Chapter 21

“Did the light hurted your eyes Josh?” Emilianne’s question reached into JC’s heart…into his soul. Dr. Shannon looked at the young man and saw him visibly pale and begin to slightly shake. He then looked at Emilianne and saw that she seemed totally oblivious to JC’s reactions.

After a few moments of silence, Emilianne, being the impatient 6 year old that she is, asked the question once again.

“Did the light hurted your eyes?”

JC cleared his throat, inwardly groaning at the question before answering.

“No…it didn’t hurt my eyes,” he answered quietly. He looked up at Emilianne and saw that she seemed perplexed by his answer.

“Did it hurt your eyes Emilianne?” JC watched her nod her head. She seemed lost in thought for just a moment before she smiled brightly and asked her next question.

“Were you wearing sunglasses?”

“What?” JC gave the little girl a slight grin.

“You musta been wearing sunglasses,” she explained as she gestured with her hands. “My light was really bright. I had to…I had to…” Emilianne’s _expression once again registered confusion. “I had to do this, but I don’t know what it’s called.” Emilianne tightly scrunched up her eyes at JC and Dr. Shannon.

“You had to squint,” JC said with slight amusement in his voice as he playfully squinted back at Emilianne, causing the little girl to quietly laugh. At the sound of the quiet laughter, Sharon Lewis’s heart soared. It had been almost a month since she and her husband David had heardEmilianne laugh. Maybe this visit would go smoothly for both Emilianne and Josh.

His amused tone and playful attitude was not ignored by the doctor. Dr. Shannon was feeling somewhat relieved that JC was taking the first question in stride. Hopefully, the questions and discussions to come would go as easily as this one had.

Moments later, Emilianne asked her next question with such a quiet voice, JC and Dr. Shannon almost didn’t hear it.

“Did you hear my mamo’s voice?” Emilianne gave her mother a fearful look that JC caught. Emilianne quickly brought her gaze back to JC and explained her question.

“My momma gets sad when I ask that question…did you?”

JC turned to look at Sharon and saw that she did look distraught. She knew that an explanation was in order and cleared her throat to speak.

“My mother, Emilianne’s mamo, died last year. They were very close and Emilianne misses her very much.”

JC became misty eyed with the revelation and had to quickly swipe at some tears before turning to face Emilianne again.

“Um…uh, no sweetie, I’m sorry but I didn’t hear you mamo’s voice. I heard a man’s voice and the voices of my friends.”

“Lance?”

“Yes and Joey’s.”

“Does Joey have green eyes like me and Lance?”

JC shook his head in amazement with how quickly the little girl could change course with her questions.

“No. Joey has brown eyes.”

“Oh.”

“What did you mamo say to you?” JC did not see the look of astonishment on Dr. Shannon’s face with that question. It was good that JC was taking that extra step.

Emilianne looked up at her mother with questioning eyes. Sharon nodded her head and said, “Go ahead honey. It’s okay to answer Josh’s question.

Emilianne smiled and then looked back at JC.

“She said that she loved me and missed me. What did the man say to you?”

JC had to think for a moment. He had pushed the incident as far out of his mind as possible for the last few weeks.

“He said that I needed to go be with my friends…I couldn’t stay.” 

Emilianne’s eyes opened widely in surprise as she spoke in amazement. “My mamo said the same thing!”

“I guess then that we did the right thing…it was okay not to stay.” JC watched Emilianne nod her head in agreement.

“Did you want to stay Josh?” Emilianne’s little face took on a more somber look when she had asked the question. JC looked at her for a moment, trying to think of the best way to answer the question that had been plaguing him every since he had first awakened in the hospital a month ago.

“At first I wanted to stay because it felt good to be there. But, then I heard my friend’s voices and I knew that I didn’t want to stay away from them. I’m glad that I didn’t stay.”

Emilianne scrunched up her face, seemingly in deep thought for a brief moment before speaking to JC.

“Mamo said that it wasn’t my turn. I would have to wait my turn. My teacher says that same thing to me.” Emilianne’s _expression turned a little pouty after the teacher remark and JC couldn’t help but grin.

