The final segment of the Class Reunion trilogy. Kit McCallum and I have enjoyed creating it and we hope you have as much fun with it as we did. We thank you all....


/main/forumdisplay.cgi?action=displayarchive&number=103&topic=00357  Part  1

/pip/Forum104/HTML/000254.htmlPart  2


The day turned into night and into daytime once again.
The nurses came and went but he could not remember when.
The medication kept him groggy, mostly unaware
Of routine daily happenings or how long he'd been there.

The, suddenly, the cloud had lifted and he could recall
The swerve, the tree, the metal screeching, finally the fall.
His mind relived the final seconds like an evil dream
Up to the final second when he heard his lover scream.

He found out through a friendly nurse she was in ICU.
And still they didn't know if she was going to pull through.
She lay there in a coma, although she was still alive
The odds did not look good that she'd be able to survive.

A blackness framed her fragile mind like some Monet vignette,
Surrounding vibrant images, that weren't completely set.
Kaleidoscopes of color, turned and twisted in the core,
As brushstrokes left impressions her subconscious could explore.

She floated there an endless time, with pictures dancing by,
Their edges blurred by nothingness, with every focused try;
She faded in and out of time and space without control,
Aware of bits and pieces, as she tried to grasp the whole.

She saw her mother, felt her touch and reassuring voice,
"What kind of cookies would you like to bake?" (Like there's a choice!)
The smell of chocolate chips brought dad from somewhere like a shot,
"Hey chipmunk, while we wait ... let's try that new bike that we bought!"

The snapshots of her youth played out in scrambled, slow rewind,
While something on the fringe kept cutting in, to jolt her mind,
A distant scream, a horrid pain ... a terror far too near …
She bounced between her childhood smiles and grimaces of fear.


He tiptoed down the hallway in the middle of the night,
Slipped past the nurses station and continued out of sight.
He found her door at length and, with a deep breath, slipped inside
To see the girl that, but fortwists of Fate, would be his bride.

The moonlight from the window put a soft glow on her face.
Machines were on both sides of her with monitors in place.
She looked so fragile lying there, so innocent and pure
It brought a wave of sadness to him he could not endure.

"I'm sorry, girl", he whispered, as his eyes fought back the tears
And cursed events that cost them both so many wasted years.
"Come back to me my darling. I have promises to keep.."
Then lay his head down on her chest and slowly fell asleep.

Her dreams played out successively, with highlights of her life,
With clips of happy days as daughter, lover, mom and wife,
She watched them like a well-known movie, from a distant place,
As if engraving one last time, her footprints to embrace.

She felt a jolt, a searing pain, and voices drifting by,
She heard a scream and saw a blinding light … and then a cry.
The pain receded as it was replaced with tears of joy,
The moment that the nurse said, "He's a healthy baby boy!"

She watched her story-line unfold, from her un-waking plane,
As mechanisms of the mind protected her from pain;
The monitors and beeps began to fade instinctively,
As she moved on, beyond the fringe that was reality.

The loud beeps woke him with a start! Where were they coming from??!!
Red lights were flashing from machines! He heard the footsteps come
Running down the hallway as the doctors ran inside.
They started working on her as he stood there, petrified.

The doctor pumped her chest. The nurse stuck needles in her arm
And still machines flashed red and sounded warnings of alarm.
He stood, unmoving, as he watched them work at fevered pace...
The only thing unmoving was the stillness of her face.

It seemed that they were there for hours, but only minutes passed.
The doctor took a final pulse and then stood up at last.
Machines were deathly quiet then and flashing lights had died.
The doctor gave a sigh and shook his head from side to side.


She drifted on the edge, and watched the scene play out below,
No longer a participant, as she observed the show;
The doctor said to “Call it” - 7:20 was the time,
And with those words, she heard a scream below her start to climb.

His anguished cry reverberated through the sullen gloom,
While nurses moved aside, to give this weeping man some room.
She didn’t recognize his face, as he kneeled by her side,
But clearly he was quite distraught to hear that she had died.

She struggled to remember who this stranger may have been,
She thought she may have seen him once within a magazine,
Perplexed, she felt a sadness that this lifetime would be gone,
Then felt the gentle pull of angels beckoning her on.


He could not stop the tears from falling. How could she be dead?
She looked so peaceful lying there, unmoving, on the bed.
He put his lips next to her ear and whispered very low
"Next lifetime, sweetheart", then he turned away to let her go.

Was that a BEEP? He whirled to look. A BEEP! then one time more!
Machines which had gone silent were now working like before.
The doctor ran back in the room and knelt down by her side
As he just stood there watching, tear-stained eyes now open wide.

He watched from a surreal state, almost as if in trance.
Could this be true? Would their new life be given one more chance?
He swore that, just before he rose to leave her he could hear
The words, "THIS lifetime, baby"echo gently in his ear.


The bright, white light invited her to join the other side,
And yet, she hovered closely to the man below who cried.
The words he spoke had wakened hidden memories in a flash …
Her yearbook! Their reunion! Second chances! Then the crash!

She wasn’t ready to depart … she HAD to try to mend,
“THIS lifetime” was her second chance. This couldn’t be the end!
With that, the light that welcomed her began to slowly fade,
The heavens seemed to sanction the decision she had made.

Abruptly, like a vortex, she was sucked back down below,
Determined to begin again … not ready to let go;
She felt the pain of human bonds, and opened up her eyes,
To rest her gaze upon the man who’d said his last goodbyes.

So that's the way it happened, friends. Their love was not a whim.
She went halfway to heaven, then brough heaven back to him.
They said it was a miracle, a wondrous twist of fate.
For him it was a sign that nothing ever comes too late.

Their lives have had their ups and downs as many families do
But through it all, the love they share remains alive and true.
Their "second chance" has given them a warm and happy home.
Their kids have had some problems....but, then, that's another poem.