Questions Answered

Turkey bacon pesto or a grilled cheese Brook stares at the wide menu wondering what she’ll have for lunch today. She looks behind her to her three best friends grabbing the table that they always sit at.  A couple minutes later she returns to her tabel with a grilled cheese, tomato soup, and her friends in a deep conversation.

“What are you guys talking about” she says

“The accident that happened last month” answers Dan

Brooks heart sinks just thinking about it.

Last week a junior Carla Johnson was late for classes so she left her dorm room in a hurry.  It was a rainy that day and while Carla was trying to de fog her windshield she ran through a red light.  At the same time a Ford Raptor was coming from the left side of the intersection and slammed right into the side of her small Toyota Corolla.  The next 12 hours Carla spent fighting for her life in the hospital but unfortunately to much damage was done. All classes were canceled for the rest of that week and her boyfriend dropped out of school because he couldn’t stand going there and her not being next to him.  

Brook knew Carla from BioMed class, they had done a lab report together once but that was it.  She was a nice girl, always offered to help out or study at the library, it hit the school pretty hard after she died.  

“That’s so sad I still can’t believe it happened” said Sara

“Where do you guys think she went?”Dan said as he picked up is sandwich

Brooke started at him confused “What do you mean?”

“Like heaven or hell?

“Oh definitely heaven” said Matt

Brooke was baffled by what she was hearing, “You guys believe in that stuff?”

“Ya you don’t?”

“Wait Brooke you don’t believe we go somewhere after we die?” said Sara

“No I mean how could heaven or hell be scientifically true, it's just not physically possible”

“Come on forget about the science, you don’t even believe that there is an afterlife” Dan replied

“Nope, we die when we die and we stay that way”

Matt shrugs “I mean whatever you say” Brooke laughs and checks her watch, “Oh crap it's 2:00, class starts in 30 minutes, I gotta go”.  She gathers up her tray and throws her backpack over her shoulder. She says goodbye to her friends and walks out of the cafe. The wind forces her to put it in a high pony, she grabs her keys and unlocks her car.  Brooke checks her phone and calls her mom. She backs out of the parking lot when her mom answers,

“Hi mom”

“Hi hon, what's going on?”

“Nothin I was just wondering if we were going up to the lake next week”

“Yes I’ll talk to your father”

“Ok I miss you guys, I can’t wait to see you”

“Aw we miss you too, how are doing since that girl passed away”

“Good its just really sad to think about, but I have to get to class but I’ll call you back tonight”

“Ok I love you bye”

“Bye”

Brook throws her phone into the passenger seat and turns up the radio 15 minutes until the accident.  As she turns left onto Walker St she remembers a shortcut that a kid in her forensic science class told her about. She glances at the clock knowing she will be late if she goes the normal route, she takes a sharp right onto a hidden road 10 minutes until the accident.  Pine trees race past her car as she drives down the back road, to her left is a grass field that looks as though it goes on for miles.  She checks the clock on her dashboard, maybe she will actually make it there on time. She remembers the kid telling her that after the apple farm sign there is a quick right turn following it. 5 minutes until the accident she reaches over her back pack for her phone.  Matt had sent her an article that “proves” heaven is real using scientific data.  Brooke laughed to herself and sent back a smiley face. She slipped her phone into the side pocket of her bag and returned her hand to the steering wheel.  1 minute until the accident she squinted her eyes and in the distance she saw a little sign hanging off a wooden pillar. She checked the clock again and speed up a little after seeing she only had 15 minutes till Profesor Fitzgerald would start his hour long lecture.  Brooke actually liked his class, normally she wouldn’t mind being late to a lecture but this one was important. Finals were in a week and Brooke needed it ace it to help her grade. 30 seconds until the accident, she looked past the little red sign to see a small parting in the trees. She passed the sign 10 seconds until the accident.  She turned her steering wheel quickly except she turned it a little too quick.  Her tire caught a break in the road and started to lose control. Brook tried to control her wheel and pull the car straight again, but it was to late. The car started to tip and there was nothing she could do.  She looked over and saw the road dropped down into a deep ditch that her car was heading right into. She closed her eyes the accident.  Brooke’s car somehow wrapped around one of the pine trees. Brook opened her eyes and that's when she felt the stabbing pain shot through her body as she tried to move her head to look for her phone.  Brooke reached for her backpack and it took all her strength to pull it towards her. She clawed through one of the side pockets and her heart dropped when all she felt was gum wrappers. Brooke took a shaky breath and reached into the other pocket. When she felt the cool glass she exhaled, she pulled her phone out and that's when she saw the lightning bolt of cracks covering almost every inch of the screen.

