.

  "I'm gonna go to their house and deliver this," she said, checking to see if the cake was done for the umpteenth time. She then thought of something else. "Oh, but I do need to get a card."

  I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. This girl wasn't even dead, so what was up with the condolences? I watched as my mom got out the icing, and the container for the cake from the cabinet. She seemed a little frazzled, considering she'd been running back in forth all morning, trying to make this cake.

  "You don't mind going into Tate's for me?" she asked, pulling the cake (that was now done) out of the oven.

  I rolled my eyes this time. "Seriously?"

  My mom furrowed her eyebrows at me.

  "Don't forget who let you stay home today, mister."

  I stifled a laugh, yeah couldn't deny that. She did let me stay home. If it were my dad, he would've had me drag my ass to school. Late or not.

  She had a point.

  I then got up from the couch and felt for my keys. "''Kay whadaya need me to get?" I easily retrieved my keys from my pant pocket.

  "Just go and get a 'get well soon card'," she said, but reconsidered. "Or a card that says something along the lines, keep the hope, keep the faith."

  I nodded, and left the house.

  The drive to Tate's didn't last but 5 minutes.

  I got out of the car and entered my neighborhood's drugstore.

  "Hey Blayze," greeted Carney, he was an old man, and the store's manager. He never failed to greet me when I entered the store. "What're you getting?" he queried, coming out from behind the checkout counter.

  "Eh, just a card," I said.

  "Ooh," he said with a twinkle in his eyes, "is it for a girl? Anniversary?"

  I wanted to laugh at Carney.

  Girlfriend?

  I haven't had a girlfriend in 5 months.

  My last girlfriend had been Hailey Rogers. The break up had to do with me seeing her on Facebook, sitting on a guy's lap with a red solo cup in her hand. I'd called her about it, but she'd acted like she didn't know what I was talking about. Oh, she knew what I was talking about all right. Three weeks later, she broke up with me over the phone, and a week after that, she and Anthony Jensen (the captain of the wrestling team) were walking down the school hallways together holding hands.

  Did I look like a damn fool.

  Note: Anthony Jensen was the guy's lap she'd been on.

  "Uh no," I said scratching the back of my neck, "it's for a friend who's in the hospital."

  Carney's smile then left his face. "Ah bud," he patted me on the shoulder. "That's tough. When my wife Aggie was in the hospital, it took a toll on me; it was as if I had to take care of myself alone without Aggie. But keep the faith Blayze, 'Kay?"

  I nodded. I wanted to tell Carney that this person wasn't a friend, much less a lover.

  But would that be something.

  What would he say if I told him I was picking up a card for just a random girl, who was in a coma? He'd look at me as if I were crazy.

  "The cards are in aisle 3. Have me ring 'em up for you, and I'll give you a discount." Carney smiled at me before he returned to his counter.

  I thanked him and headed on over to the card aisle. Get well soon, have hope, keep the faith... There was an assortment of cards with those sayings. It was hard to choose a card for a person, when you didn't even know what they looked like, what things they liked, or really even knew them.

  Which one? Like I said there were so many cards to pick and choose from.

  I then grabbed a random one off the shelf. The card's cover was a light purple (lilac) and was decorated with white doves. The cover said: Keep hoping. Keep the faith. And on the inside it read: "Hope is the thing with feathers. That perches in the soul. And sings the tune without the words. And never stops at all."

  Not bad.

  I decided to get the card. It was sentimental enough, and it didn't seem to lack any sympathy. Heading on over to the cash register, Carney was checking out someone and it wasn't long before it was my turn.

  I handed the card on over to him.

  "Ah, you picked out a card," he said, ringing the card up.

  "Yeah, I thought the words inside were good,"

  Carney opened the card, read what was inside, and smiled to himself, as if he remembered something nice.

  "Oh, that's an excerpt from a poem," he said, then smiling to himself once again. "Emily Dickinson wrote the poem. Aggie liked her poems."

  I wasn't really much into poetry, so I didn't know want to say. I only smiled at Carney and waited until he gave me the card back.

  Handing it back to me, he said, "I think you should check out some of her other poems... I'll lend you Aggie's old book. Just come back tomorrow or any time this week, and I'll lend you the book."

