10. Confusion

The next few weeks were filled with confusion and chaos.  I had no clue what had occurred during the two-year's time I was not at the restaurant, and I could never have fathomed what was to be in store for me after.  What I did know was the Hatem, my pillar of strength, my sole support, was in the hospital now in an induced coma.

During this time, I drove out to the place where Hatem was found.  The story was that he had been driven to his house in the Sunset by one of his closest friends, had been dropped off at the foot of his home staircase which comprised of 16 stairs steps, and was left with a friendly 'see-you-tomorrow' goodbye.  Hatem had been drinking and never drove anyway, so he had been in good hands.  I climbed the stairs and noticed blood stains about half way up the stairs.  Hatem's wife had told me how she had found him at the bottom of the stairs very disoriented.  What she had concluded by those blood stains was that Hatem had climbed the stairs initially and had lost his footing.  He had fallen all the way down 16 hard concrete steps, and had most likely hit his head on the sidewalk at the end of his wall.  with a bleeding head, Hatem had tried to climb the stairs again and had fallen back again.  He wife, concerned that he had not come home, had gotten up from bed and had ventured out of the house in the night.  Sh had found him around 2:00 in the morning at the foot of the stairs lying on the sidewalk.

The horror of this story had sent shocks of adrenaline throughout my veins, and seeing the evidence in front of me now brought up a flood of tears.  Guilt began to override the shocks, and I sat down and cried.  How could this have happened to this person who had done nothing but good to everyone he came into contact with?  Just the night before his accident, he has called me.  Why had this had to happen?

Friends and family came and went, watching Hatem struggle through his induced coma made so that his brain could heal.  It had taken a beating and we didn't know what kind of damage it may have done.  We played a waiting game.