The Courage Within (Riley Bennett)

by Andy Coltart

  ‘The kids are in for their scans,’ said the lady behind the desk. ‘I suggest you wait with the other parents for now.’ The lady pointed to Alex’s father. Riley’s mum came over and sat next to him.

  ‘Hello, I’m Riley’s mother,’ she said. The others introduced themselves and told her what they knew.

  ‘I guess now we just wait,’ said Casey’s mum.

  The bell rang out around the school marking the end of the lunch break. The teachers had arranged to meet their classes on the yard and take them straight to the main hall of the school. As they filed in they could see the Head Teacher standing alone on the stage at the front. He looked serious and sombre.

  ‘Come in quickly,’ he said. ‘Settle down, no talking,’ he went on.

  ‘What’s going on?’ whispered one of the younger kids.

  ‘Two kids died playing hockey this morning,’ said another.’

  ‘Oh no!’ said the first kid, a little too loudly.

  ‘Quiet,’ said a teacher as the two kids walked by and sat themselves down.

  Once everyone was in the Head Teacher stepped forward to the front of the stage and spoke.

  ‘Some of you may know why we are here,’ he said, ‘some may not.’ He took a deep breath and continued.

  ‘This morning two girls were injured when a lightning bolt struck the hockey field they were on.’ He could see some of the kids were shocked by this, whilst others clearly thought this was amusing.

  ‘This is a serious matter,’ he said. ‘They are both alive but in a critical condition. It could be several days, or longer, before we hear anything. It’s important to stick to the facts we know so I don’t want to hear silly rumours going around school about this. That is all for now you may return to your classes.’ As he walked off the stage Mr Willis could be heard telling the 11th grade pupils to stand and follow him out of the hall.

  The MRI team were busy getting Riley ready for her scan. She was still unconscious from the lightning strike. The team counted to three and lifted her limp body from the trolley bed to the scanner. Making sure she was lying straight with her arms by her side the team left the scanning area and went behind the screen. Riley slowly slid inside the scanner. A loud drumming noise started as the scanner began to take its readings. Some time later everything went quiet. The team reappeared and moved her back to the trolley bed.

  ‘Okay,’ said one of the nurses, ‘who is next?’

  Riley was taken out of the scanning room to the corridor next to the waiting area. Her trolley bed had several monitors on it which were all now reattached to her after the scan. Mrs Bennett jumped up when she saw her daughter. She ran over to the bed.

  The nurse with Riley asked, ‘Can I help you?’

  ‘I’m her mom,’ came the sad and painful sounding reply. Mrs Bennett started to cry as she saw Riley lying there all wired up to various mobile monitors.

  ‘It’s okay, Mrs Bennett,’ said the nurse. ‘She’s in good hands. We’ll find a way to help her.’

  ‘Thank you,’ said Riley’s mum through the sniffing and tears. Alex’s father came over and handed her a hanky. ‘Thank you,’ she said as she blew her nose loudly into it. Will smiled at the noise she made but didn’t let anyone see he was doing it.

  Once the others had had their MRI, it was decided to keep them there for a PET scan. Then they were given an EEG which took longer as Riley, Casey and Alex all had to have multiple wires attached to their skulls to record specific parts of the brain. The parents and Will were told to go and get something to eat and drink as they would be sitting for a long time in the waiting area. The four of them went to the cafe on the ground floor of the hospital. They were back before the last scan was finished.

  As Alex, who had been the last to go in, came out of the scanning room the Head of Neurology appeared in the unit.

  ‘Ah,’ he said, ‘there you all are. We’re finished here now so we’re taking them to the Neuro Intense Care Unit. I’ll be able to do all I can for them there.’

  ‘Can we come too?’ said Casey’s mum.

  ‘Of course, and once we have them settled into their rooms you’re welcome to stay as long as you like,’ said Doctor Wu.

  On their way to level 10, where the Neuro ICU was based, Mrs Bennett’s phone started to ring.

  ‘Oh no,’ she said. ‘Oh I am sorry, how embarrassing.’ As she pulled the phone from her bag her face went pale.

  ‘What is it?’ said Casey’s mum.

  ‘The twins’ school. Oh, I’ve forgotten the twins!’ she said with panic in her voice. She answered the phone and sure enough it was a request to collect them as the school day had ended half an hour ago. Sounding even more panicked than before she said, ‘How am I going to do that from here?’ She explained to the school what had happened. Alex’s father stepped into the conversation.

