“Mom, are you okay?” nineteen-year-old Ann, dressed in red shorts, a red t-shirt and her hair in fine plats resting on her shoulders, asked, looking across at her in the living room.

“What do you mean?” her mom asked into the phone as she slowly got up from the light blue upholster rocking chair. She wore green shorts and a matching top, and her hair styled in a bun. They’d finished eating dinner about fifteen minutes ago.

Ann’s eyes drifted back to the cop show she and her mom were watching before her cell phone rang. This episode was about a guy who vacationed with his girlfriend and her family. He paid for his ticket, but her family funded everything else.

However, on the fifth day of their seven-day vacation, the guy was found floating in the hotel’s pool. Ann thought the girlfriend did it because about three weeks before they left home, she found out he was cheating on her with the girl who bullied her in high school.

His boyfriend was extremely apologetic and begged for her forgiveness. He also said that he did not know that they attended the same high school and that she bullied her. She loved him and said she would give him a second chance. The trip planned about three weeks before was to help put them back on track.

Ann’s mom thought it was… wait, she did not say. The phone rang when she was about to say it.

“I don’t understand what you are saying to me. Why is my son in a hospital?”

Ann’s eyes snapped to her mother, and she jumped out of the long, light blue chair.

“What’s going on?” Ann asked.

Her mother did not respond to her as she listened to the other person on the line.

Ann reached down and took the black and white remote controller from the glass-top coffee table. She paused the show before walking closer to her mother. She crossed her arms across her chest and watched her mother.

“I’m taking the next flight there,” her mom said.

Silence.

Ann’s brother was two years older than she, but she was about two inches taller. He had broad shoulders and worked out in the gym three times a week. Many people say they resemble each other, and she didn’t know why, but that makes her feel good whenever she hears it.

He was also apparently a magnet because many girls wanted to be his girlfriend. Last year, though, he met his present girlfriend, and although they had some problems with her ex-boyfriend letting go, their relationship seemed solid.

Still, when he mentioned vacationing with them over the weekend in Princetown, another State about an hour and a half away from their home, she was against it. Yes, he was paying for his expenses, but they would stay at a family friend’s house.

“Yes, yes. Thanks for calling. Bye.” Her mother continued.

“What’s going on?” Ann asked

Her mother took a deep breath and slowly let it out as she ended the call.

“Your brother,” she said, “he is in a hospital in Princetown, and he’s in a coma.”

“What?” Anne exclaimed.

“His girlfriend said they were having dinner in the hotel’s restaurant when he suddenly started coughing. He then fell and hasn’t woken up since.”

“I told him not to go. I told him I had a bad feeling about this trip,” Ann said, throwing her hands into the air.

“Yes, I know.”

“I told him that vacationing with his girlfriend and her parents is not a good idea, but he told me I look at too many cop shows.”

Both of them turned their heads to the TV.

“Book a flight for me online,” her mom said, “and let’s pray that your brother wakes up before I get there.”

The End