Cheyenne Memorial Hospital II

Friday July 23rd @ 2:00 PM - Outside of ICU

     Ted turns to Gary, "Come on. Mrs. Matthews is waiting. She's been
so nice to all of us, I hate to keep her waiting." "Don't worry a minute
or two won't make a difference." As they were walking down the corridor,
they see people running into Will's mother's Intensive Care Unit. Ted
face turned ashen, "Oh please, please ..." and he starts running
himself. By the time he gets there, the nurse is ushering out Mrs.
Matthews and Jenny. Jenny is obviously in tears.

     "WHAT'S GOING ON?" he shouts afraid of the answer, Jenny grabs onto
him and through tears, "She opened her eyes, she opened her eyes and
talked to me." Then Jenny started sobbing. Ted looked to Mrs. Matthews,
Who smiled through her own tears, "Yes, Ted. she woke up." Gary who ran
down the hallway on Ted's heels, grabs Mrs. Matthews, lifts her off the
floor, and spins her around. Mrs. Matthews, in a voice full of laughter,
"Gary, for god's sake put me down."

       Ted turns to Mrs. Matthews, "Can we go in?" "They shooed us out,
the doctors and nurses have to give her a check up, and see how she
really is. But, they said they would let us in as soon as they can. I am
going to call Will and Bart, Gary " who still had his arms around,
"please let me go." She hurried down the corridor.

- The Matthews Farm

     Mrs. Matthews hears the phone ringing at the other end. Finally,
someone answers, "Matthews' residence. Will speaking." "Will, your
mother woke up, She woke up. ...  WILL are you there?" there's a brief
pause, and she can hear Bart's voice, "Is everything all right? Will
doesn't seem able to talk?" "Bart, this your mom, I'm still at the
hospital, but Mrs. Sommers woke up and spoke a little. ... Try to get
Will to calm down, she's not out of the woods yet, but it's still a very
good sign. Is Zack there?" She hears, Bart in the background talking to
Will. Then Bart says to her, "No, Zack's at Shelley's" "Well then go get
your father."

     After a minute or so, she hears her husband's voice, "Sheri, how is
Angie doing? Bart said she woke up." "That's right, Evan. I was hoping
you could bring Will down here, before the doctors are through examining
her. He should be here when they're ready to give us her status." "Sure
we'll leave right away. Be there in a half an hour. I'll have Bart call
the King house, I'm sure they'll want to know." "That's a good idea. See
you soon." "See you soon."

     "Bart you call Shelley's house and tell them about Mrs. Sommers."
Bart has a tough time, getting away from Will. Bart's dad, goes to Will
and holds him while he's crying, "That's ok Will, That's ok. We'll be
going there right away. Calm down, son." When he hears himself say that,
he knows that this time he means it. "Come on son, let's wash your face,
and get going."

- The King House

     "Sorry Grams, but there's not enough room in Zack's pickup. We can
only seat three, and TK already said that he wanted to go along." Her
grandmother turns to her, "I understand, don't worry, now you three git.
I'll wait till your mom gets back." Zack, Shelley and TK drive off.
Shortly after they have left, she hears a car door slam, looking out the
window, she sees first Mark then Steve walking up to the house. Through
the screen door, "Steve and Mark, could you come here please." She walks
out on to the verandah speaking, "Could one of you drive me down to the
hospital in Cheyenne?"  Steve looks to Mark, then back at Mrs. King, "We
could both go if you like, is everything alright?" "Everything is great.
I appreciate it but one of you should stay here until Betty gets home.'

     Steve nods to Mark, and says, "I'll take you Mrs. King, I mean
Virg."  "Mark, you'll be fine here won't you?" "Yes, ... Virg." "Good.
There's food in the fridge, and tea in there too. ... Thank you so
much." She gets into Steve's car, turns to him and says, "Well, Steven
let's see what this baby can do."

@ 3:30 PM - Outside of ICU

     They are now all there, Will, Bart, Ted, Gary, Jenny, Zack,
Shelley, TK, Sheri, Evan, Virg and Steve waiting. Some standing some
sitting, a couple pacing. Steve is struck by the feeling of family and
caring that everyone has. He. also, notices that Bart is holding onto
Will, and same with Gary and Ted. He calls TK over, and motions him down
the hallway a little. "TK, I don't know how to put this, ... are Will
and Bart ... you know ... gay?" TK looks at him and realizes that this
must be sort of a shock to him. He turns back to him and says, "We were
going to tell you when we got back, then all this happened. Yeah, Will
and Bart are gay, so are Ted and Gary, ... and so am I."

     Dumbfounded, Steve is about to speak when a Doctor walks out of
Mrs. Sommers room. He motions to them all to be quiet. He starts,
"Before you get your hopes too high, she still has a long way to go, but
it looks good, It looks very good." everyone who is holding someone
gives them a special squeeze. "Now, there has been damage, and she did
suffer from a severe concussion. She might have be ... confined to a
wheelchair for a long time. But we are now hopeful." He looks at the
mass of people, and says, "You all can't go in there right now, but if
you restrict  your selves to just two or three minutes, I don't see why
three or four of you might not be able to go in there at a time."

     Will, Ted and Jenny all start walking to the door, when Jenny asks
the doctor, "Could you let in five this one time?" The doctor looks at
the faces of Bart and Gary, and nods hid head, "Only this one time," All
five of them walk in together.

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on to "stray e-mail, part two"

back to "stray e-mail, part one"