Her Happy Ending

“Is he okay?” 

She approaches the bed and watches the monitor. A thin green line slowly climbs upwards, only to drop down a moment after.  

They had just moved into their new house. Within hours of setting up the furniture, his head began throbbing. Thinking it was last night’s celebration vodka, he ignored it and continued moving the furniture. 

On the second trip to the bathroom, he made a self note to avoid drinking again. He wasn’t much of an alcoholic but vodka had never had this big of an effect on him. She had asked him if he was okay, he nodded and continued. 

On their first night together in their new home, he was shaken awake by her. She said that he stopped breathing and that his face changed to a dark shade of blue. He said she must’ve been seeing things, he felt fine. 

The next morning he felt drowsy, unable to carry a single chair, he sat down on the couch. She offered to take him to a doctor but he refused, still believing it was nothing more than a hangover.  

After a few days, she found him twitching on the ground. Unable to process what was happening, she had stood still, staring at the writhing body. His dry lips mouthed out the word.

Help

She called the ambulance and they carried him onto a stretcher. 

The doctor had told her that he had a brain tumor, and surgery would be able to remove it. Her tears blurred out half of his words focusing only on tumor. Her knees hit the white tiled hospital floor, tears streamed down her face. A nurse had to escort her out and back into the car. She slapped the steering wheel and dropped her head on it. Slowly, her tears began coming out, one by one until all that was left was the sound of her shaky breath. She adjusted herself and went back into the waiting room. She saw his mom who told her the surgery already began. The two of them stayed together, clutching onto each other’s hands. Although they believed in different religions, they prayed the whole night. 

When she woke up, the surgery was over. She walked to the bed, eyes glazed over, and looked at her husband slowly breathing.

“Is he okay?” She approaches the bed and watches the monitor. A thin green line slowly climbs upwards, only to drop down a moment after. 

The doctor looks up. “The surgery was a success, we removed the tumor.” She sits down on the bed and begins stroking his hair. Her eyes stinging. He fidgets with the pen and writes something down on his clipboard.

“Mrs. Loure.”

“Carrie,” she says. 

“You were smart to call the ambulance, Carrie.” He places the clipboard to the side. 

“He was twitching on the floor,” she says, monotonously. He sighs, picking up the clipboard once again, muttering to himself. 

His voice was droning on and on. “Blood pressure, check. Heart rate, check… check…”

“Check, check, and check,” Josh smiled, filling in the boxes with checkmarks. “We made our monthly quota!” 

Carrie laughed and hugged him. “Now we have more time for ourselves.”

Josh placed the clipboard on the counter and ripped off the paper. “After I make next month’s plan.”

“Fine, but you better plan this month’s date while you’re at it.”

Josh nodded. He went back into his room and began scribbling down all the quotas he needed to meet next month. 

“I’m going on a walk,” Carrie’s voice echoed from the kitchen. Josh replied. 

Click

He turned on the laptop and began to search for houses nearby. After their marriage, they needed a fresh start. Currently, they were staying in Josh’s beatdown apartment. Carrie had tried her best to decorate it, but there were still a few tears in the wallpaper or unremovable stains that bothered them. Checking both their savings, he saw that they had enough to afford a house in the suburbs. He made an appointment with a real-estate agent and began planning to meet up with him. 

For the next few weeks, Josh was slowly signing papers and papers until he was able to show them to Carrie. 

“Surprise!” He laughed, handing her a package. She handed him one too and they both opened their anniversary presents. Josh opened his first. It was a brand new watch. He kissed her on the forehead. “Open yours.” When she first uncovered the box, her smile faltered. As she read the words, her smile grew bigger and bigger. 

“I just need you to sign here.” He took a pen and pointed to a line. Her hand scribbled a line of cursive and she began crying. After dinner, he could hear her bragging to her friends about the new house. For the next week, they began packing their belongings into boxes. He held her hand and it began twitching. “Josh?” 

His hand begins to move under hers. She turns and looks at the steadier line shown on the monitor. “He’s waking up.” She runs to the doctor and drags him to the bed. “Mrs. Loure- Carrie, I have other patients. There’s nothing we can do when he’s waking up, only when he does wake up. Next time please inform me when he actually becomes conscious.” The doctor walks away and she sits back down. Ignoring the doctor’s ignorance, she stays by his side.  

“Carrie, how is he?” His mother asks, entering the room with two sandwiches. His mother hands one to her and she bites into it. 

“Good, he’s recovering,” she laughs, her tears dripping down her cheeks. She places her hand over his, staring at the now dull, gold ring that wrapped around his thin fingers. 

“How’s the ring, Mrs. Loure?” Josh asked. Carrie analyzed her ring and jokingly said, “Well, Mr. Loure, maybe a bigger diamond?”  

Josh smiled, “Ok, princess.”

Carrie laughed, “It’s perfect.” He held her hands and she realized how bare his hands looked next to hers. 

“You need a ring too.”

“Me? No,” Josh laughed. “I like my hands how they are.” 

Carrie shook her head. “How else are people supposed to know you’re married?”

Josh paused. “If you can get a ring I like, I’ll wear it.”

“We both know you always like what I give you.”

“That’s what I’m counting on.”

After weeks of online digging, she found the perfect ring. She drove downtown from Josh’s apartment to the shop. Seeing it in real life made her smile. “It’s beautiful, he’ll love it.” She paid the price and pocketed the ring. When he saw it, he had the same reaction she did. Slowly, Carrie slid the ring on Josh’s ring finger. 

“It’s beautiful,” Josh said. 

“That’s what I said,” Carrie smiled. The two of them put their hands together and looked at the rings. They sat side by side, fingers interlaced, rings touching. Soon after, she dozed off, their hands still clasped together. His hand tapped her shoulder.

“You fell asleep, dear.” 

“Dear?” She glances up. It’s his mother. She turns and sees that she’s lying next to him. “Why isn’t he awake yet?” She asks, getting off the bed. His mother shrugs. She looks at the monitor. “At least his heart rate is steadying.” His mother turns on the TV. They both know they won’t be paying any attention to it. But they’ll try. The TV flashes with a commercial for who knows what. She looks at it, her eyes glazing. Suddenly, she feels him twitch, his whole body jerking. “Don’t call the doctor until he wakes,” she reminds herself. Slowly, she sees his eyes open, and as if they were both injected with adrenaline, she and his mother run out of the room to the nearest nurse, doctor, whoever is around. “HE’S AWAKE,” she yells. She falls to her knees in the middle of the hallway and prays while the doctor rushes into the room. He takes his temperature and checks his heart rate. “Physically healthy,” he says. “Let me talk to him, the tumor was located in the hippocampus, so his memory might’ve been altered during the removal process.” The two of them nod as the doctor speaks to him. 

“Do you know your name?” 

“Josh.” 

“Do you know where you are?”

He looks around. “A hospital, I assume.”

Her eyes fill with tears that begin dripping down her curved lips. Unable to hold herself back, she runs to her husband and hugs him. 

“Josh…you scared me. I thought you were never going to wake up.” His eyes squinted as he winced, pushing her back a little.

“Josh? Are you okay?” She quietly says. 

Her husband tilts his head as if trying to remember something. “Sorry, who are you?”