Once Upon a Wish by Rachelle Sparks Page B

her daughter back or she needed her to be at peace.
    When Ray got home from work that evening, he asked, “What’s wrong, sweetie?”
    “It’s just been a rough day,” Sharon said with a forced smile.
    He looked at her with concerned, loving eyes, but she found no reason to drag Ray into her black hole. He needed her to stay strong. If she lost hope, so did he. All of her tears had fallen, and after all her pleas and prayers with God, her heart had spoken.
    She woke up the next morning and said to herself, “Today’s another day,” before crawling out of bed. She was back on track, backto the task at hand—getting Katelyn to physical therapy, preparing her for the day she would wake up.
   9   
    A few months later, after a trip to the mall and an afternoon in therapy, Sharon brought Katelyn home, cooked dinner, and talked about her day with Ray and Crystal before getting Katelyn ready for bed.
    She dressed her in pajamas and carefully tucked her in, leaning down to kiss Katelyn’s cheek. Sharon studied her face, a lifetime of memories behind her daughter’s closed eyes, a million more to make if they ever opened, and whispered, “I love you, Katelyn.”
    Sharon stood up and looked down at Katelyn as her lips parted and mouthed slowly, “I love you, too, Mom.”
    “Oh my …!”
    Sharon cupped her hands over her heart and let out a scream that sent Ray and Crystal running to Katelyn’s room. Had she wanted Katelyn to wake up so badly that she imagined it?
    “She just …”
    Sharon couldn’t speak. She closed her eyes, gathered her thoughts, and pointed at Katelyn.
    “She just mouthed words to me!” she managed.
    “Kate?” Ray asked.
    “Dad,” Katelyn mouthed.
    Her eyes had opened and her head turned slowly from one side of the bed, to the foot, to the other, as her parents and sister, surrounding the bed, excitedly threw questions at her.
    “How do you feel?”
    “Did you know you were asleep?”
    “Are you in any pain?”
    “Do you remember being diagnosed with cancer?”
    There were no answers, just slow head turns as Sharon, Ray, and Crystal, wrapped in one another’s arms, jumped around, tears pouring endlessly. They hugged Katelyn, kissed her face, held onto one another, as Katelyn’s eyes slowly closed, back to peace. The same, silent question entered all of their minds.
    Will she wake again?
    They studied her sleeping face, the same they had seen for the past year and a half, before leaving the room quietly. Crystal went to bed while Sharon and Ray stayed up, reliving the moment, praying together, questioning if Katelyn would open her eyes in the morning.
    “Thank you for this precious moment, for allowing us to see a glimpse of her again,” Sharon said to God that night, then begged, “Please wake her again in the morning.”
    After several hours, Ray and Sharon finally managed to fall asleep, and the next morning, they stood over Katelyn’s bed and held their breath as Sharon jiggled her arm.
    “Hey, Katelyn, it’s us,” Sharon said.
    After Katelyn opened her eyes, she mouthed, “Hi, Mom.”
    Their daughter was back. Ray and Sharon hugged each other, happy tears falling, and after wrapping their arms around Katelyn, they looked at her and watched as her head moved back and forth with their voices, but her eyes did not.
    When Sharon took her to therapy that morning, Swathi said, “C’mon, Katelyn, let’s get you over to the mat.” Katelyn, who had just met Swathi for the first time since waking, mouthed, “Okay, Miss Swathi.”
    “She knew your name!” Sharon said excitedly with realization.
    Katelyn, on some level, had heard and remembered Swathi’s name when she was in the coma. Sharon smiled at the thought thatKatelyn’s mind, after all those storms, all those 109°F temperatures, was still there. Her smile crawled into a proud grin when she realized that, along with Katelyn’s memory, her mind remembered its good Southern manners—she had added “Miss” to