The Awakening

What is it like to spend nearly 20 years in a nursing home, silent for 17 years, screaming, loud, disturbing screams for three?

Sarah, where were you? What were you thinking all those years? Were you afraid?

Sarah, how did you come back? Who crossed over into wherever you were and pulled you back to this side?

Do you have the words to tell us?

"Sarah," Dad says, "you have to set some goals for your therapy. What do you want all this to lead to? Would you like to go to the mall and shop? Would you like to go see Brother?"

Sarah looks up.

Eyes wide. Face wretched.

"Run AaaaWaaaa . . ." she says.

"I don't blame you," her father says wistfully. "Work, real hard, Sarah. So you can run away."

There was another Sarah before this Sarah. A long time ago, there was a happy girl who lived with her mother and father and brother in a little town in Kansas. This Sarah loved to talk, just like her father, a traveling salesman who made a pretty good living selling mobile homes. In high school, she was a "blast," captain of the Pantherette Drill Team.

She was in the royalty court at homecoming. She saved fortune cookie messages: "Someone who deserves special attention awaits your magic voice." She wrote captions in her photo album: Sarah and Stacie. Sarah and Lori. Sarah and John at the prom. Sarah is wearing a pink dress with bow. There's Sarah walking across the stage. Confetti in the air.

After Sarah graduated, she enrolled in Hutchinson Junior College and got a job at Ken's Pizza.