It was as if a nightmare had just ended. Hanna returned to the world through the arrival of bright overhead office lights. Her eyes fluttered open. She fought back the brightness with a sour, disorientated scowl. Where the hell am I? The sounds of heart monitors and overhead announcements seemed to be an indication of where she was. A large military hospital. The blurry outline of a man wearing medical scrubs emerged from the corner of the room with a clipboard. “Ma’am, your daughter is here to see you,” the nurse said as he checked an IV bag that hovered over the bedside.
The man quickly finished his duties in the room and exited.
Emily! Hanna cracked a smile. She took a deep sigh and sat up in her bed, anticipating the arrival of her little girl.
The doorway was empty. The anticipation was painful. Hanna kept her eyes angled toward the lower part of the doorframe. Then a young woman stepped into the room and stopped. A look of confusion swept over Hanna’s face as the young woman stepped toward her. Who is this? Hanna thought. Why is she just standing there and staring at me? Where is my daughter? Where’s Emily?
The woman was dressed in street clothing: a leather jacket, blue jeans, and boots. The girl was an attractive twentysomething. Her eyes were blue and strikingly familiar. Hanna kept looking around for someone else to arrive.
“Who are you? Where’s my daughter?” Hanna asked through dry lips.
The young woman stood as if she had seen a ghost. Her eyes began to fill with tears. She parted her lips. She muttered words and tried to make sense of the situation. “I haven’t seen you since the accident.”
Hanna took in the response as though she had just been given a diagnosis of cancer. “What? Who are you?” Hanna demanded.
“You’ve been gone for fifteen years,” said the young woman.
Hanna couldn’t believe what this girl was implying. Instinctively, though, something made her believe the girl. She, in fact, was her daughter, Emily.
“Oh my God,” Hanna muttered, and she broke into a mess of tears.
“Well, you’re home now,” the young woman replied, wiping the emotion from her face.
In the moment of her astonishment, Hanna failed to feel the long purple vein that spider-webbed down the back of her neck.