I gaze out the window at the boring, drab grey sky. The dark clouds cry in distress and icy tears poor down from the sky. Outside is like all the life, and color has been sucked out of the world. Inside the hospital is worse. Everything is white and grey. Black and white, it’s like living in an old movie. The sea of faces that surrounds me all have pained expressions, mirroring mine. Some with flecks of tears, people with no expression with them at all, they just blankly stare at a barren wall. Here and there you get a smile thanks to great news. I wouldn’t know though. I haven’t heard good news in over three months.
I sit lazily in the cushioned chair in my sister’s room. I rest my head on my fist and continue to stare blankly at the city below. I check to see if her heart is still going. The little monitor is going up and down on a regular basis that is a good sign I guess. I just watch her lifeless body, resting in front of me. I notice how pale she is, like a sheet of blank paper, begging to have a dash of color. I look at her hair, spilling all around her. It’s lighter and thinner than usual. Her hair has lost its glossy shine. Now it’s just bland strands of brown hair. It’s been three months since the car wreck.

Her ghost of her image of when I first saw her haunts the back of my mind. I barley recognized the bloody disfigured features of my older sister. Blood was splattered all over her. Harsh burns dominated her arms and legs. Her face so bloody, scorched, and cut that I was in shock. That hurt girl was not my sister. And when I saw the car… the doctor said she was lucky to survive the intense crash. It was smashed and bruised. The little car couldn’t even be considered a car anymore. Pieces were littered everywhere on the highway. The drunk driver died on impact.As I watch her, a harsh ache fills my heart, threatening to drop it in the pit of my stomach.
Still her eyes haven’t popped open with any sign of life. She just lays there day after day, unmoving and eyes lightly shut. It drives me insane. My heart can’t take much more of a beating. A numbing blanket of despair covers me, wrapping me up so tight that I’m almost strangled. Then I get lost in thought about the last couple of weeks.

My mom has been sulking and got put under a spell of strained silence. My dad is just worried about all of us while we are in this heart shattering place. My little sister just is in denial about anything, just oblivious to the fact that our sister is in a coma. She pretends that we are all fine, she creates this picture of an imaginary walking, talking Claire. And me, well I shut down and went into a dangerous state of depression. My heart collapsed in on itself and I pushed everyone away. I folded myself into a former shell of who I was. Now I’m just a hallow person with nothing but numbness, pain, and misery to fill me up. At the beginning I was in furry, I was so angry at the man who stole my sister away from me. I was mad at God for him letting her be in this position, it took me until three days ago to forgive him. But then I was frustrated at myself for getting into that dispute with her that forced her to flee and drive in anger. It was my fault I realized. All mine and the guilt swirled inside me till I locked myself up in an unreachable place.

Then I notice out of the very corner of my eye, a movement. I whip my head around and rush over to my sister. I spy her hand vibrating and busting into spasms. “Doctor, I need a doctor in here now!” I call out. A nurse scurries in. At the sight of movement her eyes grow wide,” He’s coming.” Then she flees the room.

I grasp Claire’s shaking hand. Her eyes gently flutter open. Then they snap shut. She attempts to try again. Her gaze flickers everywhere trying to gain some focus. She seems panicked,” Its okay.” I try to soothe. The doctor rushes in. A big grin starts to break out on his face. This is the most exciting thing for the past month. Hope blooms in my heart. I yank out my phone and text my parents to get over here now. He heads over to examine her. I take it as a cue to leave.

I impatiently pace back in forth in front of the door. My family is here and we wait for the doctor. The door swings open. We all stumble inside. I spot Claire sitting up looking frightened at the invading strangers. I try to search for a spark of recollection. None. Tears spurt out in rivers. I can’t believe it, she, my sister is awake, but she doesn’t know who I am. A hurting moment throbs in my heart. I stop dead in my tracks and let the happy, but disappointed tears flow. But that’s okay because she is alive.

I am so thankful that she has woken up after all this time. I know her memory has been robbed from her mind by a criminal who was drunk driving, but I get a sister again, and for that I am the most pleased person in the world at this very moment. For the first time in days I feel like the world has added a new splatter of color everywhere And now maybe I can begin a new chapter in my life, just when I thought I was giving up.