Heart Transplant

Chapter 9

9

“Waaaake up Shona.” Shona rolled over and groaned trying to hide her eyes from the light. “Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up.” Mrs. Keating pounced on Shona’s bed and tickled her. “Wake up.” She repeated. “Stoooop.” “You gotta get up if you want to go to school.” Mrs. Keating rang. Shona shot up in bed. “School?” “Your father thinks you need to return to a normal setting; no more hanging around at home. You’re healed now and need to get off your butt.” “School,” Shona repeated the word. “Yeah, you know, the place where you go to learn about history, math, science, English, etc.?” “I know what school is mom.” “Mom?” Shona looked up into her mom’s hopeful gaze. “Yeah…you are my mom right?” “Of course honey, it’s just been a while since you’ve called me that.” Mrs. Keating wiped a tear away. “Get up Shona, or you’ll miss your ride.”

Shona’s ride was Ty as usual. To him she appeared to be the same old Shona, she acted like Shona and everything seemed ok, but Ty forced his hopes to stay low. “Hey babe,” Ty greeted Shona. “Hi,” she replied. “Ready for school?” “As ready as I’ll ever be. My mom was acting strange this morning.” “How so?” “She claimed that I hadn’t called her mom in a while. I think she may be going through a midlife crisis or something of that sort.” “How is your leg feeling?” “My leg?” “Yeah, it’s newly healed remember? We got into the car wreck a while ago…” “Now you’re acting strange. I never got into any car accident, Ty.” Ty’s eyebrows tightened. “Right, I’m sorry, must have been a dream.” Shona nodded as Ty pulled out of the driveway.

At school Kate embraced Shona tightly. “It’s so nice to have you back.” “What are you talking about?” Ty shot Kate a look. “Oh, never mind.” Kate pulled Ty to the side while Shona went to her locker. “What the hell is wrong with her now?” “I don’t know, I think its memory loss or something. I’ll ask Mr. Keating when I’m over there after school today.” “What’s the plan, what can I help out with?” “You can pretend like everything is normal. I think she remembers everything up to the crash, I’m not sure how much else she doesn’t remember but I’m certain she remembers nothing of the day of the crash and onward. Shona shouted suddenly. Ty and Kate rushed over to her. “What’s the matter, are you hurt?” “I don’t know.” “Well what’s wrong?” “I can breathe.” Kate and Ty sigh with relief. “Yes we know,” Kate cooed. “I couldn’t breathe yesterday. I can carry my own backpack now.” “Oh thank god,” Ty joked. “That thing was heavy.” Shona laughed and began walking. Ty looked at Kate. “She doesn’t remember the surgery either.” Then Ty ran up and grabbed Shona’s hand to walk her to class.

Throughout the next week and a half the Keatings, Ty, and Kate noticed Shona’s memory slowly deteriorating. It got so bad that Shona began to forget simple math and would even blank on some beginning readers words. One day in English the teacher asked Shona to read a paragraph from the story they were reading and Ty had to help Shona read a few of the words such as ‘cat,’ ‘that,’ and ‘the.’ The students laughed at Shona and she eventually gave up on reading. Ty squeezed her hand and tried to convince her that it was ok, everyone had a bad day. But Ty knew he could only use that excuse for so long.

Kate was walking with Shona to her car one day and had to lead her to her van and convince Shona that it was her car. With great reluctance, Kate finally got Shona to get in the van. “Can you tell me how to get to your house Shona?” Shona’s forehead scrunched up as she tried to think. “I have no idea. Maybe you could punch my address into your phone.” “Ok, well what’s your address?” “Ummm, I was hoping you would know.” Kate pretended like that didn’t bother her and drove Shona home.

The fourth day of the second week after Shona’s return to school Ty noticed Shona acting really strange. At Shona’s locker Ty pulled her close. “Hey, are you ok?” “Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?” “Well you’re just acting a little weird. You see sad, you’re really pale.” “I might have forgotten to eat breakfast.” “How did you forget that?” “I forgot where the cereal was…” “Oh Shona, you’re a mess.” Ty leaned down to kiss Shona before she left him for class but she dodged the kiss and his lips made contact with her cheek. He stood up straight and pretended not to look hurt. “See you later,” she said, and then she disappeared into the classroom. Shona took her seat in the back of the classroom. She wasn’t feeling all that great. Her heart was racing and her breath came quick and the room temperature seemed to drop a few 100 degrees. Shona barely noticed the professor walk in due to the loud pounding of her own heartbeat in her ears. She also didn’t hear the teacher when she called Shona’s name for attendance.