“Is she asleep?”

Adele looked up at her nanny and back down at the woman lying in the bed. She looked asleep. Her eyes were closed. Adele wanted to touch her, but something about the way the woman was sleeping made her feel scared.

“I think she must be in some kind of coma,” Nanny Jane replied.

“What’s a coma?”

Jane had that look on her face like she was trying to think of the best way to explain something. “It’s when you go to sleep and don’t wake up again for a long time.”

“Oh,” Adele said. “I know all about that.”

“You do?”

“Like in Sleeping Beauty,” Adele replied with a shrug. Sleeping Beauty was her favorite Disney movie ever. She must have watched it a thousand times. She liked the part at the beginning in the forest when the princess danced around with all the animals, and then the prince came and fell in love with her, and they all sang together.

I know you, I danced with you once upon a dream.

I know you, that gleam in your eye is so familiar a gleam.

Yet I know it's true that visions are seldom what they seem.

I know you. I know what you'll do.

You’ll love me at once the way you did once

Upon a dream.

It was funny because Adele dreamed about her mommy a lot. She knew what she looked like because Daddy had shown her a picture once, and her mommy looked like a beautiful princess in a long white dress. The woman in the bed looked a little bit like the woman in the picture, but different too. Maybe because she wasn’t smiling, and she had a tube running into her nose. But the hair was the same. She had long brown hair that reminded Adele of her own hair. That’s how Adele knew her nanny was telling the truth when she said this was her mommy – because little girls have hair like their mommies and daddies.

Adele wanted her to wake up and smile and look pretty again like she did in the picture. A new thought suddenly occurred to her. “We have to tell Daddy she’s here!” she said, turning to her nanny with wide eyes.

“He knows, sweetie.”

“No he doesn’t,” Adele protested, suddenly feeling like she wanted to cry. “He doesn’t know. He would have told me.”

Jane didn’t answer, but she came over and bent down, folding Adele in her arms. “How come he didn’t tell me?” Adele asked in a quavering voice.

“That’s a very good question,” Jane replied softly. Adele hated when grownups said that. If it was such a good question, how come they wouldn’t tell her the answer? She swiped at her eyes with the back of her hand. She was so confused right now. She had been getting ready for bed earlier when Nanny Jane had come into her room to get her. She’d looked funny – her face was all red and she was out of breath.

“Come on,” Jane had said in a rush, taking her by the hand and leading her out of the room. “We’re going for a ride in the truck.”

“But I’m in my nightgown!” Adele had protested. “I don’t have my shoes!”

“You don’t need them,” Jane had assured her, picking her up carrying her quickly down the stairs and out the front door. She had buckled Adele into the passenger seat and then went around and climbed up behind the steering wheel.

“Shouldn’t Daddy drive?”

“He isn’t coming.” Jane had tried to smile at her then but it looked fake. It made Adele feel scared. Grownups only fake-smiled like that when something bad was about to happen. Like getting a shot. They always fake-smiled like that just before she had to get a shot.

“I don’t want to,” Adele had started to whine, but Jane had ignored her. She had already turned the key in the ignition and was concentrating on pulling the truck out of the long driveway. She was driving way faster than Daddy usually drove, and then she’d turned onto the road in the direction they usually took to go into town. “Can we get ice cream?” Adele had asked.  

“No, sweetie. That’s not where we’re going.”

“Where are we going?”

Jane hadn’t answered, but in another moment she was already pulling the truck up to the gates of the scary hospital they always drove past.

“Why are we going here?” Adele had asked as the truck came to a stop. She had watched as Jane took the key ring out of the ignition. Daddy’s key ring. Nanny Jane must have borrowed it.

“Hmmm?” Jane had murmured distractedly as she flipped through the keys, searching for the right one.

“Whhhhhyyyyyy?” Adele had asked again, her voice rising in agitation. Nanny had looked up from what she was doing and reached out to touch Adele’s face. “Where are we going?” Adele had asked her again.

“We’re going to see someone we both should have seen a long time ago,” Jane had told her as she reached across to unbuckle her seatbelt. “Come on, little girl. We’re going to see your mom.”

***

Adam stood at the kitchen sink, angrily clattering the pots and pans and splashing water all over the countertop as he washed up the dinner dishes and stewed over the argument he’d just had with Marcy. Why did she always have to be such a pain in the ass? It never failed – she’d been Jane’s best friend since they were all a bunch of 18 year old kids, and she’d been a thorn in his side every single step of the way. Even at the wedding, she’d managed to strike the one sour note in an otherwise perfect day. Of course, she’d been all smiles in front of Jane. She’d been the matron of honor, and she’d led a perfectly gracious toast for them after the ceremony, wishing them both well. But she’d pulled him aside at the end, just before it was time to cut the cake. He’d expected her to say the usual words of congratulations. But no, that wasn’t Marcy’s style. She’d smiled up at him and pulled him down to kiss him on the cheek, making a good show of it for anyone who might have been watching – and in his ear she had whispered through her gritted teeth, “I swear to God, Adam, if you hurt her I will make you sorry you were ever born.”

It still rankled with him. She’d been counting the days until he fucked it up. She was practically gloating now that she finally had something on him. To be fair, he knew, it was his own fault. He’d forgotten that she was scheduled to come for a visit this week, and now she’d caught him redhanded, canoodling with the nanny.