“No, no, no please no” Brooke clicked the power button but the screen never woke. Brooke started to cry, she couldn’t believe this was happening. Someone will find me soon it's going to be ok that’s when she realized that she didn’t even know where she was.  Wow so I’m going to die here, nobody knows about this road except that kid from science. Brook wiped her tears and tried to wiggle out of the window, she was not going to die without trying.  As soon as she started to move a dizzy spell hit her and she couldn’t hold her eyes open. Shit.

Brook’s eyes flutter open and close, not being able to keep them focus on one thing for more than a couple seconds.  She hears muffled voices around her and a blaring siren,

“Her pulse is weak”

“Get the central line ready”

“Tell the hospital to have an OR on stand by”

A paramedic stands over her, holding her eye open.  He takes a flashlight and sways it in front of her.

“Hi can you tell me you name” the paramedic say

“Wh-Where am I?”

“You are in an ambulance, you were in an accident”

“I need to get to class, I’m going to be late”

“First can you please tell me your name”

“Uhh Brooke Moore”

“Ok Brook I need you to hold on, you were in a pretty bad accident”

Brook starts to close her eyes,

“I want to go home”

“She’s losing consciousness how far out are we from the hospital”

Then everything went out.

Meanwhile Susan and Dennis Moore were sitting on their couch watching the season finale of Game of Thrones.

“Brooke should be calling any second, I talked to her today and she said she was gonna call back tonight” said Susan

“Oh good I want to see if she wants to go up to the lake when she gets home, we gotta get the boat out”

“Don’t stress her out she’s got finals soon, and she needs to focus on that”

“Ya, ya”

 The second the commercial break ended the phone rang, “Pause it, I’ll go get the phone, it’s probably Brooke” said Susan as she stood up from the couch. “ Ok, I’m going to go get some cheese and crackers”  Dennis replied.

“Hi who is this?” Susan said into the phone

“Is this the Moore household?”

“Yes”

It was almost like everything went into slow motion.  Susan dropped the phone and ran into the kitchen. Even though she could barely get words out as tear streamed down her face Dennis knew something was wrong. He grabbed the keys and followed his wife out the door.  It almost seemed as the car was not even moving when in fact they were far above the speed limit. In the car Mrs. Moore searched for her phone under tubes of lipstick in her purse. She sent messages to almost all of the family while in the mist of praying to god to look after her only daughter.  When they arrived at the hospital they rushed to the front desk,

“Hi can you please tell me where my daughter is, she was in an accident”

“Yes, what is her name?”

“Brook, Brook Moore”

“It looks like Doctor Ray took her into the OR for an emergency surgery, you can wait in the waiting room till she is out”

Dennis took ahold of his wife’s shoulders, “She is strong, she is so strong”.  All she could do was nod back, “Here why don’t we go sit down” Dennis said and lead her over to the waiting area.  

In the OR Doctor Ray was just starting to open up Brooke.  He could see the deep cuts and slashed marked across her face and arms.  

“Can we get a plastic surgeon in here ASAP to clean up these cuts and make sure none of them are infected.”

“Sure thing” a scrub nurse replied.  

“Dammit, she’s got Spondylolisthesis, can we also get an Ortho in here.” Doctor Ray shook his head, Spondylolisthesis was when the spine has disconnected in different places, in simple terms she snapped her spine in half.  He looked under her spine and saw that her spleen and one of her kidneys were bleeding.

“Hey get some suction in here now shes gonna bleed out!”  He desperately tried to place some clips to control the bleeding, but he knew that too much damage was done. The slider doors to the OR opened, “What do we got?” said Doctor Garcia the head of Orthopedic Surgery.  

“It's her spine but I’ve got bad bleeders in the kidney and spleen.”

“Oh god what happened it's like a battlefield in here, I can barely see anything with all this blood”

“The paramedics picked her up unconscious in her car it took almost 2 hours to pull her out”

“Oh god this spine is the worst I’ve ever seen”

“I know can you do anything to make it less uncomfortable when she wakes up”

“What do you mean?” said Doctor Garcia and looked up “ aren't we trying to save her life not just some discomfort?”

“She's not gonna make it another day, I say we patch her up and give her some time with her family, her kidneys will shut down soon, I can control the bleed for a little but it won’t hold”

“Ya that sounds like the smartest decision, let me see what I can do about her spine”  The two doctors worked together to place her spine back together almost like puzzle pieces. Doctor Ray turned towards the anesthesiologist, “Can you start turning down the dosages, we are about done and I want her to wake up soon so she’ll have some time with her family”.  The anesthesiologist nodded back and turned towards his machine. They then closed her up and returned to the scrub room.

