Prince Tennyson (12 page)

When Dad was done racing me around the bright room all by ourselves—just me and him—he lowered me down and gave me one last hug. Then he whispered, “Remember to give Mom and Hannah and Cameron a hug from me, okay?”

Okay. I nodded into his shoulder and squeezed hard.

“I love you, Chelsea,” he mumbled above my head and then pulled back. “Goodbye.” Dad leaned in and kissed my forehead. “My determined girl.”

He turned around and started to walk away.

Dad was leaving me all alone in the bright room.

No.

I didn't want him to go. I didn't want to be left alone again.

I tried to run to follow him, but my feet stayed still. They wouldn't budge.

Dad! Dad! Wait, Dad! I tried to shout, but my mouth wouldn't open. Nothing was working right.

I was determined, and it wasn't working. Why wasn't it working? I frantically heaved in a huge gulp of air and forced it out through my mouth just as my dad walked through the doorway. “Dad!” I gasped out.

It worked! I spoke.

Dad turned around. He looked surprised. “Yeah?'

“I love you.”

Chapter Twenty-two

I BECAME AWAKE SLOWLY. The fuzziness around me started to become sounds. At first, they were far away, and then they started to become crisper and more firm and much closer.

“Yes, this is my daughter. I'm Tiffany Tennyson, that's correct.”

More muffled sounds, and then I heard my mom say, “How much longer do you think it will be?”

Someone answered her, much closer this time. “At least three more days, maybe four. It'll be hard to tell until after she wakes up. But her burns are minor, so we'll see. Our main concern, and the reason she's been transferred here, is because of the damage to her lungs. Until we know for certain how her lungs are doing, then she could be staying even longer.”

“Thank you.”

I drifted back to sleep. I was with Mom again.

When I woke up later, my eyelashes tried to blink open. They had a really hard time because they wanted to stay asleep. Someone must've noticed, because the next thing I knew, I felt my shoulder being touched and heard someone saying, “Chelsea? Chelsea? Are you awake?”

I fell back asleep. I couldn't get my eyelashes to open anyway.

When I finally woke up for good, it was dark, so I knew it was during the night. My eyes fluttered open and I would've thought they were still closed except for a bright glow to the left of me. I turned my head toward the glow, expecting to see someone standing there. It was an open door leading into a brightly lit tiled hallway.

Where was I? The room was all dark. I turned my head the other way and realized that something was on my mouth. When I reached up to touch it, I saw that my hand was bandaged and there was a long tube coming from somewhere inside the bandage. I followed the tube to a small hanging bag with some water-looking stuff in it.

Just when I was about to get scared, I saw my mom. She was sitting in a chair and leaning against the bed next to me. Her head was burrowed in her crossed arms and she was asleep.

“Mom?” I tried to say, but it came out very quietly. The thing covering my mouth rubbed against my cheeks. I raised my other hand to see if it was bandaged too. It wasn't. Very slowly and carefully, I explored the lightweight plastic tube in my nose. It felt like one of those breathing things I'd seen on TV.

“Mom?” I tried to speak louder, but my mouth felt very thick and dry, and all I could do was whisper.

I let my bandaged hand trail softly over her hair. It looked as if it was glowing from the light of the doorway. I could tell I was in a hospital. I wondered how long I'd been there. And I wondered where everyone else was. Cameron and Hannah? Did they make it to the neighbors' okay? Or Grandma . . . did she—

Grandma! She fell in the shower!

I tried to sit up in my bed, but it hurt my hand. “Oww.”

That woke Mom up.

“Chelsea! You're awake.” She smiled tiredly at me and ran her fingers along my cheek and brow. “How long have you been up?”

My hand really hurt. “Where's Grandma? Is she okay?” My voice was very scratchy.

Mom looked down at the bed and bit her lip.

Oh, no.

“Your grandma isn't—” She sighed and looked up at me. “Your grandma didn't—she didn't…”

I gasped. “Did Grandma die?”

“What?” Mom seemed surprised I asked that question. “No, honey. No. Grandma didn't die.”

I let out a huge breath and tried to smile, but my heart was racing too much. That scared me.

“She's just not doing that good, that's all. She got a really bad cut on her head, from when you saved her.” Mom leaned in close and looked right into my eyes. “Do you remember that, sweetie? Do you remember saving your grandma?”

“I…” I thought for a second. “I remember she fell in the bathroom and she wouldn't wake up. So I dragged her into the hall with a towel.”

“You were so brave. What made you think to move her? The firemen said Grandma had a wet cloth over her face. Did you do that too? How did you do it all by yourself?”

All at once, I was really tired and really thirsty. “Can I have a drink?”

Mom chuckled and sat up. “Sure, honey. Hang on, and I'll go get it.”

I watched her walk out of the hospital room and I tried to sit up again. Oww. My hand really hurt. I tried using the other hand, but I was having a hard time pushing myself into sitting position. I glanced down at my covered feet and wiggled them both. My right one, like my right hand, hurt really bad. My left one seemed fine. I carefully moved my left leg up under the covers until it was bent and used that to push myself up with my hand and elbow.

By the time Mom came back with a funny tall jug of ice water and a straw sticking out of it, I had already checked out my hurt foot. Actually, the whole right side of my body seemed to be wrapped up with bandages.

“I got burned, didn't I?” I asked as Mom handed the water to my good hand.

“Yeah.” Then she leaned in close and gave me a one-armed hug, trying really hard not to hurt me. “I'm so glad you're safe, honey. I'm so glad.”

When Mom sat back up, she had tears in her eyes. She must've been very worried about me.

“What happened?” I asked after I took a sip. “When did you get to the house? What happened to Cameron and Hannah?”

