Iris Woke Up

9

I remember thinking it was unbelievable how weekends go to waste. Five full days before a break from school and the singing - yeah singing is my passion, but I'm fifteen for God's sake. Just wanted to spend time with my girlfriend. Simple as that. Instead, I slept throughout most of Saturday, then I stayed up late only to wake up late on Sunday.

I remember thinking about how life was cruel.

My phone rang. I almost choked on my peanut butter when I saw Irida's mother was calling me. Only a couple of days ago Irida said she finally came out to her parents.

Walking home on Friday, she gripped my hand. I whispered, 'I'm not sure it's safe.'

'Twenty-first century.' Irida smiled.

I came out at eight. My family found it adorable. I knew I was gay with no sex drive yet. They laughed. They had it in mind, though, as I grew older. It was therefore easy for me to tell them at age fifteen I had a girlfriend.

It was different for Irida though. She could not understand if her parents were open-minded enough to accept her. Or was it her fear restraining her from being open?

I looked around and spotted a bench. I pulled Irida towards it. She explained how she talked to her parents about us earlier that day. A faint smile painted itself on my face. Her parents accepted it, she said.

For a moment or two, I wondered whether her mother was calling me about our secret relationship.

I held my black Samsung in my palm and hastily swallowed. I had to use my pinky to touch the screen and answer as the rest of my fingers were covered in peanut butter.

'Hello?' My heart beat faster.

'Hi - um -' Irida's mother sounded inexplicably sorrowful, her voice low. She choked back sobs, I realised.

A sharp pain penetrated my chest as terrible possibilities stormed inside my head. 'Yes?'

I was not good enough for her daughter, right? Perhaps she learned my dad spent two months in prison at twenty-seven. Or maybe she found out about that one time I tried to smoke pot at a party two years ago. My entire life flashed before my eyes as I wondered why she was calling me.

'I hope you don't mind my call. You should know -.' She inhaled.

My thoughts drifted. 'Um - is everything okay?' My heart hammered. Something happened to Irida and all I was worried about was what I might have or might not have smoked when I was thirteen.

'She - um.' Samantha hesitated. I sat paralysed in my kitchen dreading what had happened. My arms numb. My jaw hang open, ready to scream something right after she spoke. I had nothing to say though. I waited. In my mind, the silence between us lasted five minutes, but it was probably less. 'Well,' Samantha finally spoke, 'she could not wake up, so we took her to the hospital right away - she - ah - she's been sleeping for over thirty hours and the doctors say she might not be waking up soon.'

I froze. Irida was dead. That was my first guess. I swallowed. I presumed she would have mentioned it if her daughter was no longer alive. The kitchen spun around me. My upper body tilted forward on its own will.

Samantha said something I did not hear.

'Wha-what?' My voice weak.

'She's in a coma,' she said.

Her voice echoed. The phone slipped through and out of my grasp. I leaned on the back of my chair and stared at my plate.

Irida was in a coma.