“You don’t like having to wait your turn at school Emilianne?”

She shook her head no.

“I didn’t either when I was in school, but we have to.”

The little girl heaved a bit of a sigh and nodded her head in resolute agreement.

Dr. Shannon allowed their conversation to carry on for several more minutes before finally deciding that their time together needed to end. Emilianne was beginning to look tired as did JC and he didn’t want to push them too hard with this first visit.

Sharon joined Dr. Shannon and the two watched as JC and Emilianne said their goodbyes and JC was rewarded with a hug just as Lance had been before the appointment had officially begun.

Emilianne followed her mother to the office door and turned to look one more time at JC who had joined Dr. Shannon near the open door. She cocked her little head to the side and looked deeply into JC’s eyes before asking a question that later on JC would not really remember having been asked.

“Are you still afraid of the water?”

The question hit JC like a ton of bricks. He tried to take a deep breath and found that he wasn’t able to. His vision began to tunnel as he found it increasingly difficult to breath. He felt his knees begin to buckle beneath him. Dr. Shannon saw that JC was in trouble and quickly motioned for Sharon to leave with Emilianne as he barely caught the young man on his way down to the floor.

“What’s wrong with Josh?” Emilianne asked in wonder as she watched Dr. Shannon lower an unconscious JC to the floor.

“He just isn’t feeling too good right now sweetie and it’s time for us to go now.” Sharon tried her best to hide the fear in her voice as she quickly hustled Emilianne out the door.

Sharon immediately went over to Lance’s side and whispered to him. “You need to go in there now. Something’s wrong with Josh.”

Lance looked at her questioningly before standing up and moving quickly to Dr. Shannon’s office door. As he entered the office the waiting room receptionist quickly brushed past him. In her hands was a portable oxygen tank and she quickly handed it over to Dr. Shannon.

“Call downstairs…have them bring up a gurney. We need to get him to ER stat.”

“Yes sir.” The receptionist quickly breezed back by Lance and used Dr. Shannon’s phone to notify the emergency room that a gurney was needed in his office immediately. Lance stood out of the way of the receptionist as she passed a blood pressure cuff to the doctor along with his stethoscope from off his desk. The doctor shoved the items into his coat pocket before placing the oxygen mask over JC’s pale face and turning the oxygen on full flow.

Lance knelt down beside Dr. Shannon and took in JC’s pale features. Lance noted how his breathing was rapid and shallow and his skin seemed to have taken on a waxy appearance.

“What happened to him?” Lance asked the doctor in bewilderment.

“Emilianne’s last question threw him for a loop,” he answered. “It looked like a major panic attack. He began hyperventilating and then collapsed.” Lance nodded numbly at the news. He picked up JC’s hand, somehow hoping that in doing so that JC would know that he was there. “Unbutton his shirt Lance while I take his blood pressure.” Lance carefully placed JC’s hand back down on the floor before quickly unbuttoning the shirt. Once he finished the task, he moved back so that Dr. Shannon had plenty of room to work.

“Blood pressure is pretty low...pulse is rapid.” Dr. Shannon quickly pulled his penlight out from his pocket and proceeded to shine the bright light into JC’s eyes.

“Pupils are equal and reactive.” Then Dr. Shannon rubbed JC’s sternum with a good amount of pressure. Lance watched as JC moaned and slightly moved his head in protest to the pain.

“He responds well to pain.”

“Will he be okay?” asked Lance as he again picked up JC’s hand.

“I’m sure everything will check out okay. Why don’t you stay up here and make any phone calls that you need to. I’ll be back up to let you know how he is.”

“But I want to go with him…”

“Lance…” Dr. Shannon began sternly. “You wouldn’t be able to go in there with him and there is more privacy up here. It’s safer for you.”

“Yes sir.”

Minutes later, 2 orderlies came into the office pushing a gurney. Lance numbly stood and watched as the orderlies effortlessly picked JC’s limp form up from the floor. Lance sat down heavily on the nearby couch and watched as Dr. Shannon continued to hover over JC’s unconscious form as the group raced out the door.

“When is this nightmare going to end?” whispered Lance.

Twenty-Two