  "Thanks Carney," I said. It was nice that he'd lend me his late wife's poem book, but I didn't see why. I just picked a card off a shelf which happened to have a poem in there.

  However, Carney wasn't a bad person, and I didn't wanna be rude.

  I then fished out a dollar and some change from my pocket.

  He waved the money away. "Nah, it's on the house. You keep the money, Blayze."

  I insisted, but he still wouldn't take it.

  I thanked him and left the store with the greeting card in my hand.

()()()

  Zanna's house was small, or in others words as my mom had put it:

  "Cute and cozy."

  Zanna and her family lived on the other side of town, which meant the drive there took a little long. But it didn't matter.

  "Do you have the cake?" Mom asked me as she parked the car in front of the house. I tapped the container on my lap, in which the cake was in.

  Mom smiled. "Great," she said. She then got the envelope, which held the card, out from her purse. "You signed your name?"

  "Yes mom," I said, slight annoyance hinting my voice. What more was she going to ask?

  "I'm just making sure," she defended.

  Nevertheless we both got out the car, and headed up the sidewalk that lead straight to Zanna's house. The house seemed lonely telling from the single car that was parked in the driveway, plus the dead plants that lined the outside interior of the house.

  Now on the porch, Mom searched for a doorbell but didn't see one.

  She knocked.

  After a minute we heard someone.

  "I'm coming," a voice said on the other side said. The voice sounded stressed and strained.

  When the door opened, it revealed a middle aged, red headed woman, clad in a dark green sweat suit. There were dark circles under her eyes and it seemed as if she'd been under a great deal of stress lately—which was normal if your child happened to be in a coma.

  "Hello Ms. Purgeth, I'm Janine and here is my son Blayze," my mom greeted, "We heard about Zanna and we just wanna give you some moral support."

  Ms Purgeth gave my mom a bright smile that oddly enough made her appear more attractive—not that I was much into older women. But it just amazed me how smiling could make a difference in a person's appearance.

  "Call me Rayna," said Ms Purgeth, opening the door wider. "Come on in."

()()()

  "Uh, where's your bathroom?" I asked Rayna. She smiled at me before swallowing the bite of chocolate cake, she had in her mouth. "Down the hallway. Just keep walking and it's down there."

  "Thanks," I said.

  Mom smiled at me as I stood up, and continued conversing with Rayna while I left the room. "So her sister's coming here from Chicago?"

  I descended down the hallway and I happened to come across some black and white pictures, of who, I'm guessing, was a newborn baby Zanna. It showed her small puffy body lying peacefully, in what looked to be a wad of white cloth. I slightly smiled. My mom had similar baby pictures of me hanging up at home.

  I then continued towards the bathroom, until I saw that a bedroom door was left ajar.

  Curious, I decided to enter the room.

  When I stepped inside the room, the room felt cold (the temperature in the living room hadn't been this cold).

  I knew this was Zanna's room; hence the fact there was a 'Z' hanging on the wall above the twin-sized bed.

  The room had a lot of trinkets and vintage movie posters on the walls. There was a movie poster with a guy dressed kind of like a greaser, standing by himself, smiling slyly towards the camera above him it read: Rebel without a Cause. Then there was a movie poster that said "Gone with the Wind" which showed some girl dressed in a red dress being held by a man.

  Looking more around the room, I didn't fail to notice a black bra sticking out from one of the dresser's drawers. What kind of underwear did this girl prefer? I went to the dresser and opened the drawer wider.

  "Eh, excuse me?!"

  I quickly turned around.

  Rayna probably thought I was a pervert, looking in her comatose daughter's underwear drawer. But I saw no one at the door. Huh? About to close the drawer, I was tempted to take another look. Does she have any lace stuff? She didn't have any. I then took out a solid black bra.

  Mmh.

  "Stop looking, you perve!" a voice said, "Ever heard of curiosity killed the cat?"

  I turned back around. There was the voice again. Where was the voice coming from?

  Closing the drawer for good this time, I looked around the room, checking my surroundings more. I must be hearing things, I thought. I must've been, because I could hear my mom and Rayna still talking from the living room.

  "Get out!"

  There was the voice again.

  "What th—?"

  To my left stood a girl who looked to be around my age.

  She didn't look very happy.

  "Who are you?"

:::

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