  ‘Perhaps I can help,’ he said.

  ‘How?’ asked Riley’s mum.

  ‘I could have my assistant pick up your children and bring them here. She’s lovely, her name is Jess.’

  ‘Oh thank you,’ said Riley’s mum.

  She put the phone on speaker and introduced Alex’s father to the school office. He explained that Jess would call for the twins and she’d have his firm’s I.D. badge with her to prove who she was. Fortunately, the school agreed as they had no other plan to get the twins, short of Mrs Bennett leaving Riley.

  ‘I’d better phone Jess then,’ said Alex’s father. He wandered off and made the call. When he returned Riley’s mum looked at him anxiously.

  ‘It’s okay,’ he said. ‘Jess is on her way to pick them up.’ Riley’s mum sighed with relief. None of them had realised where the time had gone.

  ‘Hadn’t you better call your parents?’ said Alex’s father to Will.

  ‘Good idea,’ said Will pulling his phone from his pocket.

  Entering the Neuro ICU they were each directed to their child’s room. Will stayed with Alex’s father. Mrs Bennett sat in the chair next to Riley’s bed holding Riley’s hand. She had never felt so helpless. There was nothing she could do for Riley and that was a painful and frustrating feeling. She could see Doctor Woo through the glass window by the door. He was having a discussion with several doctors at the Unit’s main desk.

  ‘Are you absolutely sure?’ said Doctor Wu.

  ‘Yes sir, we are,’ replied several doctors.

  ‘Well this is highly unusual,’ said Doctor Wu, ‘it will require careful monitoring.’

  ‘We will make sure of it,’ said the doctors with him.

  ‘And what about Riley?’ said Doctor Wu.

  ‘We think her history of epilepsy has caused the electrical energy from the lightning to interact with her brain differently,’ said one doctor.

  ‘But just what that means we don’t yet know,’ said another.

  ‘Very well,’ said Doctor Wu, ‘we will keep them in and see what develops.’

  ‘Hello, I’m Jess, I’m here for the Bennett twins,’ said Jess into the speaker phone at the school gate.

  ‘Oh, yes,’ said the administrator, ‘come through.’ The gate buzzed and opened. Jess made her way to the office where the twins were sat waiting. Showing her I.D. to the administrator she turned to the twins and introduced herself.

  ‘Where’s our Mom?’ said one of them.

  ‘She’s at the hospital with your sister,’ said Jess.

  ‘Why, what’s happened?’ said the other twin, looking very confused.

  ‘Well, I think it’s best if your mom explains,’ said Jess.

  ‘Is Riley okay?’ said the first twin, sounding anxious.

  ‘She isn’t well but she’s going to be okay,’ replied Jess, not really knowing how to answer the question in any other way. The administrator was happy that everything was in order and allowed the three of them to leave the school and head to the hospital.

  Doctor Wu entered Riley’s room. Mrs Bennett stood up.

  ‘It’s okay Mrs Bennett, sit down please,’ said
Doctor Wu, pulling up another chair for himself. ‘We need to talk,’ he said. ‘I have the first set of results from the scans.’ Riley’s mum looked terrified; she was beside herself with worry as it was. Any more bad news would be too much for her to handle. Noticing how concerned she looked Doctor Wu tried to reassure her.

  ‘We’ve discovered an electrical charge in the brains of all three teenagers,’ he said. ‘It doesn’t seem to be harming them, but we do think it’s the result of the lightning.’

  ‘What can be done about it?’ said Riley’s mum.

  ‘At present we don’t know, but we will conduct further scans tomorrow to see if there are any changes.’

  ‘Okay’ said Riley’s mum.

  ‘There is one more thing,’ said Doctor Wu. ‘Riley’s brain seems to have a greater electrical charge than the others. We can’t be sure, but we think this may be due to her epilepsy.’ Mrs Bennett’s face went pale. Doctor Wu tried to reassure her further before leaving the room to speak to the other parents.

  Riley lay still on the bed with the monitors around her beeping away. Inside her brain small sparks of electrical energy were firing between the synapses. These were more powerful than any normal person would experience. But what the doctors and their scans had somehow missed, was these sparks of energy were not just firing in her brain, but throughout her entire body!

