Olive

Chapter 1

Cat

By the time I get to the hospital, Auden has left for school.

Sighing, I sit down on a chair in the corner of the room, and gaze out the window. Nine times out of ten I'm sitting alone in this room, as if my entire family is scared to be in an enclosed space with one another.

Finding nothing interesting out the window, I get up and stand over Olive's small frame and smooth back the hair from her forehead. She looks so much younger in this indefinite sleep than she did in life. The stress and laugh lines have all faded away, until only her smooth porcelein skin is left. I think back to the time of the accident, and the call that shattered my world. 

August 28th, 2011

I'm sitting in Econ, dutifully taking notes while the professor lectures the overflowing room. My freshly chopped hair is behind my ears, and the sound of my pen scratching on the paper is drowned out by the whirring of my neighbor's computer. 

It feels unreal to be sitting here in this classroom, when only two weeks ago I'd said goodbye to my family and friends. It's amazing how two weeks of freedom can completely change a person. I feel like I'd matured ten years.

The door opened and two hundred heads swiveled to look at the late comer. We were all surprised to see the Dean of Students rushing towards our professor, an urgent look on his face. After a quiet moment where they exchanged hushed words, the professor looked up at our faces.

"Is Caterina Sarden here?" His voice is loud and clear, cutting through the silence like a hot knife through butter.

I raise my hand, trembling. I haven't done anything wrong, have I?

I exit the lecture room with the Dean of Students, and follow him to the main attendance building, where I am handed a phone. 

My world seems to shatter as I try to comprehend the meaning of my mother's words. Numb, I find myself complying to what she demands of me. Of course I would come home right away. Of course I would take the first semester of my first year of college. No it's fine, really, I wasn't settled yet anyways. 

I hang up the phone and try to push away the overwhelming feeling that I'm trapped.

Present

A sound at the door makes me spin around to find Dr. Carol standing in the doorframe. I put on a smile, "Hello Dr. Carol, what can I do for you?"

He walks into the room holding a clipboard, the grey hair in his beard catching the light in a weird way. "Hello Caterina, I have some things I'd like to show your mother. Is she by chance here?"

"No I'm sorry, she left a little while ago. She had to go to work."

"Ah well, I'll just show you then." He smiles softly, and quickly crosses the room to stand by Olive. I follow. He picks up Olive's wrist, and shows me seven or eight parallel cuts up her forearm. "Do you know what these are, Caterina?"

"Yeah, they were caused by some part of the other car's engine smashing through her windshield." I said confused, we'd covered this weeks ago.

"Ah yes, well," I noticed the doctor said that a lot, "my colleagues and I are not so convinced. You see, the cuts are all the same lenghth, perfect and exact. They also seem to be of varying ages." Her piercing blue eyes look deep into mine, and I feel disbelief bubbling up form my stomach. 

"So? What does all that mean?" I ask, trying to keep my voice steady.

The doctor takes a deep breath, as if considering something. Finally he turns to me, "Miss Sarden, Olive has no injuries to her brain, no reason why she should not wake up. But yet she sleeps. We, my colleagues and I, believe there is something else keeping Olive in this coma." Yet again his eyes bore into mine, "Maybe you should find out what it is."