Susan Moore had fallen asleep on her husbands shoulder, but was woken up when he gave her a little nudge.  She opened her eyes and saw two doctors standing in front of her. She jumped up, “Is she ok, where is my Brook?”, the male doctor spoke first. “Ma’m your daughter had Spondylolisthesis, which means her spine was damaged very badly.”  Mr. Moore stood up, “but you can fix it right?”, Doctor Garcia stepped toward Mr. Moore, “unfortunately her spine has punctured her kidneys and spleen, we were able to stop the bleeding for now but they won’t hold for long”

“What about an organ transplant?” Mrs. Moore asked desperately

“Brook is unedible for a transplant because of her spine and the risk that it could damage the new organs.”’

“Well we could give our organs to her, please tell us there is something we can do”

“I am so sorry Mrs. Moore but it doesn’t work like that, I really wish it did”

“So what you're saying is that you can do nothing to save our daughter” Mr. Moore sat down and put his hands on his head.

“What we are saying is that  Brooke has a day or so more and that is more valuable than her dying on the table trying to fix her”

“I just want to see my baby” said Mrs. Moore and she couldn’t hold back her tears anymore, but she quickly wiped them away.  Doctor Garcia placed her hand on Mrs. Moore’s back, “ Ok she should be up by now”

Brooke felt like she was coming out of a year long sleep. He arms and legs felt like they were 100 pounds and she couldn’t move her face without the cuts in her forehead stinging.  She opened her eyes and saw her parents.

“M-Mom. D-dad” Brooke couldn’t contain herself anymore and her whole body started to shake with sobs.  Her mom came over to her and places a kiss on her forehead, “I love you so much and your gonna be ok”.  Mr. Moore stood in the back of the room as he watched his wife comfort their dying daughter. Kids aren't supposed to die before their parents he thought.  The three of them squeezed onto Brookes twin size hospital bed. Eventually her brother Matthew showed up and he joined them on the end of the bed. This continued into the night when Brooke started to get cloudy. She could no longer hold her eyes open and started talking about her future.

“Mom I’m gonna have 3 kids and my husband will be beautiful”

Mrs.Moore replied with tears in her eyes, “I can’t wait to meet them, my grandchildren”

“Dad”

“Yes honey?”

“Can we go up to the lake next weekend?”. Mr. Moore stared at his daughter, “of course”.

Brookes body was starting to fail her at a fast rate, her words were slurring and she was getting very tired. “Mom, I’m tired I think I’m going to take a nap”.  Mrs. Moore looked up at her husband knowing what would happen is she fell asleep. “Ok, uh we will be waiting here when you wake up”. Brookes parents told her that they loved her and her brother gave her a hug and they headed out of her room.  Brooke sunk into her bed, but when she closed her eyes she could think clearly for a second. Wait no Mom, Dad come back. I'm scared.  Matthew can you hear please don’t leave me alone. But she couldn’t make any sound, it was all in her head.  No I’m only 22, I need to pass BioMed and fall in love and have a family and grow old.  I can’t die, I haven't even lived. All of a sudden a calm wave passed over Brooke, it was almost like someone placed a warm blanket on her.  She was no longer scared of what was to come. Mom and Dad I love you please don’t be sad, take care of Matthew and make sure he is doing alright. Brookes heart started to slow down. The monitor began to beep and a crash cart team rolled in.  Just as they were about to use that paddles a nurse spoke,

“Stop, look she’s got a DNR, turn off the paddles”.  Matthew rushed into the room and saw the Monitor, “Do something, use the paddles, she’s dying, please save her”.  Dennis put a hand on his sons shoulder, “It’s time, we don’t want her to be in pain, let her go” Matthew punched his father's chest several times before he broke into tears. “Come on son let’s find your mother”

Brookes heart had stopped but her soul was still alive.  Brooke found herself standing barefoot in the front lawn of an house.  It looked like one of thoses houses that is on a farm and the closest neighbor is 5 miles away.  Brooke walked up the worn wooden steps and into the house. She was greeted by a staircase on her right and what looked like a dining room to her left.  For some reason she felt compelled to walk up the stairs. When she reached the top step she saw only two doors. She didn’t know which one to open but she knew she needed to go through one.  Brooke stared at the two doors not knowing what was behind them. She took a deep breath and opened the one on the left. The room looked like it belonged to a 6 year old girl, but when she looked closer she saw that it was her room.  On the dresser were photos of herself in dress up clothes, on the bed was a cluster of stuffed animals. Brooke smiled remembering the time when she would spend hours playing with her American Girl Dolls. She looked up to see her window seat when she saw someone sitting in it.

“ Uh hello who are you?” Brooke asked.

The little girl turned her head, “I’m you”.  Brookes jaw dropped when she saw the spitting image of her younger self.

“How is this possible?”

“Anything is possible here”

“What is, here?” Brooke asked

“Heaven”