by John Cargile

Created on: July 24, 2008   Last Updated: October 28, 2008

An excerpt from my new novel, The Cry of the Cuckoos, to be published by Eloquent Books

Anne asked the wedding planner to pipe music and the words from the ceremony into Donald's room where his comatose body lay, hoping any sound would arouse him. She spent hours reading to him. She had not given up hope he would awaken one day. She read stories about miracles that gave her unlimited energy. She prayed he would recover.

A nurse was in the Robert E. Lee suite when the wedding began. She could hear the music and the ceremony from downstairs.
The minister began the wedding ceremony.
Mary Kate said, "I do," when prompted by the minister. When it came time for Joseph to say, "I do," Anne thought she heard a voice. It was a scream. She looked around, but everyone else watched intently as her son said his vow. Had she been mistaken about the voice?
"Nooooo.....!" she thought ring in her ears. It seemed to echo throughout The Jo, inside and outside. Surely someone else heard it. "Nooooo!" she heard again, and she stirred in her seat.
When the wedding ceremony was over, Anne rushed to her husband's side. She thought it was his voice she heard.
"Did you hear anything?" Anne asked the duty nurse on call.
"Oh, yes, ma'am," she said.
"Your husband raised up in bed all of a sudden like, and yelled at the top of his lungs. He screamed, "Nooooo...! Dad!" And, he went back to sleep."
The nurse went to the bedside and took Donald's pulse. Anne anxiously watched the nurse's expression. She smiled. He still had a pulse. The nurse looked at the heart monitor and the lines were still wavy.
"He's still alive!" the nurse told her.
Anne wept.
Rose came into the room. She knelt where her son was lying.
"I have only one thing to say to you, son," Rose said without a tear in her eye. "I killed your father. I poisoned him. I knew what he and his friends were planning. I had to stop him. It was me."
Rose felt Donald's hand squeeze hers.
"How did you do it?" Anne asked, remembering how Henry Drummond was dressed in a white shirt and black tie like he was going somewhere; recalling how the room was in such disarray; the note he left.
"I faked it all," she told her. "I found the poison in one of his coat pockets, and I gave it to him before he went to bed that night. I poured vodka down his mouth, and dressed him."
Anne was speechless.
Donald's eyes opened for the first time since he went into the coma. His sight was blurred, then he began to see his mother, Rose. She rested her head on his chest. Anne stooped

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