“They're fine. One of the ladies from church has them, so don't worry. Hannah was very brave and ran right up to the neighbor's house with Cameron and called 911.” She gently placed the blanket back over my bandaged leg. “By the time I got there, you and Grandma had already been rescued and everything. I didn't even have a chance to be worried about you in that fire all alone.” She brought her chair around to the other side of the bed. My good side. Then she reached over to hold my hand. “Were you scared, honey? I bet you were so scared.”

“Yeah.” My eyes welled up with tears. I didn't even know I was going to cry until then. “I was so scared. So, so scared.”

“Oh, baby,” Mom whispered, and she cried with me. “I'm so sorry I wasn't there with you.” She climbed right up onto that bed with me and held me close.

I liked that.

Then she told me how brave and wonderful and smart I was while I just cried and cried. When I was done crying, I told her what happened and how I had to climb up the door to get the key and how scared I was when I saw Grandma Haney bleeding. I even told her how I put Grandma on the towel and tried to pull it, but when I got to the carpet, it wouldn't move, and it was so hot and so smoky and I was so scared.

And that's when I remembered.

“Oh!” I tried to sit up to look at Mom, but I couldn't. Instead, I just turned in her arms and then said, “I prayed, Mom. I really prayed to God. For the very first time. And guess what? Guess what He did?”

Chapter Twenty-three

“WHAT?” MOM ASKED. “WHAT did God do?”

“He did the most amazing thing ever.” My eyes started to cry again, hard. So did my mom's eyes. Just by watching me, it made them cry, too.

“What happened?” she asked again.

I could hardly say it, I was crying so hard. “God sent Dad.”

“Wh—what?”

“Dad. Dad was there with me. He was.” My tears fell down my cheeks and onto the breathing tube things, and I didn't even want to stop them. “He saved me and Grandma. I couldn't pull the towel by myself. I couldn't—I tried and I was so scared. I didn't want Grandma to die. Then my prince saved me. His arms wrapped right around me while I was trying to tug that towel and he pulled us into my room.”

“Oh, my gosh,” my mom gasped.

“Yeah, it was a miracle.”

“Prince Tennyson,” Mom whispered against my hair when she kissed me. She was quiet for a long time while I cried, and then she asked, “Is that why you threw his pictures out the window? The neighbors said you threw Dad's pictures out your window and that's how the firemen knew where you were. Is that why you did it?”

“Yeah. I didn't want to lose Dad's pictures. Did you save them?”

“I don't know. I didn't look. I know there was a lot of water everywhere, so if they are saved, they're probably not in that great of condition.”

“Oh.” I didn't want to hear that.

“We'll see, though.”

“Well, one thing's for sure.” I tried to grin, but the silly breathing tubes were in the way. “The pictures were much safer outside of Grandma's house than inside it.”

Mom chuckled. “That's true.” She breathed in real quick and said, “So that's why you called for Dad in your sleep.”

“I did?” I was embarrassed. “What did I say?”

“No. You just yelled out really loud, ‘Dad. I love you.'”

“Oh. That's it?”

“Uh-huh.” Mom nodded and then smiled. “Well, there was this time before that when your bed was being wheeled down the hospital hall and you were giggling in your sleep. That was pretty funny, actually. The doctors said it was a good thing, because it meant you were just asleep and not in a coma or something.”

I was giggling? That was weird. The only time I even remembered thinking about giggling was when—Oh! Maybe that was it. When Dad was giving me a piggyback ride. I'd forgotten about that.

It was a dream?

I thought about that dream for a while. I remembered a lot of it, probably all of it, but I wasn't sure. It was so real. I touched Dad and held Dad and laughed with Dad and cried with Dad. I could even smell him.

It was just a dream.

I didn't want it to be a dream.

I closed my eyes and thought about seeing Dad's face and his smile and hearing his voice—it was a miracle dream.

I smiled.

Maybe it was just my special miracle dream for helping my grandma. Maybe it was something the Lord gave me for being so brave. He knew I couldn't see my dad unless I died, but I could see him if I dreamed about him.

It was quiet for a while as I thought about that, and then I asked, “Mom, what's going to happen to Grandma's house? Where are we going to live?”

“Oh, don't worry about that, honey. We'll figure that out later. Right now, we just need to be happy that you and Grandma are safe.”

That was the most important thing. “Yeah, we're very lucky.”

“And blessed.” Mom squeezed my shoulder.

Later that day, after I had fallen back asleep and woken up and seen all my cards and flowers and balloons from a bunch of people, and ate my breakfast and lunch and even some snacks Mom had snuck in for me because I was starving, the doctors let me go see Grandma Haney. I got to ride in a wheelchair. I didn't tell them that it hurt to have my leg against the side of it because I didn't want anyone to tell me I couldn't see her. Mom pushed me all the way down the long hall, and lots of nice nurses and doctors stopped to smile at me.

I didn't understand why everyone was smiling and waving and looking so happy. I just thought it was a very happy hospital. I didn't even know what was really going on until one of those nurses held the elevator door open for me and said, “Here she is! Our little hero!”

When Mom pushed me into the elevator, everyone in there started to clap. They clapped the whole time Mom pressed the button Grandma's floor was on and they smiled during the whole ride and said stuff like, “You are so brave” and “What an amazing girl you are!” and “I never would've been able to do what you did!”

I smiled and said thank you, but I was really shocked everyone knew. When we got out of the elevator and I said goodbye to them, I asked Mom, “How did they know who I was?”

Then my mom said the craziest thing ever. “Everyone knows who you are. Most of Arizona has heard about you and has been praying for you to wake up so they can tell you how proud of you they are.”