Autumn and her mom waited patiently in the waiting room. By now, they had been joined by Autumn's brothers and father. The 5 of them were sitting in a corner, Autumn's parents on a loveseat, Autumn's older brothers on the couch, and Autumn was curled up in the armchair with her phone. She was playing a silly game about popping dots.

The waiting room was large, to say the least. There were at least 14 couches, plus tables and armchairs. There were a few other families in the waiting room with Autumn's family. One consisted of only a man and his wife. They didn't speak much and were sitting too far away for Autumn to strike up normal conversation as to why there were there. There was a younger man sitting in the corner, also too far away to talk to, reading quietly. He looked relaxed, so Autumn assumed things were good and whatever he was there for was minor.

And then there was a family next to hers. Directly next to hers. They spoke in hushed tones and what little conversation she heard from them was often in another language. She wasn't sure what language it was, but it sounded asian of some sort. Perhaps Vietnamese, she thought, because she had known someone in class last year who was Vietnamese and she remembered what it sounded like. It sounded like this.

It was a large family, that was for sure. There was a set of 4 siblings, their spouses, and their kids. Autumn assumed they were siblings because they were friendly with one another and they seemed to be affectionate in a sibling way, like when the older man playfully smacked the younger man and then the two women laughed and someone's wife said something and everyone laughed. Like that.

Autumn noticed that there was always at least one or two of them in the waiting room. Even when everyone was hungry, they always designated someone to stay while everyone else went to get food.

She also noticed that they had slowly built up a pile of snacks next to them. It was stuff bought in bulk, a case of Gatorade or a big box of Goldfish crackers, those types of snacks.

The family had been there before Autumn's family had arrived, and they would stay past when her family would leave, though she didn't know it then.

The doctors didn't come into the waiting room frequently. But they did that day. They came in to tell the couple something, then to show them back to a room. A young woman in a pink dress with glasses came out to tell the man reading something. He cried, but she never moved to touch him. Autumn noticed that more than anything else about the interaction, mostly because she thought it was the job of doctors with bad news to comfort patients' families. Maybe not.

They never came to speak to the family next to Autumn's, though. Everytime a doctor came in, Autumn wondered if they would speak to the family next to her, but they never did. She knew that might be wrong, she should be worried about her own family. She should be worried about her own medical whatnot, but she was worried about the family next to her.

It was the 16th day that Autumn had been sitting there when she got a glimpse into the family next to her. By then, she had watched nearly 2 seasons of a show, every episode. She'd also written 2 short stories and drawn 6 different women as part of those silly drawing challenges. Each one was supposed to be a zodiac sign, so there was a woman with horns for Capricorn and a mermaid for Aquarius. She'd posted some online, she had a lot of notes on them.

Autumn liked the littlest things to keep herself busy. Writing was a favorite, but she also liked to draw and to binge shows. She liked to distract herself.

It was the 16th day that Autumn learned something of what was going on. It had been a few hours since the older eight people had left. Autumn assumed it was to get food, she had noticed that their pile had gotten a little smaller.

Well, whatever they had gone to do, they had left 5 teenagers, 2 young children, and 2 infants behind to watch the area. The teens had put the two babies down for a nap, one in its carrier and the other tucked in between pillows on the couch. The young children were also sleeping, but they were both curled up in armchairs.

Autumn had to hand it to these teens. The girls were good with kids, and that was really saying something. Autumn worked as a tutor and a nanny and usually worked magic with kids. But she couldn't imagine getting 4 small and easily excitable kids to sleep in a hospital.

With all the kids asleep, the teens were huddled up together on a seperate couch, talking. She heard little slivers of conversations, words and sentences here and there.

"...she didn't... the doctor said... I just..."

"I don't care really, I mean..."

"The chances are low at best."

"Yeah, try telling... they won't listen."

"... such pessimists. They wouldn't be telling us things will work out if it wasn't..."

Autumn was trying to make out more of the conversation, but all she was getting was that some of the family was skeptical of the chances. Whatever chances there were.

It was a long conversation. Eventually they talked about school and how one of them was definitely going to get asked to the homecoming dance and how hungry they were. Eventually their parents came back. Eventually night fell.

Nighttime was hard to understand especially in this place. The lights never dimmed, they never went out. The cafeteria never closed. They never stopped wheeling carts and people into the rooms behind the big doors. Sometimes Autumn got confused.

She could sleep, yes, but it was always based off the clock. At 11 or midnight she would sleep. At 3 or 5:30 or noon she would wake. It was hard to distinguish anything inside the hospital. There weren't many windows and the light was harsh in your eyes.

It was the next day, but Autumn didn't know when. She'd plugged in her phone. It was across the table and she didn't feel like getting it. She assumed it was the next day, hopefully the morning. Late morning.

Autumn hadn't been sleeping too well since staying in the hospital. It was too hard to stay asleep, too hard to keep her eyes closed when the lights were so bright.

She was tired still. That didn't mean anything, she was always tired.

She noticed that the teens were gone by now, probably getting breakfast in the cafeteria. The two younger kids were gone, too, and 5 of the adults were gone. One of the remaining adults was holding the youngest baby.

Another adult walked into the room briskly, suddenly the others perked up.

"She grabbed my hand. Squeezed back."

The whole family stopped. Whoever she was, she was responding. Autumn took a guess. Someone they loved, maybe their mom, was in a coma. Waiting to wake up. Waiting to get up.

It was a guess. Total guess, but she'd put money on it. The worst part was that she'd squeezed.

They'd been here too long. It had been weeks. Judging by how the family had looked when Autumn had gotten to the hospital, they'd been there for weeks before that.

The squeeze was nothing more than muscle movement. A final spurt of consciousness, maybe.

The family next to Autumn's was missing one, and despite the hope they all held, she wasn't waking up.