  Chapter 7

  Waking Up

  It wasn’t long before Jess arrived at the hospital. She was surprised how quickly she had done the journey, after all the roads had been getting busier with the early evening traffic. The hospital’s main reception had details of Riley on their computer system so where able to direct Jess and the twins to level 10 and the Neuro ICU.

  ‘Mom!’ shouted the twins as they entered the ICU.

  ‘Shhh,’ said one of the nurses. The twins ignored her and ran to the Unit’s main desk. Mrs Bennett heard her other children before she saw them and was already opening the door to Riley’s room as they arrived at the desk.

  ‘Hey, you two,’ she said, relieved to see them. Alex’s father also came out of Alex’s room on hearing the noise the twins were making. They ran and gave their mum a hug.

  ‘Jess,’ said Mr Manning, ‘thanks for doing this.’

  ‘No problem,’ said Jess, ‘it looks like you’ve all had one hell of a day.’

  ‘That we have,’ said Mr Manning.

  Riley’s mum stood back up from hugging the twins.

  ‘Thank you for bringing these two here,’ she said to Jess.

  Jess again said, ‘No problem.’ She then asked Mr Manning, ‘How’s Alex doing?’

  ‘As well as can be expected,’ said his father.

  ‘What have the doctors said?’ asked Jess.

  ‘Only that Alex and the two girls have some strange electrical activity in their brains. They’ve not been able to tell us any more,’ said Mr Manning.

  Riley’s mum thanked Jess again and took her twins into see their big sister. They ran up to her bed, one on either side and took hold of her hands.

  ‘We are here now, Riley. Can you wake up and play with us?’ said Beth, one of the twins.

  ‘Yes, come on, Riley,’ said Max, the other twin. Mrs Bennett’s heart sank as she listened to her children.

  ‘She can’t wake up just yet,’ she said.

  ‘Why not, Mom?’ said Beth.

  ‘Her brain needs time to heal, it’s had a nasty shock,’ said Mrs Bennett.

  ‘She will be okay though, won’t she, Mom?’ said Max, sounding anxious.

  Mrs Bennett sighed, ‘I’m sure she will, we just need to let her do it in her own time,’ she said. The twins looked at their mum and nodded and carried on holding Riley’s hands. Meanwhile Jess had joined Mr Manning and Will in the next room.

  ‘How late are you planning on staying?’ Mr Manning asked Jess.

  ‘I’m not too sure,’ she replied.

  ‘Well, I’d be happy to buy you dinner as a thank you. I’m going to drop Will home shorty,’ said Mr Manning.

  ‘I’d like that, thank you,’ she said.

  Casey’s mum stuck her head round the door to say goodbye to Alex’s father and company before doing the same with Riley’s mum.

  ‘I’ll be back first thing,’ she said to the doctor at the unit main desk.

  ‘That’s absolutely fine, Mrs Johnson. We’ll take good care of Casey,’ said the doctor. With that she left the ICU for the night. Mr Manning, Will and Jess soon followed.

  ‘I guess I should get you two home as well,’ said Mrs Bennett. ‘You must be starving. Shall we have a McDonald’s on the way?’ she said to the twins.

  They both jumped up and down at the idea and said, ‘Yes, yes, can we? Thanks, Mom.’

  Soon everything was quiet with just the routine sounds of the staff on the unit. Quiet conversations between nurses, monitors being adjusted and patients’ various needs being attended to. Then, suddenly, screaming could be heard from one of the teenager’s rooms. It was Casey, she’d woken up after nearly ten hours of being unconscious. She was confused and frightened, not knowing where she was or what had happened.

  The door to her room swung open and a nurse ran in. ‘It’s okay, sweetheart, you’re safe,’ she said. Casey looked at her still terrified. The nurse sat on her bed and took hold of her hand.

  Casey pulled it away and said, ‘Who are you and where am I?’

  ‘You’re in hospital,’ said the nurse, ‘and my name is Joanne.’

  ‘What happened to me?’ said Casey. The nurse took hold of Casey’s hand again.

  ‘You were at school,’ she said. ‘You were playing hockey when you were struck by lightning. Do you remember any of that?’

  Casey sat on her bed, trying to recall the early part of that day.

  ‘I remember playing hockey,’ she said. ‘I remember running with the ball at Crazy Curls, sorry I mean Riley.’

  ‘Do you mean Riley Bennett?’ asked Joanne.

  ‘Yes, why do you ask?’ said Casey.

  ‘Because she’s in the next room,’ replied Joanne. Casey stared at the nurse with a look of confusion on her face.

  ‘You were both struck by the same bolt of lightning. What’s more, a male student from the college across town was also hit at the exact same moment,’ said Joanne.

  ‘Next you’ll be telling me he’s here too,’ said Casey.

  ‘Yes, he is’ said Joanne.

  ‘No way!’ said Casey. ‘Can I see them?’

  ‘Perhaps tomorrow,’ said Joanne, ‘they’re both still unconscious.’

  Doctor Wu came into Casey’s room. ‘Hello,’ he said, ‘I’m Doctor Wu and I run this Unit. How are you feeling, Casey?’

  ‘Apart from being disoriented, I’m okay. I do have a bit of a headache and a pain in my right leg’ she said. She hadn’t noticed that pain until the doctor asked her how she was. Casey decided to take a look at her leg to see why it was sore. She wasn’t expecting what she saw.

  ‘Oh my God, what is that?’ she said pointing at the lightning scar on her thigh.

  ‘We are not entirely sure,’ said Doctor Wu, ‘you all seem to have them.’

  ‘Can you tell me what type of pain you have there, for example throbbing or burning or a dull pain?’ asked Joanne.

  ‘It’s feels like a fizzing electrical charge,’ said Casey. ‘That sounds weird, I know.’

  ‘Not at all,’ said Doctor Wu.

  ‘Let us know if it gets worse or goes away won’t you,’ said Joanne.

  ‘Of course,’ replied Casey. As Doctor Wu left Joanne offered to get Casey some food and explained that her mum had been and would be back first thing in the morning. She left the controls for the television and Casey turned it on to watch as Joanne left the room.

  Alex opened his eyes trying to work out where he was. The light in the room was dim. He could hear beeping sounds and see lights of various colours. They were all out of focus. He concentrated, trying to focus his vision on what was in front of him.
Nothing seemed to work.

  ‘Hello,’ he shouted, ‘is anybody there?’ The door to his room opened and Joanne came in turning the lights up a little as she entered.

  ‘Hello my love, how are you feeling?’ she said. Alex didn’t answer her question, but instead asked one of his own.

  ‘Where am I?’ he said.

  Joanne came over and sat on the end of his bed, just as she had with Casey. She introduced herself and explained where he was and what had happened. He could remember being outside with Will and the rain starting. He could even remember walking towards Will at the college main entrance. But he couldn’t recall what had happened next and seemed agitated.

  ‘What is it, Alex?’ asked Joanne.

  ‘I can’t focus my eyes,’ he said. ‘I’ve been trying since I woke up but everything is still blurred.’

  ‘Don’t worry,’ said Joanne, ‘I’ll ask the doctor to take a look as soon as he’s available. Would you like something to eat?’

  ‘Yes please, and can I have something for the pain in my leg too?’

  ‘Of course,’ said Joanne, getting up and leaving the room.

  About an hour later two doctors came into Alex’s room.

  ‘Hello,’ said the first, ‘we are from the Ophthalmology Department. We are here to take a look at your eyes if that’s okay with you?’

  ‘Oh, yes that’s fine,’ replied Alex. They wheeled in a small table with an eye examination lens on it. One of the doctors asked Alex to sit on the side of the bed and look into the lens. The other doctor sat on a chair on the opposite side of the table and started to examine his eyes.

  ‘Well, you’ll be pleased to know there doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with the inside of your eyes,’ said the doctor.

  ‘So why is everything blurry?’ replied Alex. The doctor paused for a moment, trying to think how to word this so as not to alarm Alex.

  ‘Well,’ he said, ‘we are still waiting on some of your brain scan results. There’s a possibility the optic nerve has been affected by the lightning strike. Your eye could be seeing okay but the signal isn’t reaching the brain clearly, hence things look blurry.’ Alex looked alarmed by this and the doctor realised he’d failed to be reassuring. So in a desperate attempt to keep Alex calm he quickly added, ‘Don’t worry about this. We need to see those results and it maybe a temporary thing until your body recovers from the shock.’ Alex, still looking worried, sat back on his bed.