Flatline
“I remember I was sitting one day on the curb. Dad had just told me he was leaving mom. He always had been closer to me than her.
I had just gotten out of school, so I was pretty down. What kind of a way to tell your daughter you are leaving is calling her on a phone?
I had tears dripping down my face when you just...walked by. Strumming on your guitar. Singing Hallelujah and then before I knew it, you were sitting in front of me, playing away, and singing and trying to make me smile.
“She tied you to her kitchen chair, she broke your throne and she cut your hair, and from your lips, she drew the Hallelujah.”
I don’t know why, but that made me feel...serene. There was something soothing about the way you sang and how your fingers plucked the strings like you weren’t doing it to impress anyone, you were just doing it because you wanted to.
You sat down in front of me, still playing, in the street, oblivious to the cars going by. A couple almost hit you, but you didn’t even jump.
Then you sang “When I look at you” and I smiled even though I had been crying. For those precious few minutes, I completely forgot about dad and mom and school and everything else. It was just me and you, singing and playing and laughing and smiling. Just like we always have.
I remember you asked me out that very night. Well, sort of. You told me that you were lonely, and so was I, and we were going to be happy together and we were going to go to dinner at Pilatza. I didn’t object. How could I? You were handsome, and sweet, and funny, I was lonely, and our hearts fit together even then when we first met.
We kept going out, and two weeks later, my dad had left, and I was crying again. You took me to the bay, and brought out your guitar and played “Kiss me”. So I did. I kissed you for the first time.
And when you sung “I think I wanna marry you”, we were 19 and had been going out for a year. And of course mom didn’t care-she doesn’t care about anything. So we were married a year later. We used up all of your savings for the wedding, remember?
I can still see your face when the pastor said “You may kiss the bride”. You pulled me close and dipped me down over your knee, pressing your warm, live lips to mine.
I hated the marriage life at first, I’ll be honest. I had nothing to do all day. You made me quit my job, remember? And then when I did, all I ever did without you was read and read and read and even that got boring after awhile because finally my own prince charming was more appealing than the ones in all the books.
It didn’t take me very long to take back the boring life. In fact, this is me taking them back. I take it back, Alex Marchesun. I miss the boring life. I miss it.
Anyways, the doctors called me when I was browsing my book collection, and told me you had collapsed at work.
I rushed to the hospital, and it’s been two weeks. You haven’t woken up, and the doctors say you could be in a coma forever.
I’ve been meaning to tell you, babe. I am pregnant…
We’re going to have a baby.
So please...please wake up. Don’t leave me. I love you, and I want you to see this baby, and I can’t live without you.”
Alyson pressed her forehead to her comatose husband’s and gently lay her lips on his.
“I can’t live without you, baby. We’ve only been married a year. You can’t leave me. Please.”
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When Alex (my father) flatlined, mom told me that she didn’t even know it at first. She just woke up and his hand was on her shoulder. She looked around, and at first, she was ecstatic because he was healed, but then she looked down, and he was still in the bed.
He had died, you see. But she looked back at the man with his hand on her shoulder, and he winked at her like he had all those years ago, took out a guitar, and played a song he called “Never Alone”. Before she saw him for the last time, he slid his hand beneath her ear, and kissed her brow, whispering that he could always hear her. Always.
Mother only has a few stories about daddy, but I never get tired of them.
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