Chapter 6: Wakeup Time
It was about five years later that Danielle was sitting by the bed with Dane’s parents sitting down beside her. You could see the doctors standing by the door just giving up hope for Dane coming back and seeing life again, and Danielle crying nonstop knowing that Dane might be dead. You would think that they gave up about five years ago, but they have not given up hope yet, since it was a really serious matter for a band member to be dead before he could even go for his big gig. The doctors never give up on their patients unless they have to, but if it was not for Dane being a huge member of everybody’s lives, then they would’ve had him buried four years earlier. The lights were really dim like a funeral were taking place in the hospital room, and everybody was crying enough to make it look like a funeral, but Dane was not reported dead or alive.
“Doc. Is he still alive? Is my baby still alive?” Dane’s mother asked the doctor in extreme grief. The mother was really scared of losing her only child, since Dane did not have a sister or a brother. Her husband left her about three years before the date of the event, which hurt Mrs. Gallagos even worse. She had a reason to be afraid of the moment of death.
The doctor walked away from the door to go to Dane’s mother and Danielle. “We do not have a specific answer right now. When we checked his heart it was still beating, slowly but it was still breathing. So, there is not really an explanation for when he might die or awaken from the deep coma. When we get the answer then we’ll give them to you, but until then we will not have any information to give to you.” The doctors replied, hugging Danielle trying to help her stop crying. This doctor was not really a big fan of deaths so he knew how people felt about the deaths of family members.
You would not think that Dane’s father would appear there, but he felt worse about what as happening to Dane than anyone was. Dane was the one thing that completed his heart and won his love. Mr. Gallagos just turned up at the hospital door where Dane was laying, as Danielle jumped up. “Mr. Gallagos?” she said sniffling trying to get rid of her sniffles. She ran up to him, and hugged him. “I am sorry about your son, I should not have been there when the band was performing but I had to see him one more time. I heard that he was going to be In concert, so I went there and tried to watch him perform, but I ended up killing him. I did not expect this to happen, I just should have stayed backstage the whole gig and now I ruined all our lives. I’m sorry,” she said as her sniffles started to die down slowly.
Danielle reached into Dane’s pants pocket and pulled out a cell phone. Looking down at it, she started to cry again, this time even harder. She remembered how good of friends they were when they were young, and that they may have been more if she had not have moved. She slowly flipped the phone top down, and set her fingers on the buttons and slowly pressed Robby’s phone number. The phone started to ring, when Danielle just looked to the doctor and then down at the floor. Robby at his home sitting at the computer working on a novel for nanowrimo, hear his ring tone, and reached to grab it. Reaching over the router, he picked the phone up and answered it.
“Hello?” Robby said confused, not looking at the phone number that called. Robby just got up and walked over to the couch and slowly sat down.
“Hey. This is Danielle.” she said trying to speak over her sniffles. These words could barely be understood but Robby understood who that was from anywhere.
“What’s up with Dane? Is he revivelized yet, or is he still in that coma? I really miss that guy.” Robby said just feeling down in the dumps, about what happened to Dane. Robby reached for his glass lifting it up with his right hand and holding the phone with his left hand.
“Sorry Robb. He has not woken up yet, but he will soon enough, hopefully. The doctor is only giving him another couple month to wake up, or else he is going to be reported dead.” Danielle said crying harder. The parents held onto her trying to help her feel better. The doctor just then studied Dane a little bit and suddenly he saw one of Dane’s fingers point out towards the edge of the bed. This was an amazing movement, since the doctor and the friends and family of Dane did not exactly expect it to happen for another couple months. Danielle just stared at Dane in shock, and walked over to him and set her hand on his, and saw another finger move. Suddenly, Dane grabbed Danielle’s hand, and gripped it to move it towards his chest. His eyes were still closed, as he tried to wake up from his long sleep, having a tough time getting back into the game. Danielle yelled into the phone accidentally, trying to talk to the family around her.
“Oh my god! He’s back!” Danielle screamed as Robby felt his headache coming back to him again.
“That’s awesome. I’ll be right there, just give me a minute or two to get there.” Robby said hanging up the phone, and jumping out of the chair, and rolling on the floor to the couch to press the off button on the remote. Robby just stared at the television just thinking about the old days of their friendship. Robby got up from the floor and grabbed his shirt and ran to the door. He turned to the right and reached for his water and grabbed it. He then looked at the door for a minute and grabbed the knob and twisted it open. Pulling on it, he would have opened it enough to be able to go out the door and get to the porch steps. He walked straight to the edge and reached into his pocket and grabbed his keys out of his pocket and pressed the unlock and startup button. He then walked down the steps and reached his car down next to the porch, and opened the door. Robby then jumped into the car, and put the key in the ignition and put the car in reverse and pushed the skinny pedal lightly to pull out of the driveway and onto the road.
Back at the hospital, Danielle reached down and hugged Dane deeply speaking into his ear.
“Glad to have you back babe. How are you feeling?” Danielle asked Dane looking over her shoulder at the family. Dane just smiled opening his eyes up slowly, looking in Danielle’s eyes.
“Better than I’ve been feeling for five years. You guys thought I was going to die didn’t you?” Dane asked wondering how they were feeling about the whole condition. “And by the way, why were you at the concert? I thought you have left me forever.” Again asked suspiciously. Dane looked up to his family and then asked quickly after that. “Where’s Robby anyway? I thought he would be here. Oh and sorry about all the talking, I felt like I was dead for about twenty minutes, and I could not even speak. See my hands move earlier? That is about all I could even move, and it felt extremely weird.” Everybody was just amazed at how much Dane could talk about in two minutes.
“The first question’s answer is, we did think you were going to die. You have been in a coma, what do you think we would believe? We almost gave up hope.” Danielle said leaning in and giving him a kiss. “And I thought I would stop by and visit my childhood prince, since the reason I left was because my parents got good paying jobs in New York, and I had no choice but to move with them. Why haven’t you called me five years before the accident? I’ve been wondering how you have been, since my mother made me throw away your number. But Robby will be here in a minute or two.” Danielle replied feeling tired of talking for that moment.
On the other hand, Dane’s mother was still waiting for him to talk to her. Danielle grabbed a hold of Dane’s hand and pulled him up. “Do you still know how to walk? You have been out for a really long time.” Danielle asked trying to be funny. Nobody really thought it was funny, but Dane smiled, so you could count that as a laugh. Once Dane got up to his feet he said.
“I sure hope I do, or else how am I going to get to the concert?” Danielle looked at him a little weird and said nicely.
“Well. The gig went on without you. Sorry to say, but the good thing is that they won the battle of the bands. I was looking through the concert thing in my cell phone, and I saw an American Dreamers farewell concert tonight. I was here waiting for you to wake up so we could go. I’ve been here since about 5:00 this morning.”
“Oh. When does it start?” Dane asked with excitement thanking god that she knew what his favorite rock band was.
“It starts in about three hours. Just enough time to get to Detroit and see them and American Dreamers in concert. Anybody I should invite for you?” Danielle asked knowing that his buddies loved American Dreamers.
“Nah. None, other than my buddies Robb and Coop. They’re major fans of American Dreamers. So, I’ll be waiting in the car, but anyway where is the car?” Dane said a little confused.
Danielle looked at the doctor and said. “Lets just take him by ambulance. He might need a little help getting in there.” The doctor nodded looking to the right at the other doctor and said to get Dane into the ambulance. Dane just stared confused, as the doctor grabbed his arm and dragged him to the ambulance mad that he had to drive him all the way to Detroit. Danielle though looked to Dane’s parents and walked up to them, when they were crying and hugged them each for a couple minutes at the same time. She then said goodbye, and walked out of the emergency room and into the hallways. He waved to all the people laying there in the beds in the hall, trying to get to the door feeling horrible for them. Once Danielle got to the exit door, she walked out and went to the ambulance and jumped in. She looked to Dane and wrapped her arms around him.
“So. You came back to see me because you missed me?” Dane asked happily, crying happy tears. He hugged her tight and pecked her right on the lips for a couple minutes, as the diver started driving. Dane then asked after the two minute kiss. “I missed you too. I gave up hope that I would se you again, so I just tried to forget about you, and that is a confession that I have been living with my whole life. But now I guess you are here, so I get to clear that out of my head. I have not heard from American Dreamers or Another Lost Memory in about six years. But I guess it is the last time I can even talk to or hear him. They were my idols when I was young. I am very excited to hear them again.”
“Well. Good thing that I got backstage passes reserved so that we could meet them then isn’t it.” Danielle said curious about what he would do next.
“Oh my god! You got backstage passes too! Sweet!” Dane could have been heard screaming excitedly. “Thank you!” He said kissing her again. “I have always wanted to meet those guys, and I finally get to thanks to you.” The screaming stopped suddenly, as they pulled into the Detroit arena parking lot.