Of course, it meant nothing to Marcy that the nanny was actually a good girl. She was funny and sweet, and she liked taking care of him and Adele. She would make a good stepmother. He might even come to love her eventually – and if not, it wouldn’t be so hard with her to fake it. There was no way he was going to send her away now just to appease Marcy. Yes, technically it was wrong to be hooking up with someone else while he was still married, but was it really so terrible? His wife had been in a coma for three years now. Three years with no progress. Three years of him being alone out here with no adult companionship other than that silent, living statue that used to be his wife. Marcy had no idea what he was going through. It was all well and good for her to come out here and visit a few times a year, but she had a family of her own waiting for her back home. She wasn’t stuck out here in the middle of nowhere, with no other human being to talk to other than a toddler and a vegetable.

Adam shook himself at ugliness of the thought. How could he even think such a thing? It was Marcy. She always brought out the worst in him. She expected the worst of out him, and he always managed to rise to the occasion and deliver.

The racket he was making with the dishes had drowned out any other sound, and so he was startled now by a hand yanking at his shoulder. He spun around. “What?” he hissed. “Now what?”

Here was the wicked witch now, standing in front of him with her hands on her hips and a venomous look in her eyes. “I guess my invitation to the funeral must’ve got lost in the mail, huh?”

“What are you talking about?”

Marcy gave an exaggerated shrug. “Well, imagine my surprise when that lovely nanny of yours just announced to me that my best friend is no longer among the living.”

Adam froze. Shit. They had talked to each other? He’d been counting on the two of them giving each other the silent treatment. Shit shit shit. Now Marcy knew not only that he was cheating on his wife, but that he’d lied about her being dead. Shit shit shit shit shit. “Wait a sec," he said as a new thought struck him. "You didn’t—you didn't tell her, did you?”

“Damn right I told her!”

Adam opened his mouth to speak again, but he was cut off by the sound of an engine roaring to life outside. He turned to the window and pulled back the curtains just in time to see the tail lights of his truck disappearing down the driveway.

***

Jane lay in her hospital bed, trying to make sense of the sounds meeting her ears. She’d already had a long visit from Adam and Marcy today. It couldn’t have been more than a couple hours since they had left. So whose footsteps were those in the hallway now? It didn’t sound like any of the nurses. Definitely not Adam. It could have been Marcy again, but she’d said goodnight when she’d left. Why would she be back so soon?

She heard a voice now that she didn’t recognize. “Here she is, sweetie,” the woman said.

Jane heard a second voice in response – the voice of a young child. “Is that my mommy?”

“Yes, Adele. That’s her.”

Adele? Here? Jane felt her pulse quicken at the sound of the name. Was this her little girl? Jane felt the pressure of a small hand slipping against her palm now, and she lost track of what the voices were saying for a moment, so enthralled by the sensation of her daughter’s touch.

“We have to tell Daddy she’s here!” she heard the little girl exclaim.

“He knows, sweetie.”

“No he doesn’t. He doesn’t know. He would have told me.” Jane felt the hand leave hers. “How come he didn’t tell me?”

“That’s a very good question,” the woman replied.

What was going on? This had to be the nanny. Had she brought Adele to visit without Adam’s permission?

Jane heard more footsteps now. These she recognized. Adam. He was running. She heard the door crash against the wall as he flung it open.

“Jane!” Adam’s voice sounded distraught, near panic. “What the fuck are you doing?”

What am I doing? Jane thought to herself in confusion. Is he talking to me?

“What am I doing?” she heard the woman’s voice echoing her own thoughts. “Seriously Adam? You want to know what I’m doing?”

“Adele, go wait out in the hallway,” Adam said.

“Why?” the woman answered back angrily. “Why shouldn’t she be in here?”

“That is not your call!” Adam was shouting. “Adele. Now!”

“You have no right—“

“Jane,” Adam cut her off, his voice taking on a more conciliatory tone. “I understand that you’re upset right now. You have every reason to be upset.”

Jane? Was that the nanny’s name too? He’d never mentioned it. How could he not have mentioned it?

“Oh you think so, Adam?”

“I can explain—“

“Explain what? That you’re a lying scumbag?”

“Jane—“

“Thanks. Message received.”

“Listen, I know I fucked up. I know. But I do care about you,” Adam’s voice said. “I care about you. A lot. I—I love you.” Jane’s heart had been pounding faster and faster, ever since Adam had entered the room, but it stopped dead now at the sound of his voice uttering those words. Jane wanted to put her hands over her ears and block out the rest of their conversation, but of course she couldn’t move, try as she might. She could only scream inside her head as she listened to words she didn’t want to hear.

“You love me? Am I supposed to believe that now?”

“I know, I lied. I can explain. It’s complicated.”

“Honestly, it’s bad enough that you lied to me,” the nanny said. “But if you think that’s what I’m really upset about, I swear to God you don’t even know me at all.”

“What?”

“How could you lie to her?” the nanny continued. “She’s your daughter, Adam. Your own daughter! How could you not tell her?”

“What was I supposed to tell her?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe the truth?”

“This?” his voice replied harshly. “This truth? That her mother’s probably going to spend the rest of her natural life as a vegetable in a hospital bed being fed out of a tube?”

“Don’t you know how much worse it was to let her think her mother left her?” the nanny shouted back, her voice choked with emotion. “To let her think her own mother didn’t even want her?”

There was a silence for a moment as the nanny’s words echoed in the room.

“No,” Adam’s voice was saying. “I couldn’t. You don’t understand.”

“What?”

“I couldn’t tell her the truth.”

“Why not?”

“Because,” Adam said, taking a deep breath and then letting it out with a sigh. “Because the truth is, Adele’s the reason her